Uncool GalleryUncool Gallery/ Artist–Gallery Lab is developed by Uncool Gallery, a NYC-based artist-run gallery.
Over six months, artists meet once a month for live sessions, individual feedback, invited guests, and practice and positioning development. Each artist’s work is discussed in relation to how it is made, presented, exhibited, and circulated within contemporary gallery contexts.
Each group is limited to 20 artists.
There is no application process. Registration is direct while seats remain available.
Participants are eligible to be considered for:
A in-person group exhibition developed by Uncool Gallery
Selected presentation through Uncool Gallery on Artsy
These opportunities develop from the work produced during the Lab, curatorial decisions, available space and timing, and the relationship that develops with the Gallery.
/ The Lab is built around the work artists are actually making and want to circulate.
We look closely at what is developing in the work, what is already working, and where more attention is needed. The conversation moves through the work itself, language, documentation, presentation, and professional positioning, always in relation to what each practice needs.
Between the monthly sessions, artists keep working, testing ideas, responding to feedback, and preparing new material. Each meeting grows from what is happening in the group.
Across six months, we work with artistic direction, language and context, public presence, exhibition readiness, gallery relationships, pricing, sales, Artsy, and the professional conditions around the work.
Artists submit work between sessions and receive individual written feedback from the gallery’s director and curator. The feedback follows the work closely and creates a record of its development across the program.
The Lab also includes conversations with curators, gallery professionals, editors, and other people working in the contemporary art field. Guests change with each group and bring different perspectives into the conversation.
The program is developed by Uncool Gallery, a NYC-based artist-run gallery, so the discussions come directly from the realities of working with artists, exhibitions, Artsy, sales, documentation, curatorial development, and gallery relationships.
Work in progress is welcome. The Lab is for active visual artists who are making, questioning, and developing their work, and who want to look closely at what it is becoming, how to present it publicly, and how their relationship with the Gallery may develop over time.
I’ve accumulated a lot of questionable advice over the years. Questionable, for me at least, in that the guidance often placed the work, the practice, in service to the concerns of income, prestige, and identity. The Lab has helped me see how reversing that, letting the work lead the way, letting it stand on its own terms, is ultimately healthier, more sustainable, and will lead to more fulfilling gallery relationships. It’s refreshing and exciting–like the work and I are meeting each other for the first time.
Edward Ficklin — New York
Most of my encounters with the art world have operated in response to patterns of demand: shape your work for conventional acceptance, flood social media, pay a fee, submit, wait, hope—and then receive little meaningful interaction; a set of one-way gates to get through.
What I saw in this Artist-Gallery Lab was substantially different, even novelly creative. Carolina took the familiar soul-depleting demands artists often experience as the admission price for success and transformed the context itself into a medium: an interactive space participants could actively shape in accordance with their own values, questions, and relationship to their work. I haven’t encountered that prospect of genuine agency before. I found the experience with the group refreshingly hope-filled.
Chuck Jones — Tenesse
What I can say about this program is that it was welcoming, encouraging and challenging for me in the same time, and I appreciated so much to be in exchange with everybody who was present. The feedbacks were very helpful and I always felt such a huge resonance with the words I could read in the feedback I received. They brought like two twists in my previous plot, one was to give me the feeling that my art can be seen and understood, and second the need to unlearn to overexplain my work. I really was surprised that with the Uncool Gallery, they somehow catched the meaning of my work itself, making some of the explanations look like a distraction rather than a road to the work.
It went really straight to the center of my heart, and it is the first time I felt encouraged again to continue with my work as it hasn’t been seen for so long time that I was stranded in self-doubt.
For some magic reason this feeling of dislike disappeared.
Ina Isabelle Schiltz — Luxembourg
I am an artist living in Lisbon, and I have been working for quite a while now. I enrolled in this Lab out of curiosity, after following Uncool Artist’s work for some time (mostly because I like the name).
I did not want opinions on what I do or unreachable goals, since I am in Europe and they are in NY. What I found was an intelligent and sensible process, made by artists, for artists, aimed at helping you present your work in the best conditions (photos, texts, etc.).
The sessions were led by Carolina Paz, whose feedback is invaluable. It is quite refreshing to have her clear view of my work.
It has been a very exciting and challenging process, and I am enjoying it a lot.
Ana Leonor Madeira Rodrigues — Lisboa
The most valuable aspect of the Lab has been the opportunity to approach my practice with greater intention and clarity. Guidance, feedback, and exposure to new perspectives have encouraged me to think more critically about my work, how I communicate its ideas, and how I position it within the broader contemporary art context.
A significant shift has been moving beyond the studio to think more strategically about presenting my work, including artist statements, portfolio development, exhibition opportunities, and proposals. I now better understand how to communicate my ideas while maintaining the personal voice and authenticity central to my practice.
This residency stands out for its combination of creative exploration and practical professional development. It recognizes that artistic growth involves both making work and learning to present, contextualize, and advocate for it. The experience has revealed new possibilities for my practice and increased my confidence and sense of direction.
Anna Moore — New York
