2020 has proven to be an immensely challenging year for galleries and the art world as a whole, but for its 15th anniversary, Thinkspace powered through the chaos to have one of our most successful years to date. When galleries and museums began closing their doors due to COVID-19, we immediately pivoted to virtual programming, hosting opening nights on IG Live along with virtual Google Street View-style gallery tours on our website for each show.
Thankfully we found ourselves at a unique advantage in digital programming, since for years we have already been sharing studio visits along with video walkthrough tours and opening night recap videos for all our exhibitions, helping to provide unparalleled insight into the work on our walls and our artist’s creative processes. This positioning and preparation provided a platform that allowed a number of our shows to sell out in spite of lockdown and helped to grow our international reach in a major way.
In addition to our exhibition program this past year, we also maintained a robust publishing arm that issued numerous sold-out editions, helping to raise over $100,000 for local COVID relief and Black Lives Matter charities in the process, not to mention the Australian wild fires that now seem like a decade ago. It’s been a long and wild year, but we’re not finished yet…
As the holidays approach, we prepare to kick off the next decade and our 16th year in business with a move to a new location, opening our doors December 12 in the new arts district emerging along Jefferson Blvd., between La Brea and Crenshaw, at 4217 W. Jefferson Blvd. in Los Angeles, California.
Our new gallery is housed in a massive 4,500 square foot warehouse built-in 1955. We’ve spent the last five months making it all our own with a complete overhaul from top to bottom. The expansive space has been outfitted with plywood backed 12-foot walls throughout with 20-foot arched warehouse ceilings and two large skylights in the main gallery space. Freshly polished concrete floors throughout with state of the art A/C and LED lighting. Warehouse/art storage galore in the back, along with a large outside patio area complete with a mural of our crew painted by The Perez Bros, all nestled nicely behind a custom sliding steel fire door crafted in Utah that separates Gallery I and II from our backend operations.
We’re thrilled to be working with our new neighbors Party Beer Co. on our opening events and are excited to be part of a burgeoning new neighborhood ripe with possibilities and the promise of several new galleries and creative agencies moving over in the year ahead.
We can not wait to welcome you to our new space in the year ahead! We could not have gotten here without your support. Thank you again for all the years of love, it has been an honor to share our journey with you all.
