Name: Alexander Shulan
Age: 32
Hometown: SoHo neighborhood of New York
Now lives: In a studio residence within the West Village part of Manhattan.
Claim to Fame: Mr. Shulan is the proprietor and curator behind Lomex, a downtown Manhattan gallery that has a knack for representing New York artists on the cusp. His exhibitions have helped additional the careers of the sculptor Robert Bittenbender; the multimedia filmmaker Maggie Lee; the conceptual photographer Oto Gillen — all of whose work went on to seem on the Whitney Museum of American Art and different prime museums. His deal with rising native expertise is an antidote to what he calls the “influx of tech money” that pervades the business gallery world. “I am very concerned with providing somewhere for individuals to project their imagination,” he stated.
Big Break: Mr. Shulan credit rising up within the 1990s in SoHo for nurturing his artwork instincts. “As a kid, it was always really exciting to me that I could just walk into a gallery.” After graduating from the University of Chicago, he returned in 2011 and was an editor for Kaleidoscope, the unbiased artwork journal, and staged guerilla-style exhibits in Chinatown storefronts. “It’s not a model that generally generates a lot of sales,” he stated, “but it definitely was a way for me to learn how to put together exhibitions and interact with artists in a new way.” At 27, he opened Lomex on the Bowery, on the highest ground of an 18th-century rowhouse that when belonged to the sculptor Eva Hesse. “I wanted to create a new place for artists in the city while also being super sensitive to the historical background of the building,” he stated.
Latest Project: Like many New Yorkers in the course of the pandemic, Mr. Shulman noticed shrinking real estate prices as a possibility to improve. This month, Lomex strikes to a 2,400-square-foot loft at 86 Walker Street in TriBeCa. The first present, with the painter Andrea Fourchy, opened March 15.
Next Thing: In May, Lomex will exhibit the neo-Gothic, comics-inspired work of Kyle Christensen Knowles. He’s hoping there can be a wine-and-cheese opening, when it’s secure sufficient for individuals to assemble. “I used to have these really raucous openings, which are actually really good formats for all kinds of interactions between people who are not normally in the same room together,” Mr. Shulan stated. “Historically, good art comes out of social situations.”
Art History: Lomex is called after Lower Manhattan Expressway, the failed interstate freeway proposed by Robert Moses within the 1960s, that may have bulldozed via SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown and different vibrant neighborhoods. “With all that’s happening with the city right now, it’s important for people to begin to think about the changing landscape of New York,” he stated. “What should art spaces themselves feel like when the city finally starts to come back?”
