Fulcrum Gallery
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Art gallery |
| Founded | January 1993 |
| Founder | Valerie Monroe Shakespeare |
| Defunct | February 2002 |
| Headquarters | New York City , United States |
Area served | SoHo, Manhattan, New York City |
Key people | Valerie Monroe Shakespeare, Tery Fugate-Wilcox |
| Products | Actual Art exhibitions, Artists Talk on Art events |
Fulcrum Gallery—also referred to as "Shakespeare's Fulcrum" or simply "Fulcrum"—was an American art gallery established in January 1993 beneath the Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York City. The gallery was founded by Valerie Monroe Shakespeare. Its design was the work of her husband, Tery Fugate-Wilcox, who also coined the gallery’s slogan: "Without Art we are but Monkeys with Car Keys." Fugate-Wilcox was credited as the photographer for all promotional materials and counted among the nineteen artists represented by the gallery. The name "Fulcrum" was inspired by Archimedes’ lever principle, symbolizing a critical turning point in the trajectory of art history. The gallery dedicated itself solely to showcasing Actual Art until it ceased operations in February 2002, a closure influenced by the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
History
Conceived with artists in mind and crafted by Tery Fugate-Wilcox, Fulcrum Gallery occupied premises at 144 Mercer Street, situated beneath the Guggenheim Museum in SoHo. It earned distinction for its unconventional exhibitions that included rain-painted canvases using water-soluble pigments; living grass artworks; miniature apple trees transformed into glass sculptures; hermit crabs housed in glass shells; suspended transparent tubes each containing water and a live plant; paintings utilizing rust or unpolished precious metal leaf; dust drawings on white canvas; and creations made from soot or debris resulting from explosions.
Artists Talk on Art
Fulcrum Gallery served as the venue for ATOA (Artists Talk on Art), a non-profit group organizing public forums, panel discussions, and film screenings every Friday evening. These panels featured notable personalities such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Tery Fugate-Wilcox, Leon Golub, Arthur Dantos, Larry Rivers, Holly Solomon, Chuck Close, representatives from the Andy Warhol Foundation, Hilton Kramer, and Ivan Karp of O.K. Harris Gallery. Subjects explored included art appraisal, barter systems, distinctions between Actual Art and Virtual Art, collectors’ inaugural acquisitions, ethical dilemmas within art, and the driving forces behind artists’ creations.
Gallery Ads and Publicity
Shakespeare’s Fulcrum Gallery gained prominence within the art community through striking artist-created advertisements by Tery Fugate-Wilcox that appeared in Art Now Gallery Guide and Art in America. These ads were subsequently exhibited as artworks at the Robert Miller Gallery. Controversial opinion pieces penned by owner Valerie Monroe Shakespeare—such as "Plaza Plop" and "Shock Schlock"—were published in the Gallery Guide.
After the Robert Miller Gallery exhibit, Abe Lubelski, publisher of New York Arts Magazine, selected a Fugate-Wilcox photograph featuring Shakespeare’s nude torso for a cover image. Lubelski requested inclusion of profiles of Mayor Giuliani and Hans Haake to leverage controversy surrounding Haake’s "Nazi Garbage Cans" installation at the Whitney Museum. However, Lubelski later modified the cover without consent by reducing Shakespeare’s figure to a circle superimposed on a Nazi flag motif. This unauthorized alteration led to litigation that was featured on Peoples' Court in 2000.
Among its noteworthy ongoing displays was Robert Dugrenier’s all-glass beehive installation, which allowed bees outdoor access to produce wax and honey sculptures inside. This inventive exhibit attracted SoHo locals and garnered international media attention from outlets including CNN, HBO, and the New York Times.
Fulcrum Gallery also hosted live broadcasts such as WNYW's Good Day New York in 1995 and appeared in the motion picture Great Expectations. Exhibitions like Maria Ceppe’s grass “paintings” received coverage on NY1 during Earth Day celebrations.
Coverage from major broadcasters such as CBS, WNYW, NBC, and ABC, along with the New York Times, highlighted an event where Fugate-Wilcox detonated art pieces on Chinese New Year despite Mayor Giuliani’s prohibition on explosives. During a large public dinner, owner Valerie Shakespeare openly condemned this exemption with her remark, "I think it stinks!" which attracted considerable media attention.
