Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space

Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space provides exhibition opportunities to hundreds of independent curators and emerging underrepresented artists.

Its location inside the Essex Street Market creates a distinct opportunity to directly engage with the local community about contemporary art. Artists Alliance Inc is interested in promoting contemporary artwork in all media, to be shown within a local community setting, though we do not promote community-based art. Through an annual open call, we seek exhibitions featuring the work of emerging an

d underrepresented contemporary artists and the curators who seek to exhibit these artistsʼ work in a clear and concise context. In addition, we are particularly interested in exhibits that convey relevance to the local community.

SAVE THE DATE 🗓️ September 16, 6–8pm📍 The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate CenterART/WORK: The Practice and Politics of CETA...
08/19/2026

SAVE THE DATE
🗓️ September 16, 6–8pm
📍 The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center

ART/WORK: The Practice and Politics of CETA and the Arts, 1974–1981 at The James Gallery, CUNY Graduate Center explores CETA artists’ jobs programs that put thousands of cultural practitioners to work across the country.

Mark your calendars for the celebration: join us for the Opening Reception on September 16, 6–8pm at The James Gallery. Come raise a glass, see the show in person, and celebrate with the community that made it happen.

🤲City Lore and Artists Alliance Inc. (AAI), in collaboration with The James Gallery at CUNY The Graduate Center, CUNY, are grateful for major exhibition support from the André and Elizabeth Kertész Foundation (André Kertész), The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (The Andy Warhol Foundation), and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (Rockefeller Brothers Fund).

“I’ve collected material and ideas about these two different tracks [Teddy Roosevelt’s historic taxidermy dioramas and t...
07/16/2026

“I’ve collected material and ideas about these two different tracks [Teddy Roosevelt’s historic taxidermy dioramas and the modern state-mandated python hunt in the Everglades] separately for many, many years, and as I’ve been working on invasive species, but also returning to looking at displays–how species are talked about and how nature is explored–I found that there are direct rhetorics between the two–both having to do with conservation, and that’s something that’s so embedded from when national parks were founded until today.” –Sunny Leerasanthanah

Dive into the research and visuals of “Wild Things,” a new solo exhibition by AAI’s LES Studio Program alum Sunny Leerasanthanah. On view at Cuchifritos Gallery inside Essex Market! 🦏

🗓 Wild Things on view through Sep 19, 2026
📍Cuchifritos Gallery @ 88 Essex St [inside Essex Market]
⏰Gallery hours: Wed - Sat from 12–6p
📸Brad Farwell

07/15/2026

🥟Pinch of Us✨

This year, Artists Alliance transformed the historic Essex Market kitchen (Essex Market) into a communal art studio through “Pinch of Us”, a workshop series led by multidisciplinary artist LuLu Meng (LuLu Meng). Across two workshops, Meng brought together artists Bang Geul Han (Bang Geul Han), Juan Pablo Caicedo Torres (jp_kycto), Ming Lin (Ming Lin), and Sasha Plotnikova (sasha plotnikova), along with the public and District 1 Parent Coordinators, to explore dumpling-making as a mirror of the multiplicitous self, drawing on shared cultural traditions and collective practice.

From Korean mandu and Colombian empanadas to Chinese jiaozi and Ukrainian vareniki, participants gathered to mix recipes, share stories and family traditions, discovering how food can become a vessel for creativity, belonging, and mutual care.

🔗Link in bio for more info :)

🥟Pinch of Us, May 16 and Jun 8, 2026
📍Essex Market Kitchen @ 88 Essex St
🤲Supported by Artists Alliance Inc., Lower East Side Partnership, and Trinity Church. The broader series was made possible by NYSCA, with support from the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and sculpture_space.
📹Manuel Molina Martagon and Chavely Reynoso

👀📖Check out this recent interview featuring AAI’s executive director Jodi Waynberg and artist Azikiwe Mohammed for Ruth ...
06/18/2026

