“Living with art is extraordinary,” says scholar, collector and philanthropist Estrellita Brodsky. “Being able to touch it, feel it, see it in a new light. It's very exciting. But not every work in the collection necessarily suits a domestic setting and can be more impactful when seen in different contexts, in dialogue with works not necessarily from my collection.” Hence ANOTHER SPACE, the not-for-profit gallery she opened in New York’s Chelsea in 2015. Through its year-long program of in-house and guest curated exhibitions, talks and events, ANOTHER SPACE offers an exploratory platform for presenting, researching and rethinking the work of Latin American and Latinx artists within a global context. “It’s a place of reflection and closer contact with the works of art,” she says. “Really it came out of the idea of having another location for the more difficult works but grew into something else.”
The daughter of a Uruguayan mother and a Venezuelan father, Estrellita grew up in New York, “loving art and art history.” It occurred to her to become an artist, instead she studied art, writing her PhD thesis on Latin American Artists in Post World War II Paris, an interest derived from her family that has become her passion.
“My mission is to broaden the understanding and knowledge of artists from Latin America and its diaspora,” she says, by exhibiting their art “in greater quantity and in different dialogues. I can take risks with subjects that a more conventional institution or museum can't,” whether it’s showing work that is “reactive to what's going on” in the world, or juxtaposing works by artists from different generations and different backgrounds.
She is keen to broaden museum interest in Latin American art and has also curated exhibitions in the field at major museums. “I learned early on that institutions change from within,” she says. Curators focused on Latin America can “become spokespeople for work from the region.” Hence the endowment she and her husband, Daniel, gave the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard and the positions for dedicated curators of Latin American Art that she has endowed at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at Tate Modern in London.
“I'm excited to spread the word about the importance of really respecting and understanding other cultures. That's really been the focus of everything I've done. And it has had an impact, so I'm told. But we still have a long way to go.”
