Q: Tell me a little about yourselves and what the story is behind “The Bishops Gallery”?

A: We grew up here in Bed Stuy, been friends since 8th grade, dreamed about all types of business ventures and different things we could do. The Gallery was never on that list. But we used to own a bar here, lounge spot in Bushwick. And he went to school at Howard, and he was living in DC, and he was looking to open another spot in DC. And he met this artist Francis who had a space that he was going to turn into like an Andy Warhol’s Factory, but a blacker more ethnic version of that. We remember going and meeting with him and asking him two questions… It was like, for one can we build a bar in the back? And can we throw parties and events here? And he was very set on doing a Gallery, and that was the very beginning of what would become the Bishop Gallery. We say now its serendipitous of how we got into the industry. And we spent about a year and a half with Francis the artist. We were all really young at the time and spent that time learning and really developing a passion for the art space. That passion became us wanting to make it accessible for artists in-the community both our immediate community and the larger community around us. After about a year and a half we separated from Francis, you know we were all real young at the time, but ambitious. That's really the driving force behind it. We have always had this level of ambition in terms of being entrepreneurs and owning our own thing, and that was the attraction with Francis. It was not even like wow this man is opening a Gallery! It was more like yo, this kids 23 years old and got his own place! In our head were like yes whatever you are doing over here we want in! And that just happened to be the arts, which i think we are truly fortunate and blessed to get introduced into this industry. And 16 years later, were still here and i would like to say having a significant impact in the industry.

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Galleries are usually named after somebody you know, so our name came from a mentor of ours, Doctor Lamont Bishop. Our second iteration of our Gallery name was “The Lamont Bishop Gallery” which we eventually shortened into “The Bishop Gallery.” Doctor Bishop was a mentor, teacher but also like a big brother to us and always made a big impression on us. And i always like to think of the same way we focus on emerging artists here, we were kinda like his emerging artists coming up. He was not into the arts per se in a professional sense, but he invested in us early on when there was not as many eyes on us. Having our space named after him keeps us honest in a way, knowing and remembering that its legacy on the line just as much as ours. He passed at an early age but the last time i saw him was in DC doing college tours with a group of kids, which was cool to see because he would do college tours with us. He was the reason i went to Howard.

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Q: I feel like all young men can really relate to this, just the struggle in finding a true mentor that supports you and teaches you the ropes of life can be very hard to find, that’s a blessing you both were able to lean on having a mentor to get yourself headed in the right direction!

A: “Oh yeah, thats big bro, we were blessed for sure.” Funny enough it is always those informal relationships that end up becoming the most meaningful cause its just, you are doing it you know? It is not like this specific structure; it is just they are present and your present and they are engaging and those end up being some of the most fruitful relationships we have ever had.

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Q: How would you describe your curated approach in bringing new works into the Gallery?

A: We are not your traditional gallery in the sense of the structure in how we work. We do not really look for what could sell for the most right, or what has the best sell appeal. We are really into the artist and their story and personal journey and how they use their gift and perfect their craft. We want to help them portray the message they are trying to provide for the viewer. We want to get into the substance of their work, theirs a lot of artists out there that we feel we just align with at times especially with the sense of evoking conversation through there works. Cause conversation leads to change. So thats usually the artist that we are attracted to, I would also say, going back to our childhood and the way we grew up, were storytellers at heart. We come from storytellers and so i think storytelling is an essential part of our curatorial ethos if you will. It is like whats your story? It really is a lot of times being able to tell those compelling and historical narratives that, you know, are sometimes the road less traveled, people who do not have the same platform. We always make the joke that our artists are always quite different in terms of aesthetic, you got sculptures, photographers, painters, abstract work, portraits. But if you put them all in the same room you could see how they will all get along or they could be friends right? Theres these threads if you will, that sometimes are very visible and sometimes are invisible but are all linked through storytelling.

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Q: What has been the most unexpected reward coming out of owning this, Gallery?

