Chelsea gallery Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc. is celebrating its move to the Lower East Side tonight, two months before it actually goes down.
The gallery’s first show at 33 Orchard Street — featuring the work of Blair Thurman — won’t happen until September 20. In the meantime, the owners are throwing a party in the unrennovated room that they’re calling the “Raw Space,” with bare walls and wires hanging from the ceiling.
“There’s no art on the wall tonight,” said Tanja Grunert. “We’re just doing it to let people see that’s it’s real: we’re really moving.”
Grunert has run galleries in the Chelsea area since 1998, and she’s thrilled to be getting out and moving on. The 19th Street space wraps its final show next Friday.
“I want to be free,” she said. “The Lower East Side gives me the feeling of real academic and intellectual freedom. It’s constructive for artists to be based down here. We all know Chelsea is made by the dealers and not by the artists.”
The party starts at 7 p.m. and entry is free, as is beer, wine, and cocktails made with “some kind of pear cactus.”
“Stop by soon,” Grunert implored, “because we like to drink and we will run out!”
Sounds like she’ll fit in just fine on the LES.
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