{"id":10546,"date":"2016-09-14T14:05:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T14:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=10546"},"modified":"2016-09-14T14:05:21","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T14:05:21","slug":"simon-abrahms-bringing-a-glass-gallery-to-the-lower-east-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/simon-abrahms-bringing-a-glass-gallery-to-the-lower-east-side\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Abrahms: Bringing A Glass Gallery To The Lower East Side"},"content":{"rendered":"
Historically, glass hasn’t gotten its due as a medium of fine art. Simon Abrahms is on the path to change that. We first met Simon in Miami during Basel when his delicate\u00a0glass pieces\u00a0caught our eye. His booth was filled with stunning works from famed glassblowing scientist Kiva Ford and other talented glass artists like Chris Ahalt and Micah Evans. Simon started representing glass artists in 2010 and now will open his first brick-and-mortar space, Chesterfield Gallery<\/a>, on the Lower East Side. We caught up with Abrahms to discuss his plans for his new space and what we can expect from his first show.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Art Zealous: What was your first job?<\/strong><\/p>\n Simon Abrahms:<\/strong> When I was seventeen, I had a job working for my friend\u2019s dad in a warehouse for a company that distributed most of what somebody would need for a construction site. Nuts, bolts, screws, fasteners, power tools, things like that. It wasn\u2019t exactly a great creative outlet, but it was an important lesson in what working for someone else is like and certainly helped solidify my feelings about wanting to work for myself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n AZ:How did Chesterfield Gallery come to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n SA:<\/strong> Here\u2019s the short version: In 2009 I decided to learn how to blow glass, so I reached out to a local artist in Connecticut whose work I\u2019d admired and collected on a small scale for a few years. He was kind enough to agree to teach me, and I quickly realized that there was an entire community of artists who didn\u2019t have proper representation. At first, I had to buy work and then resell it, so it was difficult to expand at a rapid rate, but if you\u2019re buying good work at a fair price, you can start to gain some momentum. In 2011, I saw that if I didn\u2019t pursue it as a full-time career immediately, I would miss the opportunity as more people became interested in glass, so I decided to leave the University of Connecticut School of Business to start the business officially, and our first location was at my home on Chesterfield Lane, hence the name.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since then, I\u2019ve expanded to representing work from many of the world\u2019s best artists working in the medium of glass from the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Italy and I’m\u00a0in the process of organizing some incredibly exciting interdisciplinary projects with painters, photographers, graphic artists, and others, to expand what can be done in glass.<\/span><\/p>\n