Sunrise: the Tale of the Urban Cowboy at Beverly’s

*Installation View with Ryan Oskin and Lamar Robillard Installation Shot*

Beverly’s is well-known, amongst artists and locals alike, and has been a main fixture of the art community for years. Found on the Lower East Side, right on Grand Street, artists, gallery owners, writers, and curators come here to spend their time after their day is done. Beverly’s owner and creator, Leah Dixon, wanted to make this gallery space an opportunity to get thousands of eyes on work and thousands of conversations started. With their current exhibition, Sunrise, intertwined with the bar, there are many stories to be had.

It started off as an idea to create a space that is both a global arts institution and a nightlife community. The exhibition space within the full bar has been used by multiple galleries, art week events, and Dixon’s own exhibition schedule of artists from throughout the community and connections they’ve gotten to know from Beverly’s and beyond. Beverly’s offers openings at 8 pm after the other gallery openings usually end, to allow audiences to come in and see the work after visiting the usual opening spots. After working at art fairs and art week, and as a working artist themselves, Dixon has sought out to make the space accessible for galleries to have shows. Dixon wants to make this an important art space, a community space where shows are up with artists on a full, curated gallery schedule. Dixon brings in many well-known artists as well as emerging artists, many of whom are from Dixon’s community connections, to bring the gallery space to life even more.

The press release is on the opposite side of the menu, held in the hands of many people throughout the night. Dixon is trying to bring the gallery into a public service space and meld the two, which already share similar energies. These energies of artists and teams alike making it happen, community spaces that welcome people in and offer the opportunity for people to immerse themselves into an entirely new space after the work days are done, and the hard work it takes to make and run a bar, which many don’t consider to be a gallery space, but it truly is. The energy at Beverly’s is welcoming, professional, and every detail is cared for. The shows and themes are considered, and each work is hung with care and consideration on how it will be viewed both day and night, as the gallery is open until 2 am, where the works are shown under the dance floor lights.

This current show carries with it the theme of the Wild West of NYC – “the land of the urban cowboy” – comparing the adventurous experiences in the West to the hustle and bustle of the city, the sunrise in the West also rises in NYC, and with it, the promise of newfound dreams. The communal and creative spaces the city brings, places where people love and appreciate art and artists’ voices freely, are celebrated. The space and exhibition become akin to the “watering hole” idea. The show takes us on a journey, galloping through the city, and in the end, we end up at Beverly’s, where ideas and dreams can be shared, and new perspectives can be gained by just hearing someone’s story over a drink. Camille Rouzaud’s wall piece was made with this space in mind, well-fitted to the wall, chronicling the hidden city infrastructure under the streets, and the metal of the city we notice all around us. Or another artist, Ryan Oskin, using pieces of the city street and building appearances that we know so well in nearby Chinatown. In learning more about this piece and the architecture that inspired it, the holes are built into the high-rise so as not to block the dragon that flies through them. I really enjoyed finding out little details like this and how the artists connected both of their worlds in their works.

*Camille Rouzaud and Ryan Oskin, Installation view*

Each show features a video work, which often becomes part of the space as the music starts to play into the night. Artists are told their art will often become one with the energy of the space and many take that opportunity to make a piece that becomes part of the atmosphere, becomes a music video of sorts—in this show, the work of Lamar Robillard, which utilizes familiar symbols to point toward the visibility and spirituality of Black material culture in America. Beverly’s has become a safe space for many and offers an opportunity for their works and stories to be shown. All the artists in this exhibition jump into the idea of manifest destiny and take it for their own, such as Daniel Barragán’s piece, Giddy Up. Each piece takes its experience of the city and melds it with the “Wild West”, places where many have called home before, and they take us into the concrete jungle that we find ourselves in now, such as Single at Myrtle Broadway, by Nicole Mouriño, pictured below. This piece depicts a sandwich that can be purchased at a local bodega on Myrtle Avenue, with the reflection of the BQE’s structure above in the lights. The work becomes timely and personal really fast, often using pieces or images from the city as parts of the work, and allows viewers the opportunity to experience them from their own perspectives with those symbols of the city we all know so well.

Daniel Barragán and Nicole Mouriño, *Giddy Up* and *Single at Myrtle Broadway*

A statement from the press release really struck me, and it seems very fitting for the space and the exhibition: “spurred by our devotion to building, destroying, dancing, collecting, and connecting,” Beverly’s becomes a place for creation, connection, and inspiration. Sabrina Mendoza Malavé’s intimate wall sculptures, pictured below, fit this statement immensely well, depicting the textures, shapes, and existence of NYC storefronts and bars, mimicking settings that people often find themselves inside on their journeys through the city. Places like these are where artists come to talk to artists, a community is built, and another layer of the art world opens up; one where artists help artists, a great space is created, for someone to enjoy, spend time in, and most importantly, spend time with the work and stories of the artists all around the bar, placed with deep consideration.

Sabrina Mendoza Malavé, *De Dignidad se Trata, mixed media sculpture*

All photos courtesy of Beverly’s

Sunrise, through Aug. 7th, 297 Grand Street, Chinatown, New York NY, @beverlysnyc

About the Writer: Taylor Bielecki lives in Gowanus, where her studio is, and works at Pratt Institute, where she earned her MFA, she also studied at Penn State, where she earned a BA in English and a BFA in Fine Arts. She finished as a finalist in the Kennedy Center’s VSA National Emerging Young Artist program for 2017; where she earned an award of Excellence. She has shown prints internationally in a print exchange in Australia and exhibitions in Dubai, India and the Glasgow School of Art. She has also shown paintings internationally in Gallery 24N, PhilaMOCA’s juried exhibitions in Philadelphia, Pa., Perry Lawson Fine Art in Nyack, NY, BWAC in Red Hook, the 2025 Zero Art Fair in Chelsea, and Greenpoint Gallery in Brooklyn. Taylor has joined Art Spiel as a contributing writer.