OK Harris Gallery

The OK Harris Gallery was an art gallery located at 383 West Broadway in SoHo, New York City. The gallery closed in 2014.[1] Founded by longtime art dealer Ivan Karp after leaving the Leo Castelli gallery in 1969 where he had worked as gallery co-director for nearly 10 years. Karp opened his own gallery called the OK Harris Gallery in SoHo (which at the time was one of the first galleries in the newest gallery district in New York City).

Previously located at 465 West Broadway, in the early 1970s it hosted exhibits by emerging artists as well as well known veteran artists.

History

Ivan C. Karp was co-director of Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959 to 1969, during which time he was involved in launching the careers of pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann and John Chamberlain. In 1969 he broke away and founded OK Harris in the SoHo district of Manhattan. As the first gallery on West Broadway OK Harris led the way in the area's development as a center of fine arts.

In addition to being at the forefront of the Photorealism movement in 1969, OK Harris was among the first galleries to exhibit the work of Duane Hanson, Deborah Butterfield, Manny Farber, Richard Pettibone, Robert Cottingham, Robert Bechtle, Marilyn Levine, Nancy Rubins, Malcolm Morley, Luis Jiminez, Jake Berthot, Jack Goldstein, Porfirio DiDonna, Al Souza and Arman.

Exhibits

OK Harris exhibited contemporary art and photography, and on occasion mounted shows of antiques and collectibles. In its capacious facility, it was able to mount 5 one-person shows simultaneously and has seven such exhibitions in the course of a year. The gallery maintained a complete photographic archive on its exhibitions from the time of its inception, freely available to students and scholars for research.

The gallery attempted to show the most significant artwork of our time without prejudice as to the style or materials employed, the sole criteria are innovation of concept and maturity of technique.

During the early 1970s it hosted exhibits by Alan Vega, some of which were advertised as "Punk Music" [2] predating the later Punk rock by some years.

References

  1. ↑ "Official site". OK Harris Works of Art. Retrieved 29 March 2015. The gallery was established in October 1969 and operated through June 2014
  2. ↑ Miller, Marc H. (April 20, 2009). "Punk Art Catalogue - Section IV Suicide, Bad Boys, Tattoos". 1978 Punk Art Exhibit. 98Bowery.com. Retrieved 2010-03-10.

External links

Coordinates: 40°43′25.71″N 74°0′8.56″W / 40.7238083°N 74.0023778°W / 40.7238083; -74.0023778

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