‘Whatever Is Said Here, Stays Here’: New York Gallerist Courtney Willis Blair on Founding a Supper Club for Black Women in the Art World

It was around the time that
Courtney Willis Blair assumed her position as a director at Chelsea
gallery Mitchell-Innes & Nash that she was struck by the idea to
forge a network between women of color in the New York art
industry.

“I was beginning to see more and
more young, capable black women dealers and directors in
galleries,” Blair tells artnet News. So she decided to implement a
dinner club, unfettered by formality, structure, or theme, through
which black women in the local art world could “come together to
share space, stories, and eat.”

In December 2016, Blair extended
an invitation to eight women—including a few ladies whom she had
heard of, but hadn’t yet crossed paths with—for the first of a
now-quarterly series of dinner parties, which she would come to
call Entre Nous (French for “between us”). Entre Nous was
introduced with two conditions: “Whatever is said here, stays here”
and “this is not about competition or sizing one another up.”
Instead, Entre Nous was presented as a catalyst for
kinship.

The inaugural group congregated
at Miss Lily’s on Houston Street in Soho, where they savored
Jamaican food over hours of conversation. Nearly three years on,
Entre Nous has expanded into a collective of 14 curators,
entrepreneurs, and gallery directors—including Lévy Gorvy’s Alexis
Johnson, Gagosian director Ashley Stewart, and Kyla McMillan from
Gavin Brown’s enterprise—who have since formed lasting
relationships with one another.

“I think what’s made Entre Nous
so successful is the fact that there’s never been a mission or an
agenda,” Blair says. “You can get what you want to get out of it,
whether it’s a professional relationship, mentorship, or simply
friendship. One of the members [wound up] hiring another member at
her gallery. A few members went on a personal trip to Berlin
together. One woman exceeded her sales target because of a deal
that she made within the group.”

Blair is adept at bringing
impactful ventures to fruition. She joined the team at
Mitchell-Innes & Nash some three-and-a-half years ago with a
background in art history and journalism, which she calls upon to
help realize a program of compelling exhibitions. “I want to tell
stories,” she says, “and working with artists is the way [I] do
it.” 

On September 12, Mitchell-Innes
& Nash unveiled “Embodiment,” a new group exhibition of work by mixed
media painter Tschabalala Self, intervention artist Pope.L, and
painters Cheyenne Julien and Jonathan Lyndon Chase. An
investigation into the unbounded potential of corporeal
representation, “Embodiment” explores these four talents’ approaches to
portraying the human form.

“’Embodiment’ came together about a year ago, when I started
thinking about the exaggerated body [in relation to] architecture
and familiar public spaces in urban neighborhoods, like the bodega,
for example, or the stoop,” Blair explains. “I’ve always been
really interested in the expression of figuration, and I love
language, having worked with it [as a writer].”

While Pope.L illustrates various
colored bodies through cryptic texts, like “GREEN PEOPLE ARE THE SKY ABOVE THE CITY”
and “BLUE PEOPLE ARE AN UNDERWATER
AIRPORT,”
Julien interrogates her own
personal narrative to yield a sequence of exquisite self-portraits
situated in domestic scenes. “[Julien] grew up in the Bronx, and
she’s done a lot of research into local housing and urban
planning—how certain highways split neighborhoods, and what effect
that has,” Blair explains. “But then she turns it on its head and
paints intimate spaces that are built with this in
mind.” 

Self, a young artist who’s
catapulted into the public eye and garnered considerable attention
for her sumptuous portraits of composite black bodies made from
paint and bits of fabric, creates her subjects to embody maximum
space on the canvas through sweeping gestures, while Chase, whose
figures shop for shoes and watches, assesses how bodies interact
with and subsequently power the consumerist arena. 

“The show has a conceptual
weight,” Blair says, “but aesthetically, it’s just really elegant.”
“Embodiment”
will remain on view through October
26.

Following “Embodiment” is a solo show of textile paintings by the Nova
Scotian artist Brent Wadden, whose oeuvre fuses the traditional
craft of weaving with timeless abstract motifs. Waden’s
show will open on
November 1 and run through December 21, 2019. 

Indeed, Blair has a busy season
ahead of her. In reference
to her vision for the future of Entre Nous, she is careful to note
that “the women who [participate] are not the only black women who
work at galleries in New York or otherwise,” though the initiative
is admittedly presently intimate in scale to honor busy schedules
and fundamental logistics. 

“I would love to see Entre Nous
chapters all over the world one day,” Blair muses. “I mean, why
not? For now, though, it’s less about structure or mission and more
like, ‘Hey, we’re here. Let’s know each other.’”

The post ‘Whatever Is Said Here, Stays Here’: New York
Gallerist Courtney Willis Blair on Founding a Supper Club for Black
Women in the Art World appeared first on artnet
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