One by One Gallery: photo Gloria Suzie Kim
Alphabet City is a part of the East Village that has only been slightly more immune to the charms of gentrification than its more westerly psychogeographical* end; it’s an ethnographic hodge-podge of Dominicans, transplants, hipsters, and assorted New York crazies that roam the streets like ghosts, sometimes wearing their pajamas, sometimes throwing a fit, sometimes both.
Embodying a brilliant synthesis of transplanted culture and crazy street-talk, is an art and design gallery located in a small, non-descript apartment on Avenue D. The gallery is owned by Madrid transplant and one-woman show, Celina Alvarado. The gallery is called One by One and is located in the foyer of Alvarado’s apartment.
One by One Gallery Installation View, photo: Derek Chung
One by One exhibits one installation at a time. Each exhibition is a result of collaboration between multiple artists. The current exhibition is a spatial installation comprised of 6,407 feet of white yarn interconnecting the extruded outlines of both the linguistic and numerical representation of the number 1 stemming from 1,116 holes in the wall. The result is like walking into an intricate web that spans the room like a web woven by a mathematically inclined spider. It was created by a group of artists recently graduated from the New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Experiencing an installation in the privacy of an apartment gives one glimpses of everyday life lying just beyond the visual field of the gallery walls.
Alvarado moved to the states before 9/11, after working for several years as the only female producer and director for a burgeoning creative community of media peers at Canal+ in her native Madrid. Alvarado started the gallery in July of 2009. After her superintendent painted the foyer white in her new apartment, she felt that the space was “small but perfect, like a perfume,” and realized there ought to be a gallery there.
Perched on her head is a white straw Panama hat, and underneath, her hair is a dark, glossy green that reminds me of a forest. Her small, sharp features have a feline quality that accentuates the playful and intuitive way she communicates ideas. She claims that she never plans, only decides, and is firmly rooted in the here and now. I ask her what she envisions the gallery to be in one or a hundred years. She thinks it will belong to a hotel or will travel around in a truck.
Photo: Derek Chung
Her iPhone rings (it’s an old fashioned bicycle horn toot). She has a going away party to attend to, so we part outside. She calls out, “Good bye baby!” as I leave.
By Gloria Suzie Kim
* Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”
One by One Gallery is open every Sunday from 4-6 pm,
Or by appointment: home@onebyonegalleryD0Tcom
twitter.com/onebyonegallery
http://www.onebyonegallery.com
