Group Exhibition: Press Release (Cycle XII), Storage Gallery /  by Jeffrey Way

November 9th - January 2025

Storage
52 Walker Street
4th Floor
Tribeca, New York 10013

Checklist

Press Release

Storage is pleased to present Press Release (Cycle XIII), a group exhibition featuring the works of Rick Lowe (b. 1961), Leasho Johnson (b. 1984), Jeff Way (b. 1942), Hugo McCloud (b. 1980), Michael Igwe (b. 1994), and Carolyn Oberst (b. 1946). Blending abstraction and figuration, this exhibition brings together a diverse assemblage of voices that collectively explore the multifaceted nature of identity, culture, and social observation. Press Release (Cycle XIII) will be on view from November 9th, 2024 through January 2025 at Storage.

The works in Press Release (Cycle XIII) engage with personal and shared experiences, offering a rich tapestry of perspectives that reflect the complexities of contemporary identity. Each artist employs a unique take on narrative, social critique, and material exploration. 

Rick Lowe’s interdisciplinary practice maps the connections between culture and community, revealing how these elements influence and inform one another. In tandem, Hugo McCloud’s focus on materiality challenges viewers to consider the intersections of class, race, and identity through the lens of the environment and economy, emphasizing how our surroundings shape our experiences.

Michael Igwe’s storytelling, deeply rooted in folklore, offers a framework through which to explore personal and communal identities. In contrast, Leasho Johnson’s sharp commentary on post-colonial culture prompts critical reflections on the visible and invisible aspects of identity formation.

Carolyn Oberst balances lived experiences with imagined worlds, encouraging reflection on the boundaries between reality and perception. Meanwhile, Jeff Way’s exploration of shamanism and meditation introduces a spiritual perspective, inviting contemplation on the relationship between the personal and the collective.

Together the artists of Press Release (Cycle XIII) create a rich conversation that not only underscores the diversity of contemporary identity but also invites viewers to engage with the inevitable questions arising from their interconnected narratives. The shared contexts of these varied backgrounds reveal universal themes that transcend geographical boundaries, emphasizing the mutual human experiences that connect us all.

Solo Exhibition- Then & Now: 1970 - 2024, Storage Gallery /  by Jeffrey Way

Then & Now: 1970–2024

September 6th - Extended through November 2nd, 2024

Storage
52 Walker Street
4th Floor
Tribeca, New York 10013

Checklist

Press Release

Storage is pleased to present Then & Now: 1970–2024, a solo exhibition by Jeff Way (b. 1942). Then & Now: 1970–2024 traces the evolution of Jeff Way’s abstract work from the past to the present. Deeply focused on engagement with grid abstraction and spiritualism, Way distills qualities from West Coast and East Coast abstractionists alike. His work occupies a unique position alongside Agnes Martin, Mark Rothko, McArthur Binion, and Jack Whitten, who similarly share a profound connection to the exploration of geometric forms, grids, and their metaphysical implications.

Jeff Way has lived and worked in Tribeca, New York City, for over fifty years. He gained significant recognition in 1973 when Marcia Tucker selected his work for the Whitney Museum’s first official Biennial, which was followed by his solo exhibition at the museum in 1974. Way’s work Ivy’s Gas, gifted by Larry Aldrich, remains part of their permanent collection.

Now, Storage is pleased to feature Way’s new and historical works that illuminate duality and abstraction of the grid. The exhibition displays a striking contrast between flatness and depth in Way’s paintings and the processes he uses to achieve them. Way's abstract practice is deeply rooted in the grid, a motif he explored in the late 1960s, beginning with his Chalk Line Painting series. These early works are constructed using raw pigment snapped onto the canvas in single lines, layering to form dimensional shapes. This series reflects techniques he has honed, reducing painting to its most elemental form.

In his most recent series, Eccentric Squares, Way returns to his exploration of the grid but introduces newer elements that highlight a dynamic and unconventional approach. These paintings, composed again with his distinctive lines, use intersecting colors to create bold, de-centered squares. The result is an immediate dichotomy between the flatness of the surface and the depth of colors and forms within the constructed grid. Way likens his colored lines to musical notes—a fundamental unit of sensory communication—through which he creates harmony, dissonance, and rhythm.

Unlike the rigid, centered grids of his predecessors, Way’s grids are eccentric and fluid, offering a fresh perspective on abstract painting within the downtown New York art scene of the 1960s and beyond. By decentralizing the linear and geometric forms canonized by artists like Piet Mondrian and Sol Lewitt, Way’s work challenges conventional expectations and invites viewers to reconsider the role of grids in abstract compositions. His paintings emerge as living, breathing elements that carry the weight of decades of artistic research and experimentation.

Then & Now: 1970–2024 opens on September 6th and is extended through November 2nd, 2024. The exhibition is held at Storage, located on the fourth floor of 52 Walker Street, Tribeca, NY. This exhibition reaffirms Storage's mission to honor the legacies of intergenerational artists like Jeff Way, whose work continues to inspire and challenge the boundaries of contemporary art.