👀📖Check out this recent interview featuring AAI’s executive director Jodi Waynberg and artist Azikiwe Mohammed for Ruth Foundation for the Arts Spring 2026 edition of “Best Wishes.” Read on as they discuss the porousness and place-making offered within artworks and exhibition spaces, functioning not merely as displays of works but as centers of community need. Also up for discussion: belonging, notions of the “Public”, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Black Painter’s Academy (Black Painters Academy), and so much more. 💫 Cover photo features work by former LES Studio Program residents Shanzhai Lyric from their CSRA exhibition turn research site and shop this past winter 🛍️🗽🥜

Last two days to experience “Rituals of Repair,” a powerful exhibition exploring cultural resilience, memory, ritual, an...
06/12/2026

Last two days to experience “Rituals of Repair,” a powerful exhibition exploring cultural resilience, memory, ritual, and transformation through sculpture, painting, and assemblage by Jonathan Sánchez Noa (Jonathan Sanchez Noa), Alejandro Valencia (alejandro valencia), and Carlos Vielma (Carlos Vielma) at Cuchifritos Gallery inside Essex Market. Don’t miss it!

“Rituals of Repair” is made possible through the Dual Workspace Residency Program, presented by Artists Alliance Inc. and Dieu Donné (Dieu Donné). Jonathan Sánchez Noa was the 2024 inaugural AAI x Dieu Donné Dual Workspace Residency Artist.

🗓 Rituals of Repair on view through Jun 13, 2026
📍Cuchifritos Gallery @ 88 Essex St [inside Essex Market]
⏰Gallery hours: Wed - Sat from 12–6p
📸Brad Farwell

“I am interested in painting from a conceptual point of view, I am also attached to the materials being linked to specif...
06/10/2026

“I am interested in painting from a conceptual point of view, I am also attached to the materials being linked to specific sociopolitical aspects, and the velvet painting technique has both these elements…I took inspiration from photographs of my grandmother Antonia Rios, as a single woman, as a married one, and as a widow, and reworked the light of them to highlight only the contours, so I can add these bright tears in the form of silver necklaces.

After hearing through my mother the stories of my grandma, I think she was a woman who had a hard life, especially at those three stages of her life, so that is why I decided to make this portrait of her.”–Carlos Vielma ()

Stop by Cuchifritos Gallery’s Norfolk Street-facing windows to view this intimate work by Vielma, “Llorantes” (triptych), 2026, Acrylic on black velvet, metal chains.

“Rituals of Repair” is made possible through the Dual Workspace Residency Program, presented by Artists Alliance Inc. and Dieu Donné (). Jonathan Sánchez Noa was the 2024 inaugural AAI x Dieu Donné Dual Workspace Residency Artist.

🗓 Rituals of Repair on view through Jun 13, 2026
📍Cuchifritos Gallery @ 88 Essex St [inside Essex Market]
⏰Gallery hours: Wed - Sat from 12–6p
📸

“The catholic religion in Colombia is ingrained in its national identity, and so is fútbol (soccer), almost as a quasi-r...
06/05/2026

“The catholic religion in Colombia is ingrained in its national identity, and so is fútbol (soccer), almost as a quasi-religion. Players are often venerated like saints, their faces printed on candles, and their shirts worn during national holidays beyond soccer matches. The shirt is then a sacred object, easily acquireable as cheap reproductions are sold in the streets for fractions of the “original” price…This idea of suspension between death and life is where I wanted to work to exist, meditating on the long history of political violence that the country has been subject to for the past 60 years, and the entropic nature of national identities within the complex history of Colombia.”–Alejandro Valencia ()

Shown here is a detail of “Mausoleo (The Horrible Night Came to an End),” 2025, Plexiglass, found steel frame, pine, found Colombian soccer jersey, soil, grass.

“Rituals of Repair” is made possible through the Dual Workspace Residency Program, presented by Artists Alliance Inc. and Dieu Donné (). Jonathan Sánchez Noa was the 2024 inaugural AAI x Dieu Donné Dual Workspace Residency Artist.

