Image from Honey Space.

A new gallery opens in Chelsea unlike any other in the neighborhood. This gallery operates without staff; you walk into a windowless room that is left unoccupied while open (10-6 Tuesday to Saturday). Entering Honey Space feels like you are stepping into some early Christian tomb, a type of subterranean hide out. Presently, the entrance is tiled with Adam Stanforth’s works on panel, the inaugural artist. You have to stoop to get through the doorway; even in the middle of the day, the entrance to the dark, raw warehouse space can be threatening. Many people I saw walk in asked if it was a gallery at all; I happened upon it while walking down 11th street, entering without knowing what it was.

Photo by Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times.

How isolated the space feels from the rest of Chelsea reiterates just how far the gallery’s philosophy is from the norm. Honey Space intends to present site-specific work that takes into account its alternative operation. Due to the lack of staff, the viewer is entrusted to not damage the artwork or otherwise mistreat the space. This responsibility on the viewer is part of how Honey Space inverts the normal gallery structure. A gallery usually creates public space through presentation, and cordial service (especially if we are buying art). We the viewer walk around like ducks while everyone smiles at us – hopefully if they are nice enough, we might come back. In contrast to this, Honey Space hands the space over to us, to do with it what we will. We are left to interact with the art alone. The space functions without hierarchy, without separation; all are equitable and equally responsible for its event and its continuation. A challenge to everyone’s presumed idea of how a gallery, and a Chelsea gallery at that, needs to function.

Honey Space 148 11th Ave, between 22nd and 21st, New York, NY