Organized in New York for the gallery’s Shanghai space, Downtown, is a group exhibition featuring eight artists whose work exemplifies the alternative scene in New York City’s burgeoning art district known as the Lower East Side (LES). For all of the artists, this exhibition marks the first time their work will be shown in China. A bi-lingual catalog of the exhibition is available.

In assembling this exhibition, Downtown provides a snapshot of what is on view in eight prominent LES galleries. As the oldest neighborhood in New York City, the LES has been home to waves of immigrants from Eastern European Jews, Poles and Ukrainians to what is today the heart of New York’s Chinatown. Throughout the neighborhood, galleries can be found tucked into small storefronts, up narrow staircases, and more recently in newly-built white box spaces. Progressive gallery models are thriving; they are incubators of the most exciting emerging artwork being made today. The close-knit community of artists and art dealers attracts well-heeled crowds to this former working class neighborhood, shifting the associations of the old world to the new. In the spirit of cultural exchange, this exhibition brings the best of the LES scene to audiences in Shanghai.

Downtown was developed in collaboration with the LES galleries who represent the artists presented in the exhibition. It was curated by Jessica Lin Cox and William Pym of James Cohan Gallery, New York.

Group Artists: Joshua Abelow, David Adamo, Michael Bauer, David Brooks, Erica Baum, Hilary Harnischfeger, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Anicka Yi

Image: © Anicka Yi, James Cohan Gallery, Shanghai