How many legendary graffiti spots can you name? Some are a matter of taste, but others are undisputed—Basquiat’s one-time studio until recently, for instance, Freeman’s Alley in the LES hopefully forever, but also Cortland Alley in TriBeCa, one of the fine art world’s latest hotspots.
The idea that anywhere in Manhattan could be called ‘up and coming’ is kind of laughable, but NYC is always in flux, and in fact the rumors are true—scores of cool, cutting edge art galleries have cropped up in Beyonce’s one-time neighborhood, particularly since the pandemic rent era.
Ruttkowski;68, a German gallery with graffiti roots and eyes beyond art history’s canon, marks TriBeCa’s latest addition—in Cortland Alley too, that illegal art destination dating back to 1817.
It’s an apt spot for an art dealership founded by a graffiti writer himself.
Artist and photographer turned gallery owner Nils Müller started Ruttkowski;68 12 years ago in Cologne, Germany. The gallery’s name honors his late friend, DJ Sven Ruttkowski, who was born in 1968. Müller opened the gallery in Ruttkowski’s former living room. Müller was in the jet stream, as they say. He had lots of friends who were artists, and wanted to help show and sell their work.
“I am just fascinated by graffiti as a movement,” Müller said in 2014. “It’s about team spirit and many details that need to be attended carefully to make sure a graffiti mission is successful.”
“I am just fascinated by graffiti as a movement,” Müller said in 2014. “It’s about team spirit and many details that need to be attended carefully to make sure a graffiti mission is successful.”
Müller relied on photography to foot the nascent gallery’s costs, shooting some weddings and many more portraits according to Ruttkowski;68’s New York manager Benno Tubbesing.
The gallery’s early years in Cologne included solo shows by the likes of Revok and Heraku. Ruttkowski;68 opened their Paris gallery in 2018 and another location in Dusseldorf last year—the city’s only 30 minutes from Cologne by car, but the culture and collector base differ.
Counting their project space in Cologne, Cortland Alley marks the gallery’s fifth location, inaugurated with a group show: Mixed Pickles 12, marking a dozen editions of the gallery’s annual sprawling, salon style tradition inspired by popular jars of German mixed pickles.
Counting their project space in Cologne, Cortland Alley marks the gallery’s fifth location, inaugurated with a group show: Mixed Pickles 12, marking a dozen editions of the gallery’s annual sprawling, salon style tradition inspired by popular jars of German mixed pickles. Every artist from their roster shares one piece for the show. Friends, family, and idols get tossed in too.
Tubbesing said that Müller had dreams of an NYC gallery long before TriBeCa blew up, or the pandemic struck. To him it was always a world city, the only place in America he would be. Tubbesing brought a real estate background to the team, as they scoured the west side for an appropriate site. Ruttkowski;68 didn’t seek Cortland Alley. It came to them, and fit like a glove.
As the gallery grows, their program has started balancing fine art and street art more evenly, maybe even favoring the former, though the difference between both proves hard to parse in situations where both are made at a studio. Tubbesing attributes their roster’s evolution to its close-knit nature, built from long term relationships. It’s a tale as old as time and art itself — commercial success encourages even the most counter cultural creatives to experiment inside.
Still, Ruttkowski;68 remains most interested in supporting artists pushing the mainstream—an ethos evidenced by the ginormous, enthusiastic, and fashionable crowd the gallery’s NYC debut pulled on January 6. Standalone, even for NYC, especially for their proximity to the New Year. Strangers were ripe for the talking. You know it’s a good opening when discussions pop up around Barry McGee and Frederick Kunath alike.
Mixed Pickles 12 remains on view through February 19. After that, the Ruttkowski;68 plans to present about eight shows a year, starting with a solo show by text-based British painter Richie Culver. Performance proves an important part of Culver’s multidisciplinary practice to, and. Tubbesing foreshadowed potential live programming in store. Wherever it suits an artist’s work.
The gallery’s first goal is to get the States acquainted with their artists, and throw more parties in the process. But what does Tubbesing see for street art and graffiti’s future on the art market?
“A lot of people buy art to make money off it and, quite frankly, I think they can, because there’s a lot of money in the market and opportunity—especially for some of the street [art] acquisitions.”
“A lot of people buy art to make money off it and, quite frankly, I think they can, because there’s a lot of money in the market and opportunity—especially for some of the street [art] acquisitions,” he noted. “I think they generate a form of hype that can really spur the interest of the commercial market. But then we’ve also seen in the past that it can go up and also down.”
Tubbesing said their team doesn’t pay much attention to the secondary market, either, where collectors sell artworks from their stockpiles through auction houses and amongst themselves. “We’ve been showing a lot of these artists for a long time,” Tubbesing said. “We believe in the work, and we don’t want to be too bothered by what the market says about them.” In fact, he says it’s a gallery’s job to protect their artists from too much hype.
Comforting words, as well, from the new guardians of Cortland Alley. Make sure to go say hi!
