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Lower East Side Darling Nicelle Beauchene on Her Growing Enterprise

Artsy Editorial
Apr 29, 2014 9:05PM

“I think its important to take risks,” says Nicelle Beauchene, a New York-based dealer who, in 2008, opened her eponymous gallery in a tiny storefront on the Lower East Side. “But it’s important to balance those risks by building strong foundations for our artists.” In 2002, after cutting her teeth at galleries in San Francisco, Beauchene moved to New York where she landed a job with one of New York’s most reputable dealers, Marianne Boesky. “That was the turning point for me,” she says. “I had an incredible opportunity to gain learning experience from one of the most dedicated and forward-thinking art dealers in New York City. Her strategic approach to building and cultivating the careers of her artists is something that I’ve been influenced by and have integrated into my own gallery’s mission.” This education apparently paid off: Beauchene has developed a well-respected roster of artists—particularly emerging talent—who, despite their divergent processes, maintain a particular je ne sais quoi that has made the gallery’s program a NYC favorite. And Beauchene has stayed true to the LES—last year, she moved to a bigger space just blocks from her first location; simultaneously, a spattering of new and established galleries were setting up shop in the neighborhood—including Chapter NY, 247365, Shoot the Lobster, and Bodega, not to mention Gagosian’s recent Urs Fischer pop-up show. “[The Lower East Side has] been a place of continuous change for almost 10 years now and the change continues to amplify each year,” says Beauchene. For her booth at this edition of NADA New York, she will show works by three of her artists, including a series of paintings by Alexander Tovborg based on depictions of the dinosaur. “Literally, we’ll have dinosaur paintings!” Learn more from Beauchene about a few of the works that will be presented:

Alexander Tovborg’s ‘Bocca Baciata’ series traces a wide-ranging continuum between the mythical and cultural explorations of the dinosaur, organized belief and religious systems, as well as psychological theories and phenomena. His stylized and symbolic paintings are based on a 19th-century romanticized and mythological viewpoint of the dinosaur, where myth and speculation weighs more heavily than scientific fact.”

“In Jim Lee’s Untitled with Tantrim, the artist recasts components of painting through a variety of experiments—cutting, dismantling, slicing, stapling—creating a canvas that acts as a site for both construction and subsequent sabotage. Here, Lee is exposing the stretcher bars, removing the hierarchy between surface and support.”

Jennifer Paige Cohen’s Untitled (Purple Rose AM) presents sculpture as both an abstract form and a figurative allusion. Her materially rich works are formed as sculptural portraits, casting plaster and clothing over her own shoulder, a friend’s arm, another’s knee, etc., so that only the memory of the figure, or an underlying silhouette, remains.”

Nicelle Beauchene is on view at NADA New York, Main, Booth 302, May 9th–11th.

Explore NADA New York 2014 on Artsy.

Artsy Editorial