“JUST LIVE WITH IT” SAYS EMERGING CURATOR (THE ART THAT IS): TRANSFORMING A PRIVATE HOME INTO A PUBLIC ART GALLERY

BY DREW STEPHENS

OCTOBER 14 2011

NEW YORK--There I stood, in her bedroom closet, starring wide-eyed at the lingerie of a woman I’ve only known for 7 weeks. Alright, stop. I know what you’re thinking. You’ve just come across the opening line to an erotic novel, the kind you find next to the magazines at a corner drug store. Nope. Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is not a story about sex. It’s a story about art.

Michelle Dent, who teaches in New York University’s Expository Writing Program, lives with her mother Emmalee in the NYU Residential College at Broome Street, located just between NYC’s Soho and Little Italy neighborhoods. As a Faculty Fellow in Residence, Dent has her own apartment, but resides in the same building, and even on the same floor, as NYU undergraduate students. Here, she helps to foster a “living-learning community” for students who attend programs offered by the building’s faculty and resident assistants.

Last week, Dent hosted one such program called @ Gallery when she opened her apartment as an art exhibit to residents throughout the building.

@ Gallery is the invention of emerging curator and entrepreneur Catherine Weaver of Brooklyn. As Weaver began her curating career, she quickly realized that traditional art galleries are very expensive business ventures. She was troubled by how the high operation cost of galleries effectively prevented young emerging artists, whose work may not yet sell for as high a price, from obtaining adequate show-time for their pieces.

As a result, Weaver became interested in pop-up galleries, makeshift art exhibits which take place in vacated spaces such as old churches and retail stores gone out-of-business.

But upon trying to start her own pop-up galleries, Weaver ran into a problem: her venues still required costly event insurance.

Michelle Dent (left) and Catherine Weaver at the @ Gallery opening.

That’s when Weaver got creative and pondered new ways to exhibit artwork.

“The idea of a white wall art gallery has taken over the way we look at art, but it is just one way” she says.

Weaver began toying with the idea of transforming private homes into temporary, cost-effective art galleries. And so, @ Gallery was born. Dent became her first willing host and exercised influence over the selection of art coming into her home. Weaver and her team then spent a few days covering Dent’s apartment with paintings, tapestries, sculptures, and collages.

But when visitors first arrived at the gallery last week it wasn’t just the artwork they found on display; Dent’s apartment itself was also part of the show. Guests were invited into every corner of her home. In the living room, they found human sculptures made out of left-over sheet metal used for the production of soda bottle caps. In the bedroom, a series of erotic sketches recreating Homer’s Odyssey through the eyes of Penelope raised eyebrows.

Rashida Kamal observes provocative artwork in Michelle Dent's closet.

But perhaps the most interesting space was Dent’s own closet, where erotic collages were carefully placed among her dresses, shoes, and a few pieces of lingerie. Visitors were noticeably timid about walking into such a personal space in someone else’s home.

But for Dent, playing with the typical boundaries between private and public is exactly what the show is about. “It’s super intimate and that intimacy can be troubling to some people” she says.

Ty Crisman, who serves as the residence hall’s director, agrees that the intimacy can be uncomfortable at first.

“I feel like I should be more reserved about being in someone’s personal space… I’m entering untraded territory” he said.

However, Crisman also notes the importance of the intimate environment as a way of putting the homeowner “on display.”

“[Dent] is opening up the door for people to see her in a totally different way. I feel like I learned more about a person I already knew pretty well.”

For some, the intimacy enhances the experience of the gallery in other ways. Paige Noel, one of the building’s resident assistants, says that the home environment allows her to feel more comfortable and therefore more at ease in engaging in discussion of the artwork with those around her, even strangers.

The curator of @ Gallery has her own interpretation of the effects that Dent’s home has on the displays.

“The idea is to bring art into a living space, thereby allowing the art itself to live” says Weaver.

@ Gallery is open to the public every Thursday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 through December 1^st. Contact Catherine Weaver at catweaver@me.com for more information. Oh, and make sure you see that closet.