Rachel Uffner Gallery Marks 10 Years With Group Show
The show features new work by the gallery’s 16 artists. BY KRISTEN TAUER PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEXIE MORELAND
Rachel Uffner is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her eponymous Lower East Side gallery on Suffolk Street. To mark the milestone, the gallery has organized a group show on its second floor, featuring new — or previously unseen — work by the 16 artists it represents.
"I think it shows a lot changes in 10 years, or all the time — year to year, month to month. And I feel like I've grown and learned a lot more also," says Uffner, her small 11-year-old dog quietly pattering around the sky-lit room. "A number of the artists have been with the gallery for all of 10 years, and then others were added on a few years in, or even a number of them have just been showing with the gallery a year. I think it's also a good way for me to evaluate and for other people to maybe see how things have evolved."
One of those artists is Sara Greenberger Rafferty, who has a concurrent solo show on the gallery's first floor; another is Roger White, who was the gallery's first show back in 2008, at their former location on Orchard Street. Uffner, who grew up outside of Philadelphia, opened her gallery after working at the now-defunct D'Amelio Terras gallery in Chelsea for five years; she leveraged the artist relationships she had formed there to launch on her own.
"Lately I've been thinking about why I even do this," she says. "And I think it's just this general interest in beauty, which can come in so many different forms: It can be ugly, it can be disturbing, it can be purely beautiful. I think beauty to me, and a lot of my colleagues, too, is also seeing something that is new or pushing things a bit forward. I have a strong interest in things that are beautiful but seem really innovative also."
Uffner notes that as the gallery hits its first decade, she's also reflected on the importance of sustaining a platform for diverse and emerging voices within the art community.
"No one is making me do this, but I do start to feel a bit of responsibility to continue