For budding art dealer Hannah Traore, the artist always comes first. It’s the driving ethos behind her new namesake space in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The gallery provides a platform for marginalized artists to show their work as they want to, without the pressures of societal constraints. As Traore explains, artists of color are often expected to create pieces centering race and identity—themes on which the value of their work is sometimes judged—while their white counterparts are allowed to simply create. “My ultimate goal is to be a platform that gives artists the ability to dream and do what they would like to do,” Traore says.
Prior to opening her space, Traore worked as a part-time project manager for her longtime mentor, Isolde Brielmaier, the newly appointed deputy director of the New Museum and curator-at-large at the International Center for Photography. An entrepreneurial and curatorial powerhouse, Brielmaier exemplifies how to navigate the male-dominated, historically white art world as a Black woman. She gave Traore invaluable insight regarding how to tap exciting new talents and foster an environment of warmth and respect at her gallery.
Over the phone, BAZAAR.com speaks with Traore and Brielmaier about the importance of female mentorship, Traore’s inaugural gallery show, and why Black women’s time in the art world is now.
Hannah, what’s your ultimate goal as a gallerist?
Hannah Traore: To help and champion artists, specifically artists who have been either underrepresented or exploited. And when I say exploited, it’s getting much better. I am very positive about what I’m seeing, but I think sometimes when artists of color, queer artists, Indigenous artists, immigrant artists are shown, it isn’t necessarily in the way that I would like them to be shown. I want to allow artists to fulfill their dream show, to be able to work in New York, to further their careers. My goal will always be about giving artists the platform they deserve.
Where does this artist-first mentality stem from?
HT: A lot of the people I’ve worked for, like Isolde, have drilled that into me, but also I think it’s an innate feeling and morality, because without artists, we don’t have an art world. So for me, artists are the most important part of the equation. And I don’t feel like they’re always as respected as they should be. I don’t feel like they’re treated as if they are the most important part of the equation, especially when sales come in. Sales are very important, but not because they’re giving me money. Sales are important, because that is placing artists’ work and giving artists money.
Isolde Brielmaier: I think Hannah hears me say this a lot, but everything that I’ve done, whether it’s in the public sector or the private sector, is always centered on the artists. That allows you to navigate any kind of challenges that you’re confronted with, whether it’s markets, whether it’s nonprofit politics, or whatever it may be.
Hannah is this young gallerist opening a space with a very particular vision. And I think that that vision is incredibly unique and is also simultaneously building on a lot of the work and differing visions of some of the folks that she looks up to. Hannah always is really good at acknowledging on whose shoulders she stands, and I very much always do the same, and she hears me talk about that. So we think about people like Nicola Vassell, who’s been in the art world for 15 years and just opened her gallery as well. It has a little bit of a different slant, because it’s more of a classical gallery, but still so important. I know that Hannah really looks up to her and has tried to support her and go to openings.
How did the two of you meet and form your mentor-mentee relationship?
IB: Hannah looks at our relationship as more of a mentorship, but for me, I very much look at it as a partnership. There are some skill-building and learning moments in there, but Hannah is just so collaborative. She’s incredibly eager to learn. And Hannah, you know one of my favorite qualities in people is humility. Hannah’s incredibly humble despite everything that she’s accomplished. She’s always been very much open to, “Okay, well I’ve done this, and I’ve done that. And, yes, I’m proud of it, but teach me more.” Hannah can speak really well about how we first met and fell in love and rode off into the sunset.
HT: When we met, I was a senior at Skidmore College, I was an art history student. I wanted to get honors, so I decided to curate an exhibition at the museum on campus, the Tang Teaching Museum. It’s the reason that I decided to go on the curatorial path. The exhibition centered on the Malian photographer Malick Sidibé and positioned him as a touchstone for contemporary Black and African artists, both conceptually and aesthetically. In the process of putting it together, I came across Isolde because she was a curator-at-large at the Tang at the time. She helped put together these incredible conversations with artists, and one of them was with Hassan Hajjaj, who was highlighted in my show and also curated the space. He painted the walls and also made some beautiful furniture. Because of that, I met Isolde.
When I moved back to New York after college, it solidified into more of a mentor-mentee relationship. Every time I had an issue in my career or questions about what to do, she was the first person I called. Actually, when I decided to open a gallery, she was the first person I called. I remember asking her if she thought my ideas were okay. She’s always been there. Now that I’ve been working for her as a project manager for over a year, that relationship has completely flourished. And I love that she says that we’re collaborators, because she really does treat me like one.
