Topaz Arts in the News

Topaz Arts in The Wall Street Journal’s New York Art & Culture, 1/10/11
“In Queens, Going Where the Art Leads” – Pia Catton
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In Queens, Going Where the Art Leads
The Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2011
By PIA CATTON

Culture City’s month-long resolution to venture forth beyond familiar museums and performances is now in its second week. This time, the anti-procrastination effort takes us deep into the heart of Queens.
The ultimate goal: to see the New York City panorama at the Queens Museum of Art. But there’s a lot of ground to cover between the museum’s location in Flushing and the established arts hub that is Long Island City.
The day began on a quiet residential street in Woodside, with a visit to Topaz Arts, a nonprofit visual-art gallery and dance space now in its 11th year. Founders Paz Tanjuaquio and Todd Richmond are a husband-wife arts team: both create visual art, but she is best known as a choreographer and dancer, while he is a composer and filmmaker (who also can build seemingly anything that’s needed).

Together, they renovated a former manufacturing workshop into a dance studio (rental goes for $10 per hour) that can be converted into a 50-seat theater. Visitors are greeted in a pristine art-gallery area filled with natural light, passive solar heat and plants rescued from the street. Topaz Arts exhibits four shows a year (with an emphasis on emerging and mid-career artists) though it does not sell the art work or function as a dealer.

“We view the visual arts as a way to engage the community, whereas the dance is more private,” Mr. Richmond said. But when a choreographer has worked in private long enough and has something to present, Ms. Tanjuaquio is a good person to know. Since 2003, she has led the programming of Dance in Queens, a contemporary dance series at the Queens Museum of Art. Over breakfast (divine pastries from the Jackson Heights bakery Cannelle Patisserie) in their gallery space, Ms. Tanjuaquio and Mr. Richmond related the story of how they landed in Queens. “We had looked everywhere. It was a dream of ours to create a multi-use space,” Ms. Tanjuaquio said. While driving through the neighborhood one day, Mr. Richmond spotted the building’s garage-like door and coveted the property: “I said, ‘How come places like that are never for sale?’”

About a week later, a “For Sale” sign popped up outside and the couple expressed interest. When the owner (who still owns the neighboring properties) asked them what they planned to do with the location, they were nervous: The words “nonprofit arts space” had already made enough sellers anxious. But their luck was better. “He said, ‘That’s perfect. You’re going to buy this place!” recalled Mr. Richmond.

And they did—knowing that by eschewing the foot traffic of neighborhoods closer to Manhattan, they would be giving artists (and themselves) a peaceful, nurturing place to create and present their work, be it visual or performing. The opportunity to share one’s work publicly, without heavy commercial pressure, fills a need that is difficult for mid-career artists to fulfill, as Ms. Tanjuaquio explained: “When you are ready to show something, you want the feedback.”

She and her husband are both still creating their own work, but in order to give themselves some freedom from running the shop, they regularly seek out artists’ residencies away from home. “We do end up focusing our time and energy on other people,” Mr. Richmond said.

But that’s also what makes them local art celebrities. When the three of us drove to the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows, Ms. Tanjuaquio and Mr. Richmond were greeted as beloved neighbors by everyone from executive director Tom Finkelpearl to the security guard who sets up for the performances that make up Dance in Queens.

Mr. Finkelpearl, the museum’s executive director, gave us a sneak peek at the ongoing construction project that will double the museum’s size. The hanger-sized building, which was erected for the 1939-40 World’s Fair, had been home not only the museum but to a full-size ice rink. The renovation, set for completion in 2012, will reclaim the space for galleries, performances and public use. “We have very small galleries that don’t allow us to show much right now,” Mr. Finkelpearl said.

Currently, the galleries house an exhibition of works from the collection that emphasizes architecture, as well as a show of photographs by Luis Márquez, who was the art adviser to the Mexican Pavilion at the 1939-1940 World’s Fair.
But of course, the star of the show is the 9,335-square-foot architectural model of the City of New York. There’s just no way to be blasé about it: The panorama at the Queens Museum is a fascinating must-see.

Constructed as a means of showcasing the city during the 1964 World’s Fair, it represents every building in the five boroughs constructed before 1992. It took 100 people three years to build. “People spend a lot of time looking at it—half an hour easily,” said Mr. Finkelpearl. “New Yorkers are obsessed with New York.”

After the museum, Team Topaz and I capped off our day with a quick visit to the Fisher Landau Center for Art, in Long Island City. It was a chance for me to see one more new venue—and to see some art that Mr. Richmond had helped create: Years ago, he worked for sculptor Richard Artschwager and contributed to a large-scale wooden sculpture of a book, which is in the collection.

From there, it was a short subway ride back to Manhattan. And though the contemporary art at the spiffy Fisher Landau Center had made a strong impact, the vision of the panorama loomed large.

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