Sardine

286 Stanhope St.
Brooklyn, NY 11237
sardinebk.com
@sardinebk

Founded in 2011 by Lacey Fekishazy, SARDINE is a contemporary art gallery presenting solo exhibitions, small group shows and occasional limited editions by featured artists. SARDINE's modest size is a key asset in the construction of a contemplative, intimate space which has been used to showcase carefully curated collections of work as well as immersive, site-specific installations.

Interview with Sardine

with Lacy Lacey Fekishazy
Questions by Emily Burns

Hi Lacey! Can you tell us a bit about how Sardine got started? What prompted you to start the space initially?
Hi Emily! Thank you for including SARDINE in this issue of Maake. Diving right into it, I didn’t really set out to open a gallery. While I was working on my MFA at Queens College, I got to help arrange the group shows and coordinate the visiting artists. That was a sort of beginning in my curatorial experience. A year after grad school, I was looking for a new studio space to work in and found a listing on Craigslist for a small ground floor space near the Dekalb L subway stop in Bushwick. When I went to see it, I kept thinking it would make a good gallery. So SARDINE is the result of responding to a space, and that is how it came to be way back in 2011.

Sardine is so named for its tiny square footage. Can you tell us a bit about the size of the space— was this intentional or the result of an opportunity to create a gallery in this particular spot?
You can do a lot with a little space that is less than 400 square feet. It was the opportunity in that space at that moment that set SARDINE in motion. The building has vertical aluminum sliding which reminded me of a tin can, but the name SARDINE came from a few different ideas. There was a show I saw and admired at the Hammer Museum in 2009 entitled ‘Oranges and Sardines’ as a reference to the Frank O’Hara poem ‘Why I Am Not A Painter’. The name SARDINE is also a nod to being a little fish in the big sea or the big apple or the big city, and then when the openings get packed you really feel like a sardine in there.

What are some of the benefits and challenges of operating a small space?
One benefit is lower rent (and less physical stuff to worry about) but the major challenge is there is never enough storage space. I always feel like I’m in the Wizard of Oz- ‘Do not look behind the curtain!’

You celebrated Sardine's eighth anniversary on October 1, 2019 and have hosted over 50 events and exhibitions. Congrats! After eight years, do you feel like you have a good sense of where the gallery started and where its headed? Has your vision changed over the years?
I can’t say that the vision has changed but it has definitely evolved. Out of curiosity I just counted and SARDINE is actually up to 69 exhibitions and/or events. In general, I focus on about eight shows a year at SARDINE and do a sculpture/ installation show in the Hudson Valley as part of Newburgh Open Studios called ‘Glenlily Grounds’ in late September. SARDINE has always been an artists’ gallery and I like it that way. The name is inherently diminutive and it was always supposed to be as small endeavor but it's hard to run a gallery and not have it take over your whole life. It started with a simple vision - to give artists a chance to show their work in a city in which it is often hard to find opportunities and support.

What is your curatorial vision? Is there something that ties the exhibitions together?
I'm not quite sure if it's my motto or vision but ‘Do good shows!’ is what I aim for. I think I have a discerning eye for quality art and can pick up on some unusual ties between artists. What I think works well with how I curate the shows at SARDINE is that it is mostly driven by the artist’s vision of how they want their work exhibited and represented. I give the artists a lot of freedom to construct the show they want to see for themselves.

In addition to running the gallery, you are also an artist. How does being a curator and the daily operations of running the space interact with the practice of being an artist?
In addition to running the gallery, I am also an artist, mother, wife, and draftsperson for the Estate of Sol LeWitt. In all honesty, my art practice really fell on its face and I have become accustomed to living with a certain degree of chaos around me. For a while, I was saying I was on my ‘Agnes Martin Hiatus’ but it’s been taking more than 7 years to find the inspiration to make art again consistently. Having to fit the gallery calendar into my own life and social engagements feels like a juggling act most of the time or like playing a never-ending game of Tetris. After all this time, I’m still interested in working with great and talented artists and giving them a space to show. And in the near future, after a bit of renovation, I’m looking forward to a new studio and practice in Newburgh, NY.

What is a typical day like for you?
Wake up feeling like a lead balloon, get my daughter ready for school, answer some emails or not, clean up messes that are back a minute later, laundry, my mother is caring for her elderly parents so I’m helping a bit with them, start a project, do some gardening, do homework, make my kid mac and cheese and green beans again, collect eggs from my chickens, tell myself I look old, tell myself I’m not doing enough, order a postcard for my next show, figure out how to go to Boston for a LeWitt job, fall asleep in a heap. Repeat.

What has stood out as the biggest joy in running the space so far? The biggest challenge?
I think the biggest joy is having artists come back and say I helped them gain momentum. Daniel Giordano, who had a solo earlier this year, said, ‘My show at SARDINE helped me get a few other shows this year’. That makes me feel good. For me, the biggest challenges are managing schedules, space, and time. And being (somewhat) socially awkward and struggling with a sales approach.

How does being based in Brooklyn shape the energy of the gallery?
Brooklyn is the best. I love New York—city and state. SARDINE shows a lot of Brooklyn artists, who bring a certain freshness and excitement into the gallery. While SARDINE is in Bushwick, I moved from Brooklyn to my hometown of Newburgh in the Hudson Valley after living in NYC for nearly a decade to start my family in 2013. I am so grateful to still have a tie to the city.

You recently mentioned on your website that Sardine acts as a connecting space. Has that been an organic evolution or was it something that you pursued intentionally? If the latter, what steps did you take to foster that kind of community spirit?
I have been realizing wall drawings for Sol LeWitt since 2006, first as an assistant and then as a lead draftsperson for the Estate. Community and collaboration are integral to the process of LeWitt’s’ work. I would say this is one of the greatest influences on me, my own practice and the way I run SARDINE. I was fortunate to work on the large-scale LeWitt shows at both Dia:Beacon and MassMoca and the experience of how unifying making art together can be really stuck with me. LeWitt was able to bring so many artists together and make connections between people who would not have met otherwise.

Can you tell us a bit about the current exhibition, The Mushroom Show? What go you excited about this particular exhibition, which was initially organized by Letha Wilson and Dan Gratz in Letha’s upstate New York studio in the summer of 2018.
I first met Letha through my high school friend Amy Feldman a decade ago, and I have known Dan for a couple years now. Dan and I were just talking at a party and it came up that he would like to do another version of The Mushroom Show. I said, “You are welcome to do it at SARDINE” and he was into it. It’s been such an honor to have so many amazing artists’s work hanging on the walls. I liked the idea of the organic connection and the way it can be perceived as just a silly show but its intent is more than that.

Whats up next for Sardine?
Sardine has some exciting things on the horizon. Christopher Dunlap’s second solo show titled 123 / XYZ opens on Saturday, November 9, 2019 from 6 to 9 pm and runs through December 15, 2019. 2020 at SARDINE brings solo shows from Sarah Heinemann and Dave Choi and a two person show by Liz Ainslie and Stacy Fisher. Also, opening in the new year on January 4, 2020 in Los Angeles, I will be curating a group show at TSA LA as part of Trestle Gallery and Tiger Strikes Asteroid’s Artist-Run 2020, a year long exploration of artist-run projects throughout the country.

Thanks so much for talking with us!

To find out more about Sardine, check out their website.