Rendering courtesy of studioMDA.
Design on West 24th Street by studioMDA Doubles Current Exhibition Space for Increased Accessibility and Expanded Programming
International Print Center New York is establishing a new, ground floor space at 535 West 24th Street that will house IPCNY’s exhibition galleries and offices, significantly expanding public access and programming capacity. Opening fall 2022, IPCNY will inaugurate the new space with Visual Record: The Materiality of Sound in Print, an exhibition exploring how artists since the 1970s have employed print-based processes to examine the relationship between sound and its visual representation. The current IPCNY location on the fifth floor of 508 West 26th Street will close to the public on Saturday, March 26, the final day of unfinished: New Prints 2022/Winter, an open call exhibition juried by Queer.Archive.Work (QAW).
New York’s flagship non-profit arts institution dedicated to elevating and broadening access to the field of prints, International Print Center New York celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021 with a strategy and vision. Along with the new space, IPCNY plans to add staff, deepen support for artists by offering new professional development opportunities, expand the exhibition calendar to incorporate monographic shows, and explore the role of prints within a broader and more diverse artistic and cultural framework, including increased engagement with new voices.
“IPCNY has endeavored to define print in a wide and interdisciplinary context—not as an isolated art practice but one connected across mediums, and as a tool that can address and transmit the pressing issues, ideas, and conversations of our time. With this transition and new chapter, we gain a larger space, but also a greater opportunity to advance print as a primary artistic, cultural, and social medium that is rooted in creativity, access, and communication,” states IPCNY Director Judy Hecker.
The new location will more than double the scale of IPCNY’s current space to a total of 4,100 square feet, providing nearly three times as much wall space for the installation of artworks. Designed by architect Markus Dochantschi of studioMDA, the space will be ADA accessible and can accommodate up to 137 guests. Expansive windows will welcome visitors from a well-traveled street in the heart of New York’s Chelsea art district into an entrance with seating, video, and publications for browsing. The entrance area features an interior door and glass wall that serves as a vestibule, providing climate control and offering visitors and passersby a visual connection to the exhibitions. The interior includes some movable walls to allow for variable uses of the space, including exhibitions, artist programs, performances, and receptions. The space also features art storage, a conference room, and an open office with a skylight, bringing natural light into the back areas of the gallery. “We configured the space to give IPCNY maximum flexibility to facilitate an expanded range of programming around exhibitions, education, and gatherings,” explains Dochantschi.
Maud Welles, Chair, Board of Trustees, adds, “IPCNY has marked many milestones in our current location, but it has long been a dream to further expand. The Board is committed to a plan for growth that focuses on broadening our audience and program as well as moving to our wonderful new home on 24th Street. It is an exciting time for IPCNY and we hope our new space will be a popular Chelsea destination.”
The first exhibition at the new IPCNY, Visual Record: The Materiality of Sound in Print, will focus on artists who investigate sound’s materiality in the physicality of the graphic trace inherent to print-based media. Organized by guest curator Elleree Erdos, who has since been appointed Director, Prints and Multiples at David Zwirner Gallery, the presentation will include works by Bethany Collins, Christian Marclay, and Jason Moran, among others. Further information, as well as details on accompanying publication, public programs, and future exhibitions, will be announced in the coming months.
The current exhibition unfinished: New Prints 2022/Winter, juried by Queer.Archive.Work (QAW), is on view through Saturday, March 26. This presentation of IPCNY’s open call exhibition program includes 49 works by 36 artists from the US and abroad, featuring works that step away from traditions of polish and perfection and instead express incompleteness, illegibility, risk, and queerness, among other themes. A closing reception will be held on Thursday, March 24 from 5–8 pm and is open to the public. For more information on the exhibition and QAW, visit ipcny.org/unfinished.
ABOUT IPCNY
International Print Center New York is the leading non-profit exhibition space in New York dedicated to exploring the dynamic and accessible medium of print within broader artistic and cultural discourses. IPCNY engages audiences in a welcoming environment, both onsite and online, through interdisciplinary exhibitions, innovative scholarship, educational programming, and digital resources. Chartered in 1995 by its Founder and first Director Anne Coffin, IPCNY launched its first exhibition space in Chelsea in 2000. A 501(c)(3) institution, IPCNY depends on foundation, government, individual support, and members’ contributions to fund its programs.
ABOUT studioMDA
studioMDA is a multidisciplinary design firm based in New York and founded in 2002 by Markus Dochantschi, with the mission of challenging the boundaries of design. studioMDA has worked extensively across the United States and internationally with a wide range of typologies, including both high-end and affordable residential, cultural, commercial, institutional, mixed-use, and architectural design competitions. studioMDA designed the new Phillips auction house New York headquarters, the Faurschou Foundation in Brooklyn, and the Center for Advanced Mobility in Aachen, Germany, as well as New York art galleries including Anton Kern Gallery, Bortolami Gallery, Kasmin Gallery, Lisson Gallery, Luhring Augustine Gallery, and PPOW Gallery. The office is also working on Harper’s Gallery, set to open in 2022, as well as Galerie Templon’s first New York location and a private museum in Thailand, both of which are slated to start construction this year.
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