A:  We represent a collector by the name of Alexis Adler, and she owns a small collection of works by Jean Michel Basquiat. Basquiat as you know the highest selling American painter ever. Representing her has allowed us to take these works on tour to six HBCU’s. It affected about 10 HBCU’s though cause some of the schools were close neighbors. But the main six were Howard University, Hampton university, Clark Atlanta University, Tennessee State University, Texas Southern and Dillard. For me i think that was the most rewarding thing we have done in our industry and careers so far. I remember the night, the first stop was at Hampton and i flew in to do the installation and i had to leave for something and Stevenson was actually there like the first opening night and he sent me a picture of about 20 maybe 30 students in the exhibition seeing these woRKS for the first time. And i remember getting like goosebumps, might have shed a small tear but i was like damn, like we really did that. I was able to see that real time impact and the looks on these students faces. We were unfortunately only able to stop at each University for like a week each, but it was so impactful, every single school said it was the most viewership they’ve each had for any exhibition in history. Watching these young kids have this moment, words cannot really describe it. Im seeing what it is doing, I am seeing the sparks going off in their minds. Bringing fine art to their doorstep, in terms of our accessibility that is the pinnacle of it. Every stop was so beautiful and impactful, we still have students follow up with us to this day 2 years later. Some of them were juniors back then and now graduated and on to their art careers, they will come to New York just to check in with us. Some crowning moments as well, you know just being able to have openings everyday and seeing people come all the way from 5th Ave. We will have Reps from Sothebys here in the same space as cats from Gates and Nostrand. Cause this is like the first time there comfortable walking into a gallery space. They do not feel as intimidating cause they know it is a safe space. To them, they might not know this art world, but they know me. Watching those nights unfold and seeing again someone from Tompkins or Marcy projects standing next to someone from Park Avenue and seeing them interact. Thats the beauty of what our space has created, thats what art does. Whether a piece is $500 or $50,000 we treat it the same. Some others may not but for us it is like no, it still has a story of its own, someone still created this piece with intention and care. So, we give every piece the same energy and we treat our audience the same, whether from Park Ave or Flushing Ave. No matter who you are you are going to get the same experience, you will come here and get that high quality experience no matter the background, demographic or whatever. Being able to see two separate walks of life come together in the same space shows us that were doing something right.

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Some crowning moments as well, you know just being able to have openings everyday and seeing people come all the way from 5th Ave. We will have Reps from Sothebys here in the same space as cats from Gates and Nostrand. Cause this is like the first time there comfortable walking into a gallery space. They do not feel as intimidating cause they know it is a safe space. To them, they might not know this art world, but they know me. Watching those nights unfold and seeing again someone from Tompkins or Marcy projects standing next to someone from Park Avenue and seeing them interact. Thats the beauty of what our space has created, thats what art does. Whether a piece is $500 or $50,000 we treat it the same. Some others may not but for us it is like no, it still has a story of its own, someone still created this piece with intention and care. So, we give every piece the same energy and we treat our audience the same, whether from Park Ave or Flushing Ave. No matter who you are you are going to get the same experience, you will come here and get that high quality experience no matter the background, demographic or whatever. Being able to see two separate walks of life come together in the same space shows us that were doing something right.

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Circling back to the Basquiat tour we did, you mentioned whats an unexpected reward and i think deep down you do not know anything until it is happening. Now we anticipated powerful things were going to happen with us getting these works in these spaces for college students to experience. But it surpassed our expectations in certain ways. I would say the most unexpected factor is just the fact we were able to get the works of the biggest American artist in history and giving so many people access to the works. You know for close to 200 years, the only place that has consistently created legacy and preserved Black art in America over that period has been Historically Black College and Universities. But the notion that Basquiat’s work was so mainstream and so expensive, because of that even these places did not have access to his work. Which the irony in that is crazy cause the biggest artist in American history is a black person and the cathedral of Black art do not have him in the narrative. It is like now when you talk about Woodruff and Catlett you talk about Howard University, and you talk about Clark Atlanta’s collection and the Hampton’s collection they can reference this and have it in dialogue. In fact, some schools even changed their curriculum around so that they were teaching about Basquiat leading up to the show. And then the end of term paper was them reviewing a work of Basquiat. Which they could not do before because there was no connectivity there. So that was very surprising. The other thing i would say is that we did not come from the art world, so not knowing all the politics and tropes of it all kind of bred this fearlessness in us. And we would just do the things we wanted to do. We still act like that even though we have been in it almost 16 years now. Now we know which rules we can break, and we know how to go about things in how we want our community to respond. Our success is in some ways their success, thats something i was not expecting getting into this field, we knew a handful of people in the arts prior to being gallerists ourselves, and we know a few more now because we have been professionals in this space.

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Were from the hood you know but one of my boys, i’ve known him all my life. We were at our earlier location on Bedford Ave, and it might have been like important show or something that we did. And we were in the backyard talking. He was like “Yo, I’m proud of you son” And it kinda caught me off guard but it was also like oh damn. For him to just not be familiar with that space they are not from that realm but for him to see what I am doing and tell me he is proud. Gave me that feeling of I am doing the right thing, it is those moments that really fuel us to keep going.

 

We do work with some established artists and artists that have acclaim around the world, but we purposely go after artists who are emerging and rising and at like the hardest part of their careers. We choose them on purpose, thats not by accident. Sometimes When you choose an uphill battle you know the motivation is the thing that keeps you pushing until you get to the top.