Artwork by Matt Leines.
On Monday evening, Beginnings Gallery in Greenpoint will hold its final show, appropriately titled (cue Jim Morrison voice) “The End.” The owners have decided to shutter the gallery after being open just shy of a year.
“It was always going to be an experiment, and that’s why we had a one-year sublease,” said Caroline Hwang, one of the space’s seven curators. “Because it’s so expensive, it’s difficult to do without so many people, and some of us want to do other things.”
Hwang is among those who want to move on, and intends to travel across the country along with fellow curator Joel Speasmaker to find a new spot for a new gallery.
“We’ve been here for 10 years, and I’m kind of over New York,” said Hwang, who lives in Clinton Hill. “We want space and we want to live where the cost of living isn’t so high, so we’re moving on to someplace more quiet and leaving behind the crazy city life.”
The curators will continue their series of video interviews with local artists until they’ve spoken with every artist who has shown at the gallery, after which they’ll keep interviewing new talent.
The bittersweet final show comes as a relief to the curators, who all have full-time jobs (Beginnings was normally only open on the weekends), but Hwang said she’ll miss giving local artists the opportunity to expand from small group shows to their first solo show.
The one-night-only closing show will feature photography, painting, sculpture, and perhaps installations by nearly 50 artists, many of whom have shown at the gallery before. From 8 p.m. onward, patrons can take home any art they’ve purchased. There’s something creepy and appropriate about art lovers pulling all the pieces off the wall and carrying them away in a gallery’s final evening, so stop by Beginnings at 6 p.m. on Monday to snag a painting or sculpture to remember them by.