Hole Lotta Love
Into the hole left by Deitch Projects comes... The Hole
By Carlo McCormick
Photographed by Bill Durgin
Above, left to right: Meghan Coleman and Kathy Grayson
Amidst the public hand-wringing over Jeffrey Deitch's decision to close his much-beloved gallery Deitch Projects this past June was the underlying question few dared think about: what would happen to the matriarchal power coven that ran the show there and those less-than-market-friendly artists they had championed? Thankfully into this unimaginable breach has stepped The Hole, a multi-purpose exhibition space founded by the former Deitch Projects directors, Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman. A slick and savvy gallery premised on deviantly funky aesthetics with a delirious admixture of high-powered ambition and a commitment to downtown sensibilities, The Hole sort of launched over the summer with a show that celebrated the inherent beauty of not being quite ready--an unfinished space featuring unfinished works by a pantheon of today's most "irascible" artists.
Now with its proverbial feet wet, The Hole is more than ready to deliver everything that New York was so damned worried about having lost. They're continuing to produce the high-impact public art projects of Deitch, including the Wynwood Walls in Miami and the Bowery Murals here (with a new commission by Barry McGee). They've landed a coup of a September gallery show, the debut of Forcefield co-founder Mat Brinkman; they're launching a new imprint, Holey Books; and added a bookstore and café to the gallery. "The choice was to either follow Jeffrey out to L.A. or to continue to work with the many artists with whom I had developed relationships over the past eight years," Grayson explained, "and once I started exploring the latter, I found there was this huge amount of community support that was very much in the spirit of what we were trying to do."
But why name what is in all likelihood a blue-chip gallery after a particularly raucous gay club of yore? "Well, I loved the club, and I thought it would be great to name a gallery after a club," Grayson says, "but it was also that everyone was talking about the hole that was left with Jeffrey's departure, so I figured that's what we were: The Hole."
The Hole, 104 Greene St., New York, NY (212) 226 3000.
Amidst the public hand-wringing over Jeffrey Deitch's decision to close his much-beloved gallery Deitch Projects this past June was the underlying question few dared think about: what would happen to the matriarchal power coven that ran the show there and those less-than-market-friendly artists they had championed? Thankfully into this unimaginable breach has stepped The Hole, a multi-purpose exhibition space founded by the former Deitch Projects directors, Kathy Grayson and Meghan Coleman. A slick and savvy gallery premised on deviantly funky aesthetics with a delirious admixture of high-powered ambition and a commitment to downtown sensibilities, The Hole sort of launched over the summer with a show that celebrated the inherent beauty of not being quite ready--an unfinished space featuring unfinished works by a pantheon of today's most "irascible" artists.
Now with its proverbial feet wet, The Hole is more than ready to deliver everything that New York was so damned worried about having lost. They're continuing to produce the high-impact public art projects of Deitch, including the Wynwood Walls in Miami and the Bowery Murals here (with a new commission by Barry McGee). They've landed a coup of a September gallery show, the debut of Forcefield co-founder Mat Brinkman; they're launching a new imprint, Holey Books; and added a bookstore and café to the gallery. "The choice was to either follow Jeffrey out to L.A. or to continue to work with the many artists with whom I had developed relationships over the past eight years," Grayson explained, "and once I started exploring the latter, I found there was this huge amount of community support that was very much in the spirit of what we were trying to do."
But why name what is in all likelihood a blue-chip gallery after a particularly raucous gay club of yore? "Well, I loved the club, and I thought it would be great to name a gallery after a club," Grayson says, "but it was also that everyone was talking about the hole that was left with Jeffrey's departure, so I figured that's what we were: The Hole."
The Hole, 104 Greene St., New York, NY (212) 226 3000.
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