(L-R) Ruby Zarsky, Kim Dingle, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Michele Juliano-Villani (that would be Jamian’s mom).
Unique performance art experience with
an Irish pub theme opens in East Village
BY BOB KRASNER
“I’m not a gallerist,” insists the
O’Flaherty’s gallery director,
Jamian Juliano-Villani. “We’re
just running an art space.” Granted, it’s
not your run of the mill art space.
Located far from any art hub at 55
Avenue C, named in homage to Irish pubs
and helmed by Juliano-Villani with artist
Billy Grant and musician Ruby Zarsky,
it’s viewed by the trio as more of an art
project/performance piece with a limited
shelf life. They’ve got a one-year lease,
with no plans for renewing.
Juliano-Villani, a painter of renown
herself, knows enough about the gallery
scene that she doesn’t want to duplicate
anyone else’s blueprint. “I want to do it
differently,” she explains. “This whole
thing is a surprise. It’s idea-based, it’s a
collaboration with artists more than it’s
a gallery.”
“Everyone is sick of being stagnant,”
she continues. “I want to see what we
can get away with.” Most of the year is
booked, but they’ve got two spots open,
with the hopes of fi nding “the next Richard
Prince.” If that’s you, she’s inviting
you to send an email to complaints @
ofl ahertysnyc.com.
Grant, who worked as Juliano-Villani’s
assistant for 8 years, has no experience
working in a gallery and notes some
major differences in this career.
“You have to think more in advance,”
he admits. “Last minute processes just
don’t work. It’s different than I thought
it would be, but I’m happy with how it
turned out. I’m hoping that by the next
show I’ll know how I feel about this one.”
This one, the debut show at the
gallery, is “Kim Dingle: Dingle Does
O’Flaherty’s.” Described in the press
release as a “70-year-old freak,” Dingle
comes off as anything but at her opening
on Sept. 8, but they may know her better
than we do.
At any rate, the show is a combo of
photos and sculpture that the artist
brought with her from Los Angeles,
where she is constantly working.
PHOTOS BY BOB KRASNER
“As an artist, it’s just what you do,”
she muses. “I’m making art all the time.
It’s your life. There’s no downtime for
an artist.” Dingle is hesitant to say what
she wants viewers to take away from her
work, but she defi nitely doesn’t “want
them to think too much. If anything is
funny, I hope they will laugh out loud.”
Juliano-Villani contacted Dingle to do
the fi rst show and they “connected with
humor ” and the fact that they both have
a habit of watching unsolved mystery
shows before they go to sleep, according
to Dingle. She refers to the not-gallerist
as a “crazy genius.”
Strong personalities can sometimes
clash, though, as Zarsky found out in
the days preceding the opening. Although
Juliano-Villani sees the space as collaborative,
she may have overstepped a bit.
“Kim had installed part of the show,”
Zarsky explained, “and Jamian spent
one night re-arranging things. Kim came
in the next day and, well, she was not
happy.”
In order to restore balance and trust,
Dingle had a security camera installed
to make sure that Jamian was behaving
when she wasn’t around.
Other than that, Zarsky has found the
experience an “intense but interesting
situation. It’s kind of crazy but I love it.”
Zarsky comes from a creative background
that is pretty far from the art
world, but her people skills have come
in handy. She is half of the musical duo
Sateen, whose classic pop-disco sound
makes you wish that Larry Levan was
still around to remix them.
“We had a European tour planned, ”
she says, “but we had to cancel and take a
step back. I think it’s healthy to get away
from what you do sometimes and get
inspired again.”
Her experience in the music business
meant that she “always dealt with a ton
of people on a professional level and I
like it.”
If the opening crowd was any indication,
she’ll be dealing with plenty of
people. Luckily, she enjoys working with
Billy and Jamian, although Juliano-Villani
describes them as ” three cooks who all
like different spices” and takes the occasional
arguments as a sign that they are
doing things right.
When asked about the philosophy of
the project, Jamian lays it out: “We don’t
make promises. We’re bored. We like it
messy.”
“We want to have fun with it. And we
want to make money,” adds Zarsky.
And, Juliano-Villani adds, “we want to
be perceived as being very hot.”
KIM DINGLE: Dingle Does
O’Flaherty’s runs through October 8.
More info at ofl ahertysnyc.com.
Gallery director Jamian Juliano-
Villani with her dad, Robbi Juliano-
Villan.
10 SSeepptteemmbbeerr 3300,, 22002211 SScchhnneeppss Meeddiiaa
/ahertysnyc.com
/ahertysnyc.com
