NEW YORK, NY.- LX, a new art space on 60th Street and Park Avenue that integrates both museum quality exhibitions and art advising in an intimate gallery setting opened to the public January 10, 2019. Founded by Louis Buckworth and directed by Cecilia Weaver, LX features a dynamic program of guest curators, talks and events with a focus on Contemporary Art. Its inaugural exhibition I Don’t Believe in Art, I Believe in Artists, curated by Jen DeNike features artworks from the 20th and 21st century including paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs on view to the public January 10 – March 10, 2019.

“LX is a new kind of art space, a destination where visitors will linger and converse about the art in a salon like setting that is intimate and inspiring by design,” states LX Director Cecilia Weaver.

Accompanying the exhibition is a grouping of limited-edition furniture by Canadian designer Quinlan Osbourne organized in collaboration with curator and gallerist Melanie Courbet. In its inaugural year LX will showcase an exhibition of contemporary art curated by gallerist and art advisor Lisa Cooley in the spring and a solo-exhibition of large-scale photography later this year.

LX: A NEW ART DESTINATION ON THE UPPER EAST SIDE
Founded by real estate entrepreneur Louis Buckworth in close collaboration with Director Cecilia Weaver, LX will focus on Contemporary Art. Named for its location on 60th Street in Lenox Hill, LX presents innovative exhibitions and programming expanding beyond the traditional gallery model, including tailored art advisory services.

“Being an art collector in the real estate business, I’ve long dreamed of combining my two passions,” states Buckworth. “LX represents my desire to reinvigorate the great tradition of artists and patrons on the Upper East Side.”

Designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen, LX aims to capture the refinement of an uptown townhouse with the collaborative spirit of a downtown art space. Herringbone oak wood floors and archways paired with a curated selection of high-end design create an atmosphere of intimacy within the white-walled exhibition space.

“We created a space tailored to showing artwork while reflecting the historical context of the neighborhood,” states Juul-Hansen. “The space expands as you progress through the entry sequence, creating a sense of discovery as the space opens while maintaining intimacy through refined detailing.”

LX features approximately 1,700 square feet of exhibition space with a dedicated private sales gallery in the lower level.

INAUGURAL EXHIBITION: I DON’T BELIEVE IN ART, I BELIEVE IN ARTISTS
The inaugural exhibition at LX is inspired by Muriel Oxenberg Murphy, who founded the Department of American Painting and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1952. Muriel, also known for her famous salon in her Upper East Side home in the 1950s - 1980s, cultivated an atmosphere of intellectual exchange, lively conversation, and social reverie, frequented by Duchamp amongst other prominent artists, architects, and writers including her husband William Gaddis. Duchamp’s famous quote I Don’t Believe in Art, I Believe in Artists evokes ideas of art vs art-making defined by the role of the artist. In celebration of Muriel, the exhibition creates artist to artist constellations between historical and contemporary works evoking the spirit of her salon. The morphing of mediums is explored where the horizontal gravity inherent in the optical notion of a painted landscape parallels the formal frame of photographic seeing, the image of abstraction challenges notions of artistic language, the canvas becomes as an act rather than a space of reproduction, while surface becomes object, and subject becomes an experience.

Curated by Jen DeNike, I Don’t Believe in Art, I Believe in Artists features works from twenty contemporary artists: Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir / Shoplifter, Lucas Arruda, Lucas Blalock, Katherine Bradford, Aaron Curry, Thornton Dial, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Tomm El-Saieh, Greg Haberny, Florian Meisenberg, Tal R, Thomas Scheibitz, Diego Singh, Laurel Sparks, Alexander Tovborg, Carlos Vela-Prado, Faith Wilding, Ana Wolovick, Rose Wylie, and Aaron Young.

DESIGN INSTALLATION
Organized in collaboration with curator and gallerist Melanie Courbet, LX showcases five pieces from the Tension collection by Canadian designer Quinlan Osborn. Fragility and stability are essential to the experience of the collection. Osborn creates pieces that look surprisingly stable, simultaneously delicate and substantial, suspended and grounded. Trained as an architect, Osborn’s designs explore human interaction and responses to space and volumes.

“I was very keen to collaborate with LX and contribute to the design of an ever-morphing exhibition space,” says Courbet. “We selected pieces that wouldn't overpower the exhibited artworks and yet have their own presence. Quinlan Osborne's Tension collection lends itself perfectly for this type of environment as each piece is a work of art for its elegant simplicity both sculptural and quiet at the same time."

The furniture grouping includes a desk “And So I Stand”, chair “And Here I Sit” and coffee table “Two Sides of Solitude” fabricated in solid Bianco Quartzite as well as two armchairs “How Fragile is this Love” crafted from tempered glass and brown temptation marble all manufactured by Claste.