See the exhibitions:
How it came about:
Working at Pace/MacGill Gallery in the early 1990s, I wanted to learn what I could about the art business and eventually open my own gallery. I lived in several apartments over the years in NYC, from Park Slope in Brooklyn to midtown Manhattan and then Kips Bay, but it was a move downtown to the Lower East Side that inadvertently launched my own art curating and dealing endeavors.
In 1995 I moved to a one bedroom apartment on Stanton Street, and as I was in the process of moving my things in, I realized that my bed would not fit in the small bedroom! While initially frustrating, it sparked an idea: if I couldn’t have my bed in the bedroom, maybe I’d have an art gallery in there instead! The seeds were planted for “Tredomus,” a made-up name I created for my view-by-appointment art gallery. I staged several trial-run exhibitions and events, and based on the initial success of those, I curated a season of five formal exhibitions.
After that first season, I was anxious to find a better exhibition space. This lead to the East Village, and a unique opportunity on East 11th Street, where I found a storefront that was a true public space, but also had a kitchen and bathroom in the back, and a small (and very short-height) loft space for a bedroom. Work/live spaces were rare, and this was my opportunity to bring my art-dealing pursuit to a more-visible level. I changed the business name from Tredomus to McKinney Arts, and opened to the public in September 1996 with an exhibition of paintings by Sally Lindsay.
I curated a total of 7 exhibitions for the 1996-1997 season, but also during that time, became engaged and had to make some tough decisions regarding McKinney Arts. Looking ahead to a married life, I couldn’t afford to keep the storefront and have a regular apartment, and so I let go of the lease on 11th Street after a year and moved downtown to the Wall Street area. This brought Chapter 3 of the McKinney Arts venture, with the idea that I would continue as a private dealer with showings in my apartment on Broad Street, across the street from the New York Stock Exchange.
I did one public exhibition during this time, participating in The Art Exchange Show in June 1998. The exposure at this show was decent, but sales were minimal, and the decision was made to put my art dealing activities on hold and focus instead on my own art work going forward.