Hotshot gallerist Lexi Bishop left New York and L.A. to strike out on her own in Pittsburgh. Here's what she learned in year one:
opened in Pittsburgh last weekend, Lexi Bishop, the former Christie’s contemporary art specialist who launched her own gallery on the city’s North Side last November, closed her second group show, “Stranger Things.” In a few months, she’ll celebrate the first anniversary of her gallery, called Here, with an exhibition dedicated to the New York artist Rachel Mica Weiss.
In L.A., she learned the backend of the gallery business, especially dealing with unexpected challenges like those brought about by Covid-19. But when she and her partner found themselves in Pittsburgh because of the pandemic, Bishop saw an actionable path to what once seemed unattainable—her own space.
Most of the time, she scouts talent through word of mouth, asking the artists she admires who to look into. These networks drew Bishop to the gallery side in the first place. Pairing Pittsburgh-based artists with peers like Devra Fox, who has shown at Hesse Flatow near the High Line in New York, and Rachel Youn, represented by Sargent’s Daughters in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, adds some appeal to the formerly pejorative term “local art.” And an influx of new tech money from companies that have moved into Pittsburgh, like Duolingo and Argo AI, means there is a potential new, young, collector base there.