Inside Nashville’s Sherrick and Paul Gallery
Contemporary art takes centerstage with hopes to broaden the city’s cultural landscape
Nashville, Tennessee truly embraces its place as the heart of the country music industry, and doesn’t take its reputation as Music City lightly. Art dealer Susan Sherrick—after working at some of the most influential galleries in the world—tells CH why she decided to forgo setting up her first gallery in New York or LA in favor of Nashville, “I love New York and the West Coast, and up until recently had some great job opportunities in all of them. However, one of the reasons I decided to move to Nashville was because after my first visit I quickly realized it would be a great city to own a business in. It was growing quickly, and the people I met were wonderful and very supportive of one another regardless of their given profession. There was also a hole in the art community for the type of gallery I would want to bring to the table. Everything seem to fit and the timing was right.”
Since her move to Nashville, Sherrick has already been active in the arts realm, launching The Joint Project, a gallery pop-up series whose previous renditions include a vintage cars, rock’n’roll and motorcycles theme. And so, a standing contemporary art gallery of her own became a logical transition, and Sherrick and Paul gallery opened its doors this November.
Sherrick’s gallery’s focus is one of bringing established international artists to the city. After working at New York’s David Zwirner and SF’s Fraenkel Gallery, she had established relationships with some of the most important contemporary artists working today. And while there are plenty of Nashville galleries focusing on local talent, Sherrick wanted to bring new work to the city. In her inaugural exhibition Sherrick holds true to her promise with works by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Marcel Dzama, Katy Grannan, Barry McGee and William Eggleston. It’s all in an effort to open the door for more contemporary art to be shown in the city, and to enhance its overall cultural landscape.
“In the next year we will be opening with new paintings by Damian Stamer, a retrospective from Katy Grannan, followed by a show of new work by painter Wendy White and then going in to summer with Vivian Maier,” Sherrick tells CH. “I’ve got a couple of things up my sleeve for fall, but nothing I can talk about yet. I still have this dream that the collector who owns Jason Rhoades’ Black Pussy will allow me to borrow it and install it at Sherrick and Paul.”
Sherrick and Paul Gallery is located at 438 Houston St, Nashville, and is open Friday and Saturday
from 11AM to 6PM—or by appointment.
Images courtesy of Sherrick and Paul
