These days, there is never a dull moment in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, where galleries continue to open at a steady clip. The latest is Ortuzar Projects, at 9 White Street, a venture from former David Zwirner partner Ales Ortuzar, whom some readers may remember as the “dapper Spaniard” in Nick Paumgarten’s 2013 Zwirner profile in the New Yorker.
The new gallery’s focus—to quote its press materials—will be “promoting international artists that have played critical roles in the 20th and 21st century art historical canon but have not received recent exposure in the United States.” Ortuzar Projects has “a two-year timeline” set for its operations, and plans to work “in collaboration with the artists’ estates, foundations and representing galleries.” First up, arriving February 16: a one-person show of work by Michel Parmentier, the Paris-born painter who died in 2000 and who was part of the vanguard-minded BMPT gang, which also included Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset, and Niele Toroni. (Amazingly, it is apparently the first Parmentier solo show in the U.S.)
As it happens, Buren’s gallery, Bortolami, recently decamped from Chelsea to Tribeca, just a couple blocks from Ortuzar. The burgeoning gallery district also includes Alexander & Bonin, Artists Space, Postmasters, and Queer Thoughts. In addition, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House is nearby, which might be a nice pairing with Parmentier’s paintings, and the Odeon is still going strong at 145 West Broadway. There really is a lot to love in Tribeca right now.