Ortuzar Projects will triple its gallery space in Tribeca

After five years at 9 White Street in Tribeca, Ortuzar Projects will move to a new, 10,000 sq. ft space just next-door that will allow the gallery to hold multiple exhibitions at once while still keeping its presence in Tribeca, New York’s fastest-growing neighbourhood for galleries.

Ortuzar Projects will open this autumn at 5 White Street, which is being designed by architecture firm Caplan Colaku, which recently designed the non-profit Artists Space’s new location, also in Tribeca. Decades ago, in the 1980s, Artists Space was based at 5 White Street.

Ortuzar Projects’ first show at the new location will be an exhibition of works by Ernie Barnes, curated by Derrais Carter. Last year during Frieze New York, amid a market frenzy for Barnes’s work that took many by surprise, Ortuzar Projects announced it would co-represent the estate of the late American football player-turned-artist with Andrew Kreps, another Tribeca-based gallery.

Ales Ortuzar—a former partner at David Zwirner—opened his gallery in 2018 as a two-year project to present important 20th- and 21st century artists to new audiences in the US.

When Ortuzar Projects opened in Tribeca five years ago, the neighbourhood was just beginning to experience the mass migration of art galleries to the area. Today, more and more galleries are expanding downtown or decamping from neighbourhoods like Chelsea altogether. Galleries announcing moves to Tribeca include Timothy Taylor, Stephen Friedman, Marian Goodman and Alexander Gray, and collector Lio Malca.