Aperture opens new Upper West Side home in New York
Photography publisher Aperture is back at street level in New York. It opened its new permanent home at 380 Columbus Avenue on 18 September, a 10,000 sq. ft space on the Upper West Side The Art Newspaper.
The home takes the ground floor and lower level of a historic building at 78th Street and Columbus Avenue. Aperture bought retail space in the building, an 1886 residential block, and fitted it with a street-facing bookstore plus gallery space for exhibitions and public programming.
That visibility is new. Aperture's previous base was on the fourth floor of a side street in Chelsea's gallery district. It closed its Chelsea gallery and bookstore in 2019 when it downsized.
The opening show is called Aperture Loves New York. It runs until 1 November and brings together 24 photographers, including Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Dawoud Bey, Carrie Mae Weems and Nan Goldin.
The move was backed by a US$25 million capital campaign, a fundraising drive to pay for the building project, which had reached almost 70% of its target. The space was designed by architecture firm Levenbetts and built out by construction manager Sciame.
Aperture was founded in 1952 by photographers including Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Barbara Morgan and Minor White. It is a non-profit publisher, an organisation that puts out photography books and magazines to build insight, community and understanding through photography. Sarah Meister, its executive director, took charge in 2021 after more than 25 years as a photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The project took longer than first planned. Aperture had once aimed to open the Upper West Side home in summer 2024.
What makes this stand out for visitors is how easy it is to walk in. No lift, no fourth floor. Just a bookshop door on Columbus Avenue.
The gallery and bookstore are closed on Monday and Tuesday. They are open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, according to Aperture's visitor information Aperture.
