HOW WE FIND OUR ARTISTS

Welcome to 2024 and our fourth 3walls Newsletter!

The question we get most is, how do you find the artists you work with? Well, in a variety of ways, but boiled down, we get out a lot. Finding talented, affordable local artists is our mission, so without them, 3walls is nothing. Lucky for us, in the past ten years, we have met so many wonderful, interesting, talented, welcoming artists, and it now seems our well is bottomless. We keep discovering pockets and communities and friends of friends. The reference network is vast and generous. The artists we work with are always sending us to the artists they admire. And friends share their artist friends. Nothing beats word of mouth.

Above, photos from Erica Reade’s Beach Lovers series in her Prospect Heights studio. The interior designer, Meagan Camp, who we worked with at The Brooklyn Heights Showhouse in 2022, introduced us to Erica Reade this past September.

Above, the painter Tracy Miller’s Windsor Terrace studio. Last Spring, Tracy, whose work we saw at the Platform Project Space in Dumbo, put us onto two other painters, Susan Homer and David Atkin.

Above, Georgia Hupfel’s studio in Long Island City. We were introduced to Georgia by Bevin’s brother’s college friend. Lucky us!

Beyond that pipeline, there are a number of annual events we never miss. All and any open studios are a must; Arts Gowanus Open Studios (where, for example, we met Sarah E. Brook who Macon has been working with lately for her City Harvest project), Dumbo Open Studios (we met Allison Gildersleeve and Chris Wynter), and Red Hook Open Studios (Kathryn Lynch and Yeon Ji Yoo) are probably our favorite open studios. They usually happen twice a year; we are always there.

Local benefits are also excellent hunting grounds. The Gowanus Gala is a ball. Local artwork is hung salon-style, and the Gala is unique because it is operated as a lottery. Attendees get a random number when they arrive and then peruse the giant walls, sniffing out a favorite piece. The moment of truth comes when the auctioneer starts running through the numbers. If you fall in love just pray your object of desire is still available when your turn comes (we hedged our bet by falling in love with 17 pieces; it’s possible as they assemble a ton of great work). In 2016, Bevin and Whitney spotted a gorgeous turquoise painting high on the wall by an artist we did not yet know, Véronique Gambier. Shortly after Donald Trump took office, 3walls hosted a pop-up with Véronique’s meditative Aperture works at Bevin’s house, and, as anyone who was there can tell you, there was barely an aperture left at the end of the night! We have been working with Véronique ever since. Go see her work, which we have installed at Seaport Flowers (309 Henry Street).

The 2017 Trestle Studio benefit was where we first saw the work of Re McBride, Hyun Jung Ahn and Rhia Hurt, and we have continued to work with all three since meeting them that year.

There is no shortage of excellent art schools in New York, and visiting these and especially their MFA shows throughout the year is another highlight. We always look forward to a stroll through the studio warrens at The New York Academy of Art’s Tribeca Ball benefit with a plastic cup of wine. Ditto for their Take Home a Nude event which was at Sotheby’s in the fall (and where we just discovered Holly Hudson’s work). Over the years, we have met numerous artists we work with at the New York Academy of Art, including Nico Sanchez, Sarah Schlesinger and Claire Cushman. New York Studio School, Pratt, Parsons and NYU are, of course, also considerable reservoirs of talent.

Studio visits are often the highlight of our week. We meet artists, see art, have great conversations, find a lunch spot and ride the subway — or Bevin shows off her newfound (and ever-improving) driving skills on the BQE. Our destinations? Most often, we travel to Long Island City, Bushwick, Dumbo, Redhook, Gowanus, Ridgewood, Williamsburg, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard; New Jersey has been a recent focus, as has upstate New York, Ghent, Chatham, etc. Last year we made it all the way to Boston to see the magnificent collage work of Alex Chiou. Well worth the trip! If you want to join us on an adventure, give us a shout.

Above, studio visit with photographer Rob Stephenson in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, in November, 2023.

Artists on the docket for January include Katheryn Fichthorn, Kylee Snow, Emily Berger and ….