Gotham Magazine
Fort Gansevoort Is An Art Gallery, Retail Center & Takeout Spot All In One Space
Leave it to a seasoned art advisor and a fashion industry vet to combine an art gallery, a takeout spot, and oodles of retail into one buzzed-about space. The reaction to Fort Gansevoort. the brainchild of husband-and-wife duo Adam Shopkorn and Carolyn Tate Angel, has been a mix of rave reviews and furrowed eyebrows. Where else in New York, or in a city for that matter, can you view exclusive art collections and then enjoy a down-home-style pulled pork sandwich in an outdoor courtyard?
"We like combining high and low culture," says Angel who spent more than ten years as a fashion editor at W Magazine. "Adam always said the last thing New York City needs is another gallery. WE are the antithesis of a white box gallery space."
The cultural hub, housed inside a stunning Greek Revival structure in the Meatpacking District, includes Fort Gansevoort Gallery BBQ, and S,M,L. A boutique concept created with a stylist Kat Typaldos S,M,L reimagines the building's small, medium, and large bars (vestiges of its former life as the restaurant 5 Ninth) as retail spaces for a curated group of vendors. Coming soon is the New York of Follain, a clean beauty store that already has locations in Boston and DC. "Adam and I want to work with artists and makers who are on the brink of big things," explains Angel. But it's clear this coupls is onto something pretty "big" themselves.