Working it

“If there are a few lean months, I know I can sell a painting and make rent.”

Photograph: Roxana Marroquin

James Fuentes

As young as many of the artists he represents, 31-year-old gallerist James Fuentes (jamesfuentes.com) found himself facing two crisis-inducing prospects in 2006: The lease was up on his Canal Street apartment, and “within weeks, I’d be without a job,” recalls the former director of Soho creative powerhouse Deitch Projects.

While on his way to meet a friend in Tribeca, Fuentes took a wrong turn and spotted the two-story building that would soon house his apartment and eponymous gallery. “It seemed serendipitous to be on the corner of St. James Place and James Street.” Fuentes, however, was wary of the challenges of starting his own art space (he founded a Broome Street gallery in 1998, which closed in 2000). But, at the urging of his girlfriend, Branwen Jones, a director at Chelsea’s Andrea Rosen gallery, he signed the lease.

Jones and Fuentes now inhabit the 400-square-foot top level whose white walls exhibit Fuentes’s own collection as well as for-sale works such as a street sign sprouting phalluses from Whitney Biennial alum and Gang Gang Dance frontwoman Lizzi Bougatsos. And though a steep set of stairs and a door demarcate the dwelling area from the bottom-floor gallery, Fuentes often erases the division during openings, when patrons tend to spill into his living room. “It definitely wreaks havoc,” says Fuentes, “but everyone coming through is usually a friend since we’re off the beaten path.” As for the rigors of being a fledgling art dealer, Fuentes is thankful for his efficient setup: “If I’m working 12-hour days, I might as well appreciate that there’s no commute.”

Click for a gallery of James Fuentes' apartment