LOWER EAST SIDE — The Dorian Grey Gallery will bid farewell to its Ninth Street storefront of six years with a send-off party on Wednesday.
The gallery at 437 E. Ninth St. will celebrate its short time in the neighborhood with a reception at the space from 6 to 9 p.m., as first reported by EV Grieve.
Longtime local art dealers Christopher Pusey and Luis Accorsi opened the space in 2010, paying tribute to the neighborhood’s past as a graffiti epicenter and providing a space for lesser-known street artists to display their work.
"We have championed many artists that are maybe not necessarily at the pinnacle of their careers but are connected and relevant to the history of the East Village," said Pusey. "That's been our overall mandate — that in some way, shape or form the artists we have shown are connected to this historically rich part of New York City."
The space first premiered with a 30-year graffiti retrospective that included a free-for-all tag session.
The gallery has continued to prove a haven for local street art, touting works from such artists as Jeff Henriquez and STIK, whose work has also been featured in a large-scale format in the East Village.
Now, as Pusey prepares to leave the space, the void he fears his gallery is leaving for lesser-known artists in need of a step up is the only thing that "sits unresolved.
"We were about trying to give artists in the East Village another nudge that were maybe a little bit off the radar," he said.
The gallery has been forced to clear out after Benchmark Real Estate Group took over the building and doubled the space's rent, said Pusey — though the new landlord tried to work out a deal with the gallery, Pusey and Accorsi were ultimately unable to afford an increase, he said.
The gallerists will hand over the keys to the space sometime next week, said Pusey.
