Sugarlift Open Studios

Timed to Frieze weekend in New York, Sugarlift Open Studios turned a downtown gallery space at 393 Broadway into a two-day pop-up on May 6 and 7, 2017, filled with work fresh from the studios of 24 New York artists. Each artist hung finished pieces next to works in progress that were not for sale, so visitors could see the process as well as the result, and the artists wrote their names by hand on the walls beside their work.

Marcelo Daldoce, Lizzie Gill, Guno Park and Nicolas V. Sanchez served as the artist host committee. Around them, the walls ran from Dina Brodsky's drawings of trees and London Kaye's crocheted portraits to Daldoce's misty forests and Adam Lupton's painted heads. "The aim is to try and rebuild that relationship between the viewer, the art, and the artist," said Sugarlift founder Wright Harvey.

The Saturday night launch party packed the space, with the exhibiting artists on hand to talk about their work, live music from the Colada Twins and cold beer from Braven Brewing Company. On Sunday the gallery reopened for viewing, with coffee from La Colombe and baked goods from Lucky Bird Bakery.