Updated: Karma is now open. Here's info (link) on their debut exhibit. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Renovations continue at the Ideal Glass building at 20-22 E. Second St. between Second Avenue and the Bowery... where, as we reported
here and
here, Karma Gallery is opening a new space.
Unfortunately, as multiple readers pointed out in recent days, the familiar Ideal Glass signage apparently isn't going to be part of the new exterior.
Through the years, artists creating murals on the storefront worked around the Ideal Glass signage ...
The Ideal Glass building
dates to the 1950s, when used as a glazier's workshop... and the remaining sign was from that era...
Willard Morgan started the
Ideal Glass Studios, an artist-run film & TV production studio, in 2004 ... and the Second Street building was in use as a gallery and art collective.
Morgan, who still owns the building, runs Ideal Glass Studios from space on West Eighth Street. (We reached out to Morgan to see if, perhaps, the sign had been preserved.)
As for the new tenant, this is the latest EV expansion for art dealer and publisher Brendan Dugan, who debuted Karma on Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B
in November 2016. (
Karma Books opened in April 2018 at 136 E. Third St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.)
According to
artnet News, who first reported on this deal, this "latest venue is set to be the crown jewel" for Karma. Why? "The ceiling height alone is enough to make a dealer salivate, and there will no doubt be a number of artists maneuvering for spots on the programming schedule."