Photos/Lauren Silberman.
Shop Talk
Down Ea§t
in Chelsea
N ancy M argolis G allery
523 W est 25th Street
N ew Y ork, N Y 10001
(212)242-3013
N ancy M argolis © doesn’t re-
member a tim e w hen art didn’t
play a significant role in her
life. H er parents, both from
Eastern Europe, instilled in her
a love o f art, music and literature
at a very young age. A n enlight-
ening trip to Europe when she
w as 19 years old reinforced this
passion. “ It opened my eyes
to another culture, its marvels,
its history and its art. I have
never lost my attraction to the
w orld abroad and the arts,”
she says. “ It was a world I w ant-
ed and sought.” M argolis has
continued this journey o f dis-
cover}? ever since, w hether it be
as a student, teacher, ceramist
or gallery owner. It is through
these experiences that M argolis
has discovered w hy change
isn’t just good—it’s necessary.
W h en did you first becom e
involved w ith ceram ics?
I went to Bates College in
©
M aine, and that particular
school didn’t have much o f
an art program so I majored in
literature. I began taking clay
courses from the w ife o f one o f
my professors, Fay Friedman,
and really enjoyed it, but after
I graduated, I had my kids and
didn’t do anything else for a
while. A fter my youngest was
born, I looked into doing some-
thing more formal. There
w asn’t anything going on in
Lew iston, M aine, where I was
living, but the U niversity o f
N ew Hampshire, which was an
hour and 45 minutes away, had
developed quite a clay program
and I was given permission to
be a special student.
O ne thing led to another
and I becam e more involved.
For a num ber o f years I w ould
go to craft fairs and sell m y
w ork. T h en I realized that
I spent all m y tim e either w ork-
ing in m y studio or at home
w ith my kids. I never left my
house! I w en t to see the presi-
dent o f Bates, w here the art
departm ent w as just beginning
to develop, and said I w as
interested in teaching. I taught
there for 10 years and really
loved it.
W h a t prom pted your decision
to open a gallery?
T h e truth is I alw ays wanted
to. W e lived about an hour and
a h a lf aw ay from O gunquit,
M aine, w here an artist colony
had developed. W e used to
summer there and I knew that
it w as a good place to have a
seasonal gallery. I found a great
space and started selling my
w ork. I realized the space was
too big for just my w ork so
I started carryin g other crafts.
T h is w as during the late 70s
w hen the craft m ovem ent w as
really burgeoning.
I eventually decided I want-
ed a year-round gallery, so
my husband and I bought a fire-
house from the city o f Auburn,
w here w e now lived. It was
built in 1889 and it was an in-
credible building. I had an archi-
tect redesign the interior.
There w as a restaurant on tw o
floors that took up one w hole
side, three stores on one floor
and another three on the second,
where I had my gallery. U n-
fortunately, Auburn is an indus-
trial city and it didn’t have
much o f a middle class or upper
middle class. It was a risky en-
deavor and financially it didn’t
pan out. I really loved that
building because I’d developed
it. I put my heart and soul in it.
I believed I could never do that
again, but I recovered and found
a place in Portland—the best
place to have a gallery. D uring
that time I still had the summer
gallery, but after a w hile it
became very difficult to run and
I closed it.
W h a t made you decide to tran-
sition from Portland to N ew
Y o rk C ity ?
Even before I started the gal-
lery in O gunquit I had dreamed
o f ow ning one in N ew York.
I really w anted to show more
m useum -type w ork. I kn ew
I couldn’t do it successfully
w here I w as. In the early 90s
I started to reach the point
w here I had to m ove on and
do som ething else. I had an
apartm ent in a brow nstone in
Chelsea and it wasn’t a big risk,
since I w as paying the rent
anyway. I decided to test out
w hether or not I could really do
som ething in N ew York C ity.
So you w ere p retty far ahead
o f the gam e w hen you moved
to C helsea.
Yes. Chelsea hadn’t started yet
and it felt very lonely. M y third
year there it began to develop,
but I felt that I had to be in a
place that w as more visible and
I decided to go down to S0H0.
T h e action truly was there at
that moment. In 2003 m y lease
was up and I decided to return
to C helsea, w hich by that time
was the place to be. It’s inter-
esting that it happened that
w ay, but it w as okay. I ended
up in a good spot and maybe
I w ouldn’t have i f I’d stayed in
Chelsea from the outset.
Y ou’ve begun show ing paint-
ings and w orks on paper. H ow
did that com e about?
O ne o f the things that’s hap-
pened since I ’ve been here
is that the ceram ics m ovem ent
has changed. T h ere aren’t the
collectors that there used to be
buying ceram ics. T h ere isn’t
the cre ativity that used to go
on. I ’ve alw ays been interested
in painting and tw o-dim en-
sional w ork. I’m not giving
up on ceram ics, but I ’m tryin g
to go in a slightly different
direction. I still think there are
some ve ry excitin g ceram ists,
such as K im Sim onsson and
E va H ild, w ho created
Loop390
©. A t one tim e this typ e o f
artist w ould have had to show
in a craft gallery, but now
painting galleries are show ing
ceram ic artists. T here aren’t
the barriers there used to be.
It’s a different world—a more
open w orld. A n d that’s a good
thing.— s .s .
Gim m e M ore!
nancymargolisgallery.com
feb/niaro9 american craft oic
