New York gallery Ortuzar Projects is moving into 5 White Street, Artnews reports. The TriBeCa building, which housed the nonprofit Artists Space between 1984 and 1993, sits on the southeast corner of White and West Broadway, and allows visitors to enter from either street. The move is one of mere feet for Ortuzar Projects, which has occupied 9 White Street since its 2018 inauguration. At 10,000 square feet, however, the new digs are roughly three times the size of the gallery’s current 2,600-square-foot space. Designed by Caplan Colaku Architecture, who oversaw Artists Space’s 20009 expansion, the new gallery will allow Ortuzar Projects to host multiple exhibitions simultaneously.
Ales Ortzuar, a former dealer at David Zwirner, opened Ortuzar Projects with the intention of promoting international twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists who are underrepresented in the art-historical canon. The gallery’s original two-year timeline aimed to give these artists “a lasting, expanded visibility through exhibitions and the publication of significant scholarly catalogues.” Among the notable exhibitions Ortuzar Projects has staged are those by André Cadere, renowned for his smooth, painted round wooden bars; June Leaf, known for her allegorical paintings and modernist kinetic sculptures, and Joaquín Torres-García, considered the father of Latin American Constructivism. In 2022, alongside Andrew Kreps Gallery, Ortuzar Projects secured the right to represent the estate of the recently rediscovered and extremely sought-after athlete-turned-painter Ernie Barnes (1938–2009). “Sugar Shack,” an exhibition of work by Barnes, will inaugurate the gallery’s new space.
“We have been so gratified by the response to our program from collectors, curators, and—most importantly—artists since we opened our doors on White Street five years ago,” said Ortuzar. “Our expanded space, right next to our original gallery in the heart of Tribeca’s gallery district, sets us up for our next chapter of championing artists who deserve greater exposure in New York.”