IT’S THE next big thing in art galleries – empty luxury condos.
A Long Island City real estate firm is playing matchmaker between prospective homebuyers and local artists seeking patrons.
Modern Spaces NYC is offering up its vacant condominiums as gallery space for artists – boosting their exposure while sprucing up the hard-to-sell apartments.
“The marriage of art and real estate couldn’t be more right,” said Eric Benaim, president of Modern Spaces.
The firm takes no commission from the artists and gives them full reign to decorate the model units as they see fit. Then, the art-filled condos are used as venues for open houses.
“Every time we have done this, the artist has sold pieces,” Benaim said.
The paintings and etchings of Brooklyn artist Chris Mendoza are currently on display in a $1 million penthouse at Ten 63 Condominiums, a 41-unit complex on Jackson Ave.
“A lot of time in galleries, you get told what to do,” Mendoza said. “But here I was free to put the art where I wanted it.”
Even better, Modern Spaces is offering the person who ends up buying the three-bedroom penthouse a $1,000 credit toward Mendoza’s artwork.
“A lot of new buyers are changing their lifestyles by moving,” Benaim said. “Maybe their oil painting of fruit won’t work anymore.”
At the Powerhouse Condominium on 51st Ave., Modern Spaces dons the walls of its sales office with photographs by former Long Island City resident Eric Laverty.
Laverty was commissioned by the building’s developer to chronicle the transformation of the Long Island Rail Road power plant into a luxury apartment complex.
He took more than 17,000 photos, many of which have been purchased by residents of the building.
“It just made sense to show my photos there,” Laverty said.
Recently, Modern Spaces also opened up an empty, unfinished unit on the first floor of Ten 63 Condominiums to the international artists cooperative, We-Are-Familia, for a so-called “popup” gallery.
The gallery moves between unoccupied spaces around the world for short, weeks-long exhibits. Modern Spaces offered the Jackson Ave. location for free.
“It gets more people in to see their space and it helps us because we don’t use the traditional gallery,” said Jennifer Garcia, a founder of We-Are-Familia.
Garcia recently was hired by Modern Spaces to recruit artists for the agency.
Benaim said working with local artists is his way of giving back to the people who he believes made Long Island City what it is today.
“Development usually follows the artists,” he said. “These are the people who are bringing life to an area.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/09/17/2010-09-17_a_real_art_house_condos_let_artists_set_up_free_galleries.html#ixzz16v9fZpdA
