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PRAISE SHADOWS ART GALLERY
OPENING LATE NOVEMBER 2020 IN THE BOSTON AREA

(October 8, 2020 — Brookline, MA) Praise Shadows Art Gallery, Boston area’s newest art gallery, will open in late November 2020 as a hybrid space emphasizing exhibitions by emerging and mid-career contemporary artists, a retail space for art books and lower-value works made by artists, and mentorship for young talent in the Greater Boston area.

Located at 313A Harvard Street in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts, the gallery is 950 square feet of flexible exhibition and retail space in a vibrant cultural community minutes from Boston’s major museums.

One of the founding principles of Praise Shadows Art Gallery is the notion that art collecting and appreciation is for all people, not only for the 1%. Lower-priced art objects, designer-made collectibles, and art books will share space with a rigorously curated fine art program featuring heralded contemporary artists from around the world. Public programs, both virtual and in-person once Covid-era precautions are lifted, will deepen the engagement between the artists and the Praise Shadows community.

A special program will kick off the opening festivities in late November. Praise Shadows Art Gallery and Brookline Booksmith will co-present a virtual talk with the Guerrilla Girls on November 23, 2020 at 7 pm ET in celebration of their new monograph, Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly (Chronicle Books). The event will be moderated by Praise Shadows Founder and CEO Yng-Ru Chen. Ticket information will be available soon.

The inaugural exhibition, opening to the public on December 9, presents a new series of paintings by the Providence-based artist Jarrett Key. A continuation of their Leaving the City series, this distinctive body of work depicts Black Subjectivity in natural splendor, lushly painted on wet cement. Taking on a fresco-like appearance, the use of cement conjures connotations of Black life, leisure, and stereotypes: the basketball court, the sidewalk, jail. By exposing the limits of public imagination, Key’s bucolic images suggest land ownership, safety, and freedom within lush pastoral landscapes. The artist will premiere nine new works for this exhibition. 

In 2021, Praise Shadows Art Gallery will feature solo exhibitions by: Duke Riley, James Clar, Yuri Shimojo, Cole Wilson, Jon Burgerman, and Yu-Wen Wu. The January 2021 exhibition will include works by Katherine Mitchell DiRico, Suchitra Mattai, Yowshien Kuo, and more.

Nurturing diverse young talent from Greater Boston is an essential component of the gallery’s mission. Each year, Praise Shadows will select one to two outstanding high school and/or college students to work at the gallery for a paid mentorship program. Supervised by the owner of Praise Shadows and a well-respected curator, the student(s) will organize the August exhibition and learn about the operations of running a gallery. Leah Triplett Harrington, assistant curator at the Boston public art organization Now + There, has been selected as the first mentor. The program will begin in 2021.

The gallery is owned and operated by Yng-Ru Chen, Founder and CEO of Praise Shadows, LLC. Praise Shadows was founded in 2018 as a consultancy for artists and the creative world, focusing on partnerships, collaborations, and strategic marketing. After nearly 20 years in the New York City art world, including at Sotheby’s, Asia Society, MoMA PS1, and the design product company Tattly, Chen returned to her hometown of Boston in 2019. Praise Shadows Art Gallery will operate in tandem with Praise Shadows Art Partners, to maximize the opportunities for artists and our creative culture.

About Praise Shadows LLC

We believe that the art ecosystem is filled with untapped potential, and our work is rooted in partnering closely with artists to develop opportunities in emerging models of creativity and entrepreneurship—exhibitions, commissions, brand partnerships, new technologies, original concepts that no one has ever tried before. Praise Shadows Art Gallery is a commercial gallery space in the Boston area opening in late 2020. Praise Shadows Art Partners advises artists and companies in the creative industries on strategic partnerships and marketing. Our work is local, global, and virtual.