🗓 Rituals of Repair on view through Jun 13, 2026
📍Cuchifritos Gallery @ 88 Essex St [inside Essex Market]
⏰Gallery hours: Wed - Sat from 12–6p
📸

“The catholic religion in Colombia is ingrained in its national identity, and so is fútbol (soccer), almost as a quasi-r...
06/03/2026

“The catholic religion in Colombia is ingrained in its national identity, and so is fútbol (soccer), almost as a quasi-religion. Players are often venerated like saints, their faces printed on candles, and their shirts worn during national holidays beyond soccer matches. The shirt is then a sacred object, easily acquireable as cheap reproductions are sold in the streets for fractions of the “original” price…This idea of suspension between death and life is where I wanted to work to exist, meditating on the long history of political violence that the country has been subject to for the past 60 years, and the entropic nature of national identities within the complex history of Colombia.”–Alejandro Valencia ()

Shown here is a detail of “Mausoleo (The Horrible Night Came to an End),” 2025, Plexiglass, found steel frame, pine, found Colombian soccer jersey, soil, grass.

“Rituals of Repair” is made possible through the Dual Workspace Residency Program, presented by Artists Alliance Inc. and Dieu Donné (). Jonathan Sánchez Noa was the 2024 inaugural AAI x Dieu Donné Dual Workspace Residency Artist.

🗓 Rituals of Repair on view through Jun 13, 2026
📍Cuchifritos Gallery @ 88 Essex St [inside Essex Market]
⏰Gallery hours: Wed - Sat from 12–6p
📸

“Much like [Gloria] Anzaldua, I see mestizaje as a place of collisions, creating states of hybridity beyond notions of i...
05/29/2026

“Much like [Gloria] Anzaldua, I see mestizaje as a place of collisions, creating states of hybridity beyond notions of identity politics. I think of mestizaje as a method, or strategy, where contrasting, antagonistic elements can be mixed, remixed, or redistributed to reconfigure meaning…The “Mausoleum” is both a reliquary and a self-contained ecosystem where elements of personal and collective identity are subject to decay, placing the shirt in an in-betweenness.”–Alejandro Valencia ()

“Mausoleo (The Horrible Night Came to an End),” 2025, Plexiglass, found steel frame, pine, found Colombian soccer jersey, soil, grass.

“Rituals of Repair” is made possible through the Dual Workspace Residency Program, presented by Artists Alliance Inc. and Dieu Donné (). Jonathan Sánchez Noa was the 2024 inaugural AAI x Dieu Donné Dual Workspace Residency Artist.

🗓 Rituals of Repair on view through Jun 13, 2026
📍Cuchifritos Gallery @ 88 Essex St [inside Essex Market]
⏰Gallery hours: Wed - Sat from 12–6p
📸

“The scale of my work tends to follow the material rather than precede it. To***co led me to papermaking through its rel...
05/27/2026

“The scale of my work tends to follow the material rather than precede it. To***co led me to papermaking through its relationship to sculpture, in which the medium revealed itself through the handling of natural materials and pigments.”–Jonathan Sánchez Noa ()

View “Untitled (Abenaki),” 2026, Cuban to***co cast on handmade paper mounted on linen, in “Rituals of Repair,” a three-person exhibition including additional works by and that considers how art can confront colonial histories while imagining new forms of relation, survival, and transformation across the Americas.

The exhibition is made possible through the Dual Workspace Residency Program, presented by Artists Alliance Inc. and Dieu Donné (). Jonathan Sánchez Noa was the 2024 inaugural AAI x Dieu Donné Dual Workspace Residency Artist.

🗓 Rituals of Repair on view through Jun 13, 2026
📍Cuchifritos Gallery @ 88 Essex St [inside Essex Market]
⏰Gallery hours: Wed - Sat from 12–6p
📸

Address

88 Essex Street
New York, NY
10002

Opening Hours

Tuesday 12pm - 6pm
Wednesday 12pm - 6pm
Thursday 12pm - 6pm
Friday 12pm - 6pm
Saturday 12pm - 6pm
Sunday 12pm - 6pm

Telephone

+12124209202

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