Widewalls & Onyedika Chuke
Widewalls
December 11, 2023
Sprouting in the artist's refurbished studio, an underground basement, on the Bowery, Storage emerged during the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown and Black Lives Matter protests as an act to reclaim, or rather, take control over the narrative guided by the strong hand of the art market. Fusing Chuke's previous educational, commercial, and activist experiences, Storage presents a unique model of artists' self-organization that does not operate from an oppositional perspective but instead takes an alternative position to a market-driven one. Relocated to the historic 52 Walker Street Building in Tribeca, Storage focuses on the notion of revival, spotlighting the work of emerging, mid-career, and established artists. Titled Press Release, their exhibition model featured several group or solo shows, or Cycles, in 2023, and the year concludes with Cosmic Encounters, Michiko Itatani's first solo presentation in New York City. We had a conversation with Onyedika Chuke to learn more about this groundbreaking gallery. In an exclusive Widewalls interview, the artist reflected on the motivations behind the idea, discussed the program’s intentions, his artistic practice, curatorial approach, and much more.
Widewalls: As an artist-run space, Storage converges upon the notion of self-organization, implying a counter-institutional position or one that is situated beyond its framework. How would you describe the role of Storage within the broader art system?
OC: The role of Storage is to read between the lines, to think before the making of the object, and to identify what is being missed as we consider objects as products. The audience has seen a vast variety of work through our ongoing rotating exhibition model called Press Release (2022-present), an international survey exhibition of overlooked artists. We're often asked, "What is your taste in art?" and our reply to inquirers is that we are interested in studio objects as opposed to market objects.
Our interest is to excite other artists and not the market. That very concept is born in the shared studios that I have been a part of over the course of twenty years of art making. As we consider artists for our exhibitions, I’ve never once sent the work to a collector to ask their opinion of the work before the exhibition. Our goal is solely to recalibrate the predominant New York historical framework.