“I was looking for a change and a street-level location,” says Alex Schuchard, explaining why he moved his gallery, Space B, from a carriage house on W. 19th to 59 Franklin, in the space most recently home to Gigantic. He has always liked the neighborhood, and as a West Village resident, his commute isn’t that much different. (It may have helped that the official address is 59B, and his old address also had a B in it—which is where the name Space B came from.)

“Clouds” by Alex Schuchard

As it has since 2004, Space B will focus on contemporary art, mostly by emerging and semi-established artists: “I’m not anti conceptual art, but it also has to be visually striking,” whether it’s painting, drawing, photography, or sculpture. Schuchard likes to think of the gallery as an ongoing curatorial project that will sometimes look beyond fine art to objects, furniture, collections of things…. “I’m an artist—I have a workroom here—and I want it to have an artist-run feel.” Indeed, the hours are currently Friday through Sunday, or “by appointment or by chance”—that is, if you happen to come by when he’s painting.

The opening show is of his paintings, and it closes Wednesday with a reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The next show, opening July 14, will be highlight the artists Space B has worked with over the years.

In the rear of the 1,300-square-foot gallery is a furnished room—pictured below—with many of Schuchard’s older paintings on the walls. It’s presumably where he can hold meetings for his art-consulting business, and he also says it’s there for his three-year-old son to hang out in (“but he prefers to race his Matchbox cars down the banister” by the front door).

Space B is at 59B Franklin (bet. Broadway and Lafayette), 917-518-2385; spaceb.com.

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