Chapter NY celebrates the gallery’s 10-year anniversary this October. Started by Nicole Russo as a weekend-only project space, the gallery now has an impressive roster of artists including Adam Gordon, Ann Greene Kelly, Antonia Kuo, Asal Peirovi, Cara Bendetto, Cheyenne Julien, Christopher Culver, Cole Lu, Dalton Gata, Erin Jane Nelson, Gina Fischli, Jesse Darling, Milano Chow, Mira Dancy, Patrick Berran, Paul Heyer, Stella Zhong, Tourmaline and Willa Nasatir.
Russo began her career at Tilton Gallery (2001-07) before moving on to work for Leo Koenig (2007-10) and later serve as a Director at Mitchell Innes & Nash (2010-15). In 2013, she started Chapter NY; devoting her weekends to the project in order to provide a flexible platform for non-represented artists working across a range of media and experience. With the new venture, she was able to present, for the first time, Keltie Ferris’s body prints, and to give the space over to Anicka Yi to record her Lonely Samurai podcast series. In 2015, the gallery grew into a full-time operation with a roster of nineteen artists, which has continued to grow organically over the years. As Russo looks towards the next decade, her focus remains on encouraging artistic work that spans mediums and lending curatorial support to artists who exhibit a truly intuitive quality in their practices.
It has been exhilarating to watch Chapter grow. Across each location, I have done shows with artists I am in constant awe of. I continue to be inspired by artists that are always pushing the expectations of what art should be, across diverse mediums, ideas and practices. I am grateful to have the trust from so many artists, collectors, curators and critics who have followed and supported Chapter’s vision over this past decade. I am lucky to work with incredible people at the gallery, including Alison Dillulio, the gallery’s Director who has been an immense help in growing the gallery over these last five years, always staying true to the vision while also expanding it.
So much has changed over the last decade, yet so much has stayed the same. I am working with artists that we love, and I am still excited now by what excited me ten years ago: artists that make work that asks you to really look and spend time with it, that does not automatically give you answers but rewards you over time. I hope to continue to collaborate with incredible artists and to keep growing organically and pushing the expectations for the gallery and the art it shows.
–Nicole Russo
The anniversary celebration coincides with the opening of Christopher Culver’s exhibition, Manhattan, the artists’ second solo presentation at the gallery, and first in the main exhibition space. Manhattan, features a new series of pastel and charcoal works on paper based on images of Manhattan. Continuing his search for tender imagery, Culver introduces pigeons as a recurring subject within his otherwise scarcely inhabited compositions. Presented simultaneously in the Side Room space, Rene Mati?’ will have their first exhibition with the gallery and first solo exhibition in New York.
From the start, Nicole has made Chapter a space that goes to bat for artistic rigor, tough conversations, and elegance of concept. She understands that artists grow and change in unexpected ways…that’s an integral part of the Chapter project—providing a platform for real experimentation. Nicole has a very open but specific eye so the mix of gallery artists has a very real and specific chemistry, which is something that’s surprisingly rare.
–Paul Heyer
