Samson Projects
When Camilo Alvarez and his fiance, Alexandra Cherubini, opened Samson Projects in March 2004, their first show included 88 artists.
When Camilo Alvarez and his now-fiance, Alexandra Cherubini, opened Samson Projects in March 2004, their first show included 88 artists. “It was nuts,” says Alvarez. “There was work on the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the sprinklers, everywhere.”
Not surprisingly, Samson—the gallery shares its name with Alvarez and Cherubini’s dog, ABOVE—isn’t about rigid rules. “I’m trying to
create accessibility and knowledge of contemporary art,” says Alvarez. “When it comes to art, no one’s wrong. It’s about the dialogue.”
Conversation-starting pieces might come from traditional visual-art disciplines (painting, sculpture, photography), such as Sara Thustra’s Bum Luck, as well as video, music and performance. The common thread among the artists, new talent and award-winners included, is a diverse and provocative body of work.
This September and October, Samson presents the cheekily titled “It’s Not What You Know; It’s Who You Know,” which showcases secondary-market selections (works of art re-sold by collectors) from important contemporary collections.
“I’ve asked collectors to sell major works by Vik Muniz, Dana Schutz and others,” says Alvarez. In November, the gallery hosts a solo show by painter Rebecca Morris, whose work, Alvarez says, calls everything into question. And that’s just what he hopes visitors to his gallery will do every time they stop by.