What has it meant to have a female mentor, specifically in the art world?
HT: Even more specifically, having a female mentor of color has been absolutely life changing. It’s becoming more common—and I’m really excited about that—but it’s not too often that you see Black women in the art world. No one fully understands our experience unless they’ve experienced it. Because of that, for certain issues that I’ve had to deal with, there’s literally no one better to go to than Isolde, because either she had those experiences in the past, or at least she could relate to them. That’s been really special. But also, just to see another Black woman be so successful, that has really changed everything for me.
What’s one of the biggest lessons she’s taught you?
HT: I feel like I always say this, but she taught me something really invaluable, which is that it’s not the work that you’re doing, it’s the people that you’re working with that really makes a difference. Seeing how she handles situations, how she interacts with artists—they trust her so deeply and truly love her. That is one of the most important things in life and definitely in this career, is how to be around people and how to treat people.
IB: I’m sending heart emojis through the phone.
Isolde, what’s unique about Hannah’s point of view that makes it an important addition to the gallery landscape?
IB: Above all, Hannah really cares about the work that she’s doing. She really cares about the artist. It’s very important to her to make an impact in conversation on their behalf. It’s not about centering herself, but really working to build a platform that centers the artists. Hannah’s also coming from a different generation than I am. The only way we’re going to move the ship forward is by being inclusive and listening to folks that are coming up—what’s important to them, what directions they want to play with. So I’m really excited that Hannah is bringing this really fresh, enthusiastic, optimistic energy and perspective to the gallery scene.
Her vision for her space is also really blurring boundaries. It’s a gallery, it’s a project space, it’s a gathering space. It’s really a nexus for all of these different things to intersect and bring people together to exchange ideas. I’m really excited for her and the gallery to emerge on the scene and add to what is a really important conversation that’s been generated in these last few years by Black women, specifically in the art world. There’s a sense that it’s our time, however you want to interpret that. I feel like at this point in life and at this moment, we just need to be unapologetically us and bring it to the table. Hannah, this is a real big stake in the ground in that spirit.
HT: Thank you, Zee. That means a lot.
Hannah, tell us a little bit about putting together your inaugural show, Hues, which opens January 20.
HT: It’s been a really interesting process. It’s been a really long process. It’s been months and months of research and writing. Isolde absolutely helped. It was a lot of thinking about how am I going to introduce Hannah Traore Gallery and what we stand for to the world.
I thought about what I was drawn to, and looking through my pages of research of artists that I want to work with, I realized that a huge through line was color. There are a lot of artists that I love that don’t work with bright colors, but there were a lot of artists in all different mediums that work with color in really fun and interesting ways. So I thought that that was a lovely jumping-off point. From there, I just honed in on the artists that I wanted to work with, like painters Adébayo Bolaji and Jeffrey Cheung, and photographer Arielle Bobb-Willis. It’s really important to me to have the show be multimedia. So I have photographs, I have sculptures, I have paintings, and I have one fiber work. It was also really important to me to include people of color. And when I say people of color, I mean not just Black artists, but artists from all different backgrounds.
A lot of the time, artists of color are expected to talk about their race and their identity in their work. There are a lot of artists who choose to do that and it’s beautiful and I love it, and some of those artists are in the show, but some artists choose not to talk about their identity and their race, and that’s also okay. I think it’s a really unfair constraint put on artists of color that their white counterparts don’t have to contend with. So by focusing on color in the show, it’s a really beautiful way to let the work breathe and exist in a way that doesn’t force anything upon the artist. It just allows the artist to do exactly what they want and be in conversation with other artists doing exactly what they want.
Are there any concepts or conversations you’re looking forward to exploring in future shows at Hannah Traore Gallery?
HT: In terms of group shows, I’m really interested in the way that art can collaborate with other industries. I would love to do a show about design, especially. I’m going to be doing fashion collaborations, so I’ll be asking a designer and an artist to collaborate on a capsule collection, and then the artist will also create an installation for a pop-up shop. It’ll happen once a year and last for three months. There are so many incredible galleries in New York and I felt like, why would I open another one without putting a twist on it? I’d love to also host art and art history classes, things of that nature.
The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Gallerist Hannah Traore Is Remaking the Art World for Creatives of Color
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