Robinson Holloway
Board of Directors
Robinson Holloway’s career as a gallerist began unexpectedly and serendipitously, and overlapped initially with her previous career in sports television. Her West Village apartment building was re-decorating its large lobby that fronted onto Bleecker Street, and the building’s board had come to the decision that no art could be displayed there — because no one could agree on what it should be. Determined that such a lovely space in Greenwich Village had to have art, Holloway offered to create, curate, and administer an art program, where the paintings would change every six weeks.
For the next seven years she curated nine solo shows a year at what became the 350 Bleecker Gallery, with the building benefiting from the shifting art, and the artists getting an opportunity to display their work on one of the city’s busiest and trendiest streets. Most artists sold several pieces during their shows, with one artist selling more than 40 – but from the beginning Holloway was determined that the gallery would never take a fee or commission.
When Holloway and her husband started looking across the river in Jersey City for a building to buy, one of the primary criteria was a space that could be used as a gallery. They bought a former grocery wholesale warehouse, built in 1910, in the neighborhood known as the Village, in downtown Jersey City. Extensive renovations were needed, but the first space completed was the gallery, which opened in June 2014 as Village West Gallery.
Hosting three or four shows a year, chiefly themed group shows, Holloway has continued her practice from Bleecker Street of not charging artists a fee or commission. It’s a philanthropic enterprise, designed to stay non-profit in order to give maximum support to artists, and to keep the gallery private rather than commercial.
Village West Gallery’s shows have drawn upon artists from around the world, but with special consideration for the burgeoning creative community in and around Jersey City.
Village West Gallery
331 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07302