Pressing Buttons in the Art World

Amy Li Sets Up a Gallery in Her Father’s Button Shop

Featured on online.wsj.com

For 32 years, the He Zhen Snap Button Co. in Chinatown, its storefront cluttered with rivets and snaps, was one of many businesses that catered to the New York garment industry.

Then one day last year, owner He Zhen Li’s daughter—28-year-old curator Amy Li—came home from art school and convinced her father to make room in his shop for a makeshift gallery.

In September 2013, Ms. Li got her father’s permission to use the space to display her first curated art show, titled “Without Consent” in a riff on displaying art in an unusual place without seeking permission from traditional galleries.

“There are so many assumptions attached to the word ‘gallery.’ This is just a space where I work as a curator and art dealer,” Ms. Li said. She started the gallery to give herself work when she couldn’t find a position at a museum or art organization.

“I didn’t know anyone who could introduce me to a job opening,” she added. “That’s why I continue to do this.”

The ad hoc space is made up of three short walls, and Ms. Li often uses the shop window to display other artists’ work. The gallery and button shop operate under the same hours.

In the past year, Ms. Li has promoted 10 art shows that received accolades in the art world. The exhibits have included New York artists such as Lola Montes Schnabel and Alfredo Martinez, who Ms. Li has persuaded to display work in her space by offering them creative license.

According to New York photographer Donna Ferrato, her tenacity makes up for her lack of experience. The artists she has worked with respect her professionalism, quiet temperament and dedication to community building.

“It’s a very precious space,” Ms. Ferrato said. “It is tiny but has a lot of mood and power. Amy has her own stamp on it. No investors are intruding on her vision.”

Artists also seem attracted to the button-shop concept: That an industrial workshop could house art, and that an aspiring gallerist works side-by-side with her father. The artists who display their work with Ms. Li see the space as a rare opportunity, to show artwork in a heavily trafficked neighborhood and in a shop with a unique sense of New York City’s history.

The artist Hans Gullickson screen-printed wallpaper to match the shop’s green tile floors for his solo show, and Ms. Ferrato used grommet rings from the button shop to hang her photos on the gallery walls.

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