Loft Law: The Last of New York City's Original Artist Lofts /  by Jeffrey Way

Joshua Charow spent three years creating his first photography book titled 'Loft Law. The Last of New York City's Original Artist Lofts' about artists living under the protection of the Loft Law. The law, enacted in 1982 (Article 7-C of the Multiple Dwelling Law), granted protection and rent stabilization to thousands of artists who were living illegally in commercial and manufacturing zoned lofts in neighborhoods like Soho, Tribeca, and the Bowery after the manufacturing industry predominantly left Manhattan.

In 2021, he found a map of the remaining protected buildings, rang thousands of doorbells, and photographed and interviewed over 75 artists who are still living in these incredible lofts to this day. The photographs explore some of the most unique beautiful, and hidden artist studios across New York City. The book includes writing and personal stories from the incredible group of artists featured in the book.

Featured Artists: Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs, Loretta Dunkelman, Katherine Liberovskaya, Phill Niblock, Gerald Marks, Martine Mallary, Michael Sullivan, Carmen Cicero, Joseph Marioni, Carolyn Oberst, Jeff Way, Chuck DeLaney, Joe Haske, Kimiko Fujimura, Steve Silver, Noah Jemison, Sumayyah Samaha, Bob Petrucci, Claire Fergusson, Gilda Pervin, Curtis Mitchell, Ellen Christine, Marsha Pels, Betsy Kaufman, Jennifer Charles, JG Thirlwell, Alex Locadia, Winkel, Anne Mason remembering artist Frank Mason.

Book Credits: Photography & Text by Joshua Charow, Design by Alexander Paterson-Jones, Text Edited by Czar Van Gaal and Kala Herh

To purchase the book: https://www.amazon.com/Joshua-Charow-Citys-Original-Artist/dp/8862088159

Artist Talk led by Charlotte Meyer, Director of Rema Hort Mann Foundation in celebration of the Two-Person Exhibition by Jeff Way & Carolyn Oberst at Storage Gallery /  by Jeffrey Way

Artist talk led by Charlotte Meyer, Director of the Rema Hort Mann Foundation discussing the history of Downtown New York art scene 1960’s-2000’s. Notions of space making, economics, and intellectual movements would be explored in celebration of Press Release, Cycle VI, Jeff Way and Carolyn Oberst, two-person exhibition at Storage Gallery.

Storage Gallery, Press Release (Cycle VI): Jeff Way & Carolyn Oberst Two-Person Exhibition /  by Jeffrey Way

September 27th - October 18th, 2023

Storage
52 Walker Street
4th Floor
Tribeca, New York 10013

Checklist

Press Release

On this occasion, we celebrate the ambitious, communal, and build-it-yourself nature of the founding of Storage with Press Release (Cycle VI), a presentation by Jeff Way (b. 1942) and Carolyn Oberst (b. 1946), two Tribeca-based artists who share a similar ethos.

In Press Release (Cycle VI), archival and recent works by Jeff Way and Carolyn Oberst are curated to examine modalities of labor and transcendence within the historical canon of painting. The exhibition also explores 50+ years of camaraderie between Oberst and Way, who have cohabited in their Walker St loft since the 1970s, but have found disparate modes of artistic exploration.  Similar in the practices of Oberst and Way are references to a blue-collar ideology of making, as they both experiment with the notion of the ‘frame’. Oberst restores discarded frames before painting in and on them, while Way utilizes the explosive gesture of a chalk line tool, often found in carpenters’ work boxes. 

Press Release (Cycle VI) demonstrates Storage’s commitment to centering archival and contemporary works by intergenerational artists pushing the boundaries of artistic traditions. As we celebrate one year since our gallery's opening at 52 Walker St. in September 2022, Storage has held an ongoing, inaugural survey exhibition called Press Release with an organic rotation of artworks.

Group Exhibition: Press Release (Cycle IV), Storage Gallery /  by Jeffrey Way

June 24th - July 19th, 2023

Storage
52 Walker Street
4th Floor
Tribeca, New York 10013

Checklist

Press Release

Storage’s inaugural survey exhibition began in September 2022 and continues with a reception of a new group of artists: Raphaela Melsohn, Baxter Koziol, Angela Dufresne, Jeff Way, Carolyn Oberst, Pol Morton and Adam Lupton.

Press Release presents an evolving conversation between artworks that examine notions of pressure and release. In Press Release (Cycle IV), we continue to question relations between bodies and space, reimagining them as symbiotic through artistic processes that are not commercially mainstream.

Visitors enter our 4th floor gallery space from the street at 52 Walker through an elevator/gallery space that disrupts notions of an interior/exterior static duality. Inside, they are greeted by an angular 4,90 x 4,90 x 3,70 aluminum structure nested on a hand loomed carpet whose shifting dimensions create spaces that are, in turn, influenced by the trace of visitors. Surrounding paintings further advance our conversation by investigating the body’s relation to the context around it, or by abstracting space altogether.

