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Believing In Tomorrow @ NoName Gallery

Writer's picture: NoName GalleryNoName Gallery

By Alicia Puig




How did you first learn of NoName Gallery? 


I’m pretty sure I first heard of the gallery because I know Kim Pepper of Avec Art Consulting. I saw that she was guest-curating a show in the spring with a few artists, including one I’m a big fan of and had interviewed in the past for Create! Magazine. While I unfortunately wasn’t able to see that show in person, this collaboration sparked my interest to look into NoName a bit more. I read about the gallery’s mission and a bit of Jonene’s background and we eventually connected to do an IG live together about what it’s like to run a gallery. 



How did the idea of the show come about?


After our live interview, we continued chatting and Jonene mentioned the idea of having me guest-curate a show at some point. I thought she meant sometime in 2025, but then she said that July and August of this year were available so I thought about it and just decided to jump on the chance! 


Once the dates were set, I started inviting the artists I wanted to include in the show, including a mix of local and regional artists as well as one from Canada. Since this year has been a challenging time for many, I wanted the focus to be colorful, fun, expressive works that would feel right at home in NoName’s space. I decided to call the show “Believing In Tomorrow” to both underscore the positive intention behind the curation and to align with the gallery’s mission of creating a welcoming environment for people to enjoy contemporary art. 






What was it about NoName that made you think it was a good match for a collaboration? 


A number of things stood out. First, I love that it’s not a ‘traditional’ looking space. We did a virtual walkthrough that helped me get a feel for it - and also made me realize I would need WAY more art! There are a lot of rooms to work with and many small walls to play around with when it comes to curating. It looked like a challenge (and it was), but it was a fun one. In addition, instead of one or two large ‘white cube’ rooms, the rooms make a loop around the gallery. As such, I ended up using that structure to build a narrative within the exhibition. The artists in each room were paired or grouped intentionally and then each room flowed into the next based on color, style or subject matter. But most importantly, I had a good feeling about working with Jonene. We finally had the chance to have longer discussions on the two install days but even before then, we aligned on a lot of our beliefs and, honestly, sometimes it’s just so nice to commiserate gallerist to gallerist because there are some experiences that only we understand. Finally, I was excited about the location. It tapped into the local community we have in the greater Philadelphia area, but was new and very different from shows I’ve done previously in Old City. 




What was each gallery responsible for in regards to organizing the exhibition? 




It was such a pleasure to work together on this exhibition because it doesn’t always happen that the workload is divided fairly! A huge thanks to Jonene for taking care of a lot of the local marketing, drumming up excitement and foot traffic on opening night, designing the exhibition poster, printing the wall labels, and doing the finishing touches on the walls after install. She also helped oversee deinstall and shipment of artwork post show. PxP was in charge of inviting artists and curating the space, liaising between the artists to drop off/pick up work, hanging the show, and coordinating the deinstall. We shared duties when it came to creating social media content - it’s always great to have that task be a team effort! 




Takeaways from the show? 


I received a ton of positive feedback overall. People loved our selection of artists and artwork, and the artists expressed gratitude for being included in the show. I’m very pleased that the work resonated with NoName’s audience and that we were able to also find homes for many artworks. I’d absolutely call it a success.

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