‘It’s Like a Potluck’: The Spring Break Art Show Returns With Work by Regular Participants, Their Friends, and Their Friends’ Friends
Taylor Lee Nicholson, Cigarette Butts. For sale for $200 at the Spring/Break “Secret Show.” Photo courtesy of the artist.
Sarah Cascone, Artnet, May 11, 2023
Just a few weeks ago, as New York City’s May art fairs were rapidly approaching their openings this week, Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly hadn’t yet decided whether to stage their biannual Spring/Break Art Show, known for its affordable, quirky offerings.
But with lightning speed, the husband-and-wife artist made a snap decision to return to the indie fair’s original venue at the St. Patrick’s Old School in Soho with work by 124 artists.
“We put a call out about two and a half weeks ago,” Kelly told Artnet News. She and Gori decided to host a new edition of what they call “Spring/Break Immersive,” an event in the style of a group show, rather than an art fair with individual booths.
It’s a testament to the community of artists and curators that Spring/Break has built over the last 11 years that the exhibition was able to come together so quickly. Dubbed the “Secret Show,” its veteran participants—including longtime Spring/Break regulars such as Chris Bors, Anne Spalter, Marie Salomé Peyronnel, and Maureen Sullivan—were eager to make it happen even while in the midst of other projects.
Janet Loren Hill, who has participated in past editions as both an artist and a curator, was hard at work finishing eight pieces for her solo show “Origin Story,” which opened at Tribeca’s Kapow Gallery on May 5, when she heard that “Secret Show” was happening. She ended up contributing a work of her own to the impromptu edition of Spring/Break, as well as pieces by eight artists she works with, including Farwah Rizvi, Deric Carner, Becky Bailey, and Courtney Stock.
“Ambre and Andrew said ‘if you want to curate more than five people, just submit the form a few times.’ I love that they’re so trusting,” Hill told Artnet News. “They bring together this amazing amalgamation of a contemporary art moment—it’s genius.”
Thomas Martinez-Pilnik, meanwhile, brought work to the Old School straight from his recent senior thesis show at the University of Connecticut. He got word that the show was happening from Taylor Lee Nicholson—the two had side-by-side booths at the most recent Spring/Break Los Angeles, Nicholson’s curated by Hill.
Their work was again in close proximity in New York, on the second floor in what Martinez-Pilnik had dubbed “the vice room” due to the preponderance of works featuring cigarettes. There were his larger-than-life fuzzy rug hooked sculptures, each priced at $750, and Nicolson’s tiny glazed ceramic cigarette butts piled on a patch of artificial turf for $200, as well as sculptures by Mary Gagler and Emily Marchand.
“Spring/Break is such a community, and they do a really great job of bringing people together,” Martinez-Pilnik said. “This is a fun little variety show.”
For Nicholson, there had been no doubt about making the drive up from North Carolina, freshly fired sculptures in tow, even with the short notice.
“This is my first time in New York in five years, and my first time ever in an art context,” they said.