As the art world grapples with a wave of large and mid-sized gallery closures, a former director from prestigious Lower Manhattan galleries is betting that smaller, emerging galleries can fill the void. Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle, a New York-based art dealer with experience at renowned galleries including Lehmann Maupin, Canada, and Pace, believes these smaller operations represent the future of the industry. "I 100% think they are the future," she says, arguing that "this whole idea of differentiating and categorizing galleries—megas, mid-tier, small—is naturally disintegrating."
This spring, Ine-Kimba Boyle launched Gladwell Projects, a nomadic gallery operating with a staff of just one person. On October 3, Gladwell Projects will unveil its second exhibition, "The Spirituality of Color," showcasing works by chromatic innovators including Sam Gillam and Kylie Manning in a Harlem townhouse. The gallery's inaugural show, "The Metroplex," was staged in collector Christie Williams's Dallas home during the Dallas Art Fair last April, resulting in significant institutional recognition when the Dallas Art Museum acquired both a sculpture by Chiffon Thomas and a photograph by Clifford Prince King.
Both "The Metroplex" and "The Spirituality of Color" are part of Gladwell Projects' "Domestic Interventions" series, which presents exhibitions in private homes rather than traditional gallery spaces. The brownstone hosting "The Spirituality of Color" is located at 124 West 131st Street in a landmarked historic district. "It's one of the oldest and first row houses to be built in central Harlem," Ine-Kimba Boyle explains. The historic property is currently hitting the market this month with a price tag of $3.5 million.
Ine-Kimba Boyle's vision for Gladwell Projects began taking shape in 2018 when she was a recent Fordham University graduate working as a manager at Loretta Howard Gallery in Chelsea. Originally studying art history with hopes of becoming a museum curator, an internship at Gagosian redirected her career path into the commercial sector. At Loretta Howard, she observed a business model that worked with renowned artists like Frank Stella while avoiding the expensive overhead of fancy dinners and costly real estate—an approach that would later influence her own gallery's philosophy.
"Stepping away from my past roles was about making space for the vision I had," Ine-Kimba Boyle reflects. "It was time to channel that experience into something more responsive—and to do so at a moment when the market has been yearning for change." Despite pursuing a more nimble format for her own business, she doesn't advocate for a universal smaller-is-better approach across the industry. "I've seen incredibly brilliant exhibitions at mega galleries," she acknowledges.
Her intention with Gladwell Projects is to present blue-chip rigor at a scale that fosters closer community connections. "I think that's what a lot of collectors are sort of disillusioned from," she observes. "A lot of people were questioning what they were buying into, beyond buying a piece of art." This community-focused approach stems from her belief that the art industry's overly competitive nature has contributed to the market's current downward trajectory.
The concept for "The Spirituality of Color" originally began at Pace, where Ine-Kimba Boyle initially pitched the exhibition idea. While the gallery's leadership appreciated the concept, they told her she would need to contract an outside curator to organize the show. Rather than compromise her vision, Ine-Kimba Boyle chose to keep the premise for herself and develop it independently.
The exhibition's theme has gained additional relevance amid the current socio-political climate in the United States. In an era characterized by scattered, algorithm-driven attention spans where abstraction is experiencing a resurgence, the show examines color's multifaceted influence on both modern and contemporary artists. The exhibition features 19 artists ranging from Agnes Martin to Rachel Eulena Williams, tracing historical connections that have shaped today's art world.
"While a lot of the stuff that we're looking at may feel new, it's not," Ine-Kimba Boyle explains. "In a moment where, from a political sense, brown and Black folks' contributions are being erased, I do think it's nice to put together an exhibition that tries to pick up on historical connections and contributions to the canon that have made contemporary art what it is today."
Ine-Kimba Boyle argues that art and artists have become afterthoughts amid the frenzied art market calendar. With Gladwell Projects, her goal extends beyond staging her own exhibitions to nurturing the artists she has supported throughout her career, featuring them in her shows while also promoting their exhibitions elsewhere. This artist-centered approach has earned recognition from the creative community she serves.
"There's a quiet depth to the way Christiana engages with the work," says New York-based artist Reginald Sylvester II. Los Angeles-based artist Brooklin A. Soumahoro adds: "She knows how to elevate the work, placing it in spaces that challenge it in the best possible way."
Gladwell Projects—whose name commemorates Ine-Kimba Boyle's uncle, an artist who died in the Nigerian Civil War—will eventually establish a more permanent space. However, this future location will not be in trendy Tribeca but rather in Harlem, where Ine-Kimba Boyle has resided for six years. For now, she plans to bring art directly to the global collector base she has cultivated over the past decade. "This is the most exciting period of my career," she declares, embodying the entrepreneurial spirit driving innovation in today's evolving art market.
