Skaters glide through a Central Park tableau made of fabric, while Superman takes a well-earned rest in his living room, and a collection of moody dogs converge. Together, these works of art, spanning the past two and a half decades, represent a fraction of over 100 pieces created by 93 artists on display as Fountain House Gallery celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Fountain House Gallery last night at the opening of their 25th Anniversary Exhibition. Photo: Lucas Brito
The gallery, on the corner of 9th Avenue and W48th Street, was founded in 2000 by a determined group of clubhouse members alongside the Hell’s Kitchen institution’s former president Kenneth Dudek. It provides a vital space for Fountain House’s members — all people living with mental illness — to display and market their art while building an inclusive, creative community.
The anniversary exhibit, which opened last night (Thursday) and will run through October 29, honors the artists actively showing at the gallery and “legacy” artists from the past quarter century, all of whom were invited to submit works.
“It is important to me that all of the artists who submitted artworks be represented in this tribute show, because they are the heart and soul of the gallery,” said Martha Henry, the show’s curator.
The gallery walls are covered in art of every shape, size and color, displayed in a similar style to a 19th-century art salon, and creating an immersive sensory experience for viewers.
Martha Henry, the curator of Fountain House Gallery’s 25th Anniversary Exhibition. Photo: Lucas Brito
There’s no central theme running through the pieces, which range from landscapes, to still lifes, to abstraction — but portraits make up 40% of the work on show. “Perhaps because portraits reveal our identity and connect us to our shared humanity,” said Martha.
It’s a sentiment that rings true across more than 100 shows at the gallery, some of which focused on navigating life with a mental health diagnosis. “There really isn’t one single sort of tone that you ever get from the gallery,” said director for almost four years, Rachel Weisman. “You might walk in and not everything resonates with you, but I can be fairly confident that you will find something that you connect with.”
Echoing Fountain House’s broader mission, the gallery serves a dual goal of helping its members, who range from professionals to self-trained artists, “either find their purpose or re-find their purpose” in their lives. It also works to establish their presence in New York City’s greater arts landscape and destigmatize mental illness. The public is invited to see “what it looks like to have people that are more than a diagnosis, to be able to learn from our artists in the same way that you would go to the Met or MoMA,” Rachel said.
Fountain House Gallery director Rachel Weisman at last night’s show. Photo: Lucas Brito
Members are involved in every aspect of operations. They curate shows, submit work, and vote on exhibition themes. When a work sells, the artists generally take home 60% of the sale — higher than most gallery’s 50/50 split. Five hundred works sold last year, to buyers from New York to Taiwan.
“It’s an entry back into your life,” said Vermillion, a visual and performance artist who joined the clubhouse and gallery in 2016. She has curated and displayed her work in shows at the gallery, and was so moved by its model that she decided to push beyond its borders and create new connections across the world.
After making a series of cold calls and emails to art institutions in other countries, Vermillion established a connection with the Bethlem Museum of The Mind in the United Kingdom, an art museum that, like Fountain House, displays the work of people with mental health problems. Now, artists from both sides of the pond meet regularly to collaborate.
Vermillion’s art is on show at Fountain House Gallery. Photos: FHG & Lucas Brito
Vermillion’s art is varied; she’s performed a one-woman-show, On cats and dogs and other family revelations, at the Under St Marks Theater, created a sculpture on Governors Island out of 1,000 blue bottles, and curated a show dedicated to mushrooms. On display now is one of a series of abstract, meditative drawings. “They could be neuro synapses, they could be plants, could be feathers,” she said.
Part of what makes the Fountain House Gallery so special is the peer network and connections it has fostered between artists, who also have the opportunity to use its studio space in Long Island City, and push each other “in the ebbs and flow of what a career in art looks like,” said Rachel.
“Whichever way I look, I have to thank Fountain House. If I had an idea, they would help me run with it. You hear in your heart I could do this, I could do that — but at Fountain House they always say yes,” said Vermillion.
Scenes from Fountain House Gallery’s 25th Anniversary Exhibition. Photos: Lucas Brito
Fountain House Gallery is located at 702 9th Avenue at the corner of W48th Street. They are open from 12-6pm Tuesday to Thursday (closing at 5pm on Wednesdays) and from 1-7pm on Saturday. The 25th anniversary exhibition will be on view through October 29.