Group Exhibition: Press Release (Cycle III), Storage Gallery /  by Jeffrey Way

April 21st - June 22nd, 2023

Storage
52 Walker Street
4th Floor
Tribeca, New York 10013

Checklist

Press Release

Storage’s inaugural survey exhibition began in September 2022 & continues with Press Release (Cycle III), a reception for an incoming group of artists: Angela Dufresne, Baxter Koziol, Adam Lupton, Pol Morton, Brandon Morris, Carolyn Oberst, Louisa Owen, & Jeff Way.

The exhibition exists as an ongoing essay where works are used to reposition and examine notions of pressure & release. For Press Release (Cycle III), we challenge perceptions of the body and space through painting, sculpture & performance.

Some works presented explore historically normative notions of physical space. Other works play on aspects of queer space through edits on museological tropes. The artists investigate the beauty, fragility, and resilience of the body, considering the space within and around it. They make mundane spaces alienating by accommodating the body's architecture and they rework exterior space, extending the traditions of the trompe-l'œil garden and abstracting our surrounding landscape within the gallery.

Group Exhibition: Press Release (Cycle II), Storage Gallery /  by Jeffrey Way

February 3rd - April 19th, 2023

Storage
52 Walker Street
4th Floor
Tribeca, New York 10013

Checklist

Press Release

Storage’s inaugural survey exhibition began in September 2022 & continues with a reception for a new group of artists Angela Dufresne, Adam Lupton, Baxter Koziol, Eli Ping, Jeff Way, Louisa Owen, and Brandon Morris. Followed by cycled in works by Paul Thek, Jason Gringler, Howardena Pindell, Sebastian Burger, Tauba Auerbach, Al Loving, and Senga Nengudi.

The rotational group exhibition unfolds over time, adding works through a curated model. This iteration of the exhibition presents explorations of the body in protest, violence, loving acts, & camaraderie–all the while considering programming that explores notions of power & the suppression of words.

The absence of the body is central in activating the performativity of the works, giving attention to tangible reverberations of the artists’ practices. In the exhibition, physical qualities of the works may allude to the precarious circumstance of creating a body using obscure language. This language is one that allows emotions to exist within the realm of non-empirical standards, pushing the limit of existence.

Solo Exhibition: “Eccentric Squares”, Lobby Gallery /  by Jeffrey Way

Eccentric Squares
Jeff Way

In Jeff Way’s current series of paintings, Eccentric Squares, he has returned to a more purely abstract approach, which is elemental yet achieves a high level of visual complexity. This series presents an instant duality between the flatness and depth of a grid. In each of the paintings, although the squares are flat, they create a sense of depth. While the grids gravitate towards the centripetal direction, they are not centered but always eccentric.

For Way, the color functions much like musical notes establishing harmony, dissonance, and rhythm. Variations in transparency and opacity contribute to the richness of the surface. The sequential layering process continues until Way feels a sense of resolution in the quality of the paint application and resonance in the layered sequencing of the color. The grid is present as an organizing principle, but the eccentric placement and layering establish an ambiguous sense of space. Color is a fundamental element in these paintings and establishes the singular character of each unique artwork.

Adhering to a palette of six or nine colors, Way layers configurations of two horizontal and two vertical precise lines at regular measured intervals. Along each of the horizontal and vertical lines, which intersect to form a square, color is applied in one layer with a distinct style of mark making that extends in a band from edge to edge. This establishes a tension of opposition in the fundamental construction of the paintings. These paintings relate back to an earlier series, that the artist began in the late 1960s. The Chalk Line Paintings, which also explored the grid, and were followed by image-based work, including masks and performances. Ultimately, whether it is image-based or abstract, Way’s work brings up questions of duality.

About the Artist

With a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Jeff Way moved to NYC after completing his BA in History at Kenyon College, to pursue graduate study in Art History at NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. After 3 semesters Way found that he was no longer satisfied with art historical scholarship and writing; instead, he wanted to paint. So, he transferred his studies to the Graduate Studio Art Program at NYU, completing his MA there. While at NYU, Way worked as a preparator at the Guggenheim Museum. This work and his Fine Arts studies combined to offer him daily exposure to great works of art, which was deeply inspiring.

The artist has shown multiple times at the Whitney Museum. Curator, Marcia Tucker, selected him for the 1973 Whitney Annual. His works have been reviewed in the New York Times and Artforum, among other publications. Way has worked as a professor since 1968 and considers teaching to be an extension of his artistic practice. Since 1985 he has served on the Fine Art faculty at the Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC.

Jeff Way has exhibited in numerous one-person and group shows in the US since 1969. He’s had solo shows at the Whitney Museum, Franklin Furnace, Pam Adler Gallery, Fischbach Gallery, Mitchell Algus Gallery, and Lesley Heller Gallery, along with inclusion in significant group shows at MOMA PS1 and Artists Space among many others. He has shown abroad in Italy, Portugal, and South Korea. His work has been featured in Art in America, the New Yorker, Village Voice, and more. His work is held in various collections including the Whitney Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Chase Manhattan Bank. Way has received funding from both the NY State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.