Shakespeare's Fulcrum Dinners
Initially, Fulcrum Gallery's openings featured modest servings of white wine, but Shakespeare, drawing from her Arizona roots, introduced culinary hospitality. Following a packed inaugural event where guests had not eaten, she initiated weekly seated dinners for patrons of Actual Art.
In 1997, the gallery moved to a two-story venue at 480 Broome Street in SoHo, featuring an artist-designed outdoor sculpture garden and a firepole, created by Tery Fugate-Wilcox. This new space included a fully equipped kitchen, allowing for weekly dinners accommodating 35 to 45 attendees and occasional buffet-style celebrations for several hundred guests. Memorable occasions comprised a Chinese New Year feast accompanied by Fugate-Wilcox’s artwork, which notably included street fireworks despite Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s ban on explosives, as well as a Nude Portrait Marathon combining traditional paintings with live models framed on-site.
Prominent pieces displayed at the Broome Street location included Robert DuGrenier’s glass beehive; Fugate-Wilcox’s 55-gallon glass tank cultivating algae; and underwater-created rusted steel drawings.
The gallery became well-known for its Tuesday evening dinners, personally prepared and served by Shakespeare along an extended central table. These cozy events hosted 40 to 50 guests, including celebrities such as Michael Kennedy, Mary McFadden, Robert De Niro, Robert Goulet, Eric Douglas, John DeLorean, John F. Kennedy Jr., and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy—many of whom acquired artworks or supported the gallery.
Fulcrum also featured a continuous exhibition of Fugate-Wilcox’s San Andreas Fault Sculpture Project, showcasing models, maps, seismic records, and aerial photographs captured during U2 spy plane flights commissioned by the Geologic Survey.
The gallery ceased operations in 2002 due to the downturn in SoHo commerce following the September 11 attacks. Despite attempts to sustain the gallery—particularly since some employees resided onsite after losing homes—the decline in client visits to New York resulted in Fulcrum’s permanent closure alongside numerous neighboring businesses.
Chronological list of one-person exhibitions
- Tery Fugate-Wilcox: artworks created using shotguns, explosives, lightning; "dust drawings"; metals that oxidize or diffuse over thousands of years; investigations into material existence.
- Nathan Slate Joseph, Israel: wall-mounted works crafted from pigmented and galvanized steel weathered over extended periods.
- Elaine Lorenze: living vegetation embedded within concrete.
- Richard Thatcher: uranium transforming into lead inside metal enclosures.
- Robert DuGrenier: glass structures housing live hermit crabs and a beehive producing wax and honey sculptures.
- Maria Ceppi, Switzerland: canvases featuring living grass formations and scented soap paintings.
- Merrill Wagner: steel undergoing rusting patterns; slate and rocks weathered with pigments.
- Yutaka Kobayashi, Japan: rust incorporated into handmade paper or concrete and stone sculptures; participant in Guggenheim Museum's "Scream at the Sky."
- Dan Dempster, Bermuda: steel etchings formed underwater through saltwater exposure.
- Helene Aylon: linseed oil used to generate bleeding patterns and cracking surfaces.
- Michelle Brody: living plants suspended within water-filled tubes.
- David Myers: lead shot encased within transparent interactive tabletops.
- Alexia Nikov, Russia: paintings composed of metal powders and patinas on canvas.
- Tony Reason, England: rust applied with encaustic techniques on linen.
- William Anastasi: steel plates rusted through periodic water application.
Group exhibitions
- Swords into Plowshares: an exhibition transforming armaments, ammunition, and explosives into artistic creations, featuring missile nosecones adorned with gold leaf by Tery Fugate-Wilcox, ancient cannonballs presented by Dan Dempster, explosive-inspired pieces from Gregg Degn and Fugate-Wilcox, as well as lead bullet artworks by Gregg Degn.
- Dirt, Dust, Rust, Smut & Soot: a display of sculptures and paintings crafted from these natural materials. Highlights include Maria Ceppi’s soil and grass paintings, Elaine Lorenze’s botanical sculptures, Fugate-Wilcox’s "Dust Drawings," rust-based works by Kobayashi, Reason, Nikov, and Dempster, alongside soot pattern art contributed by Brody and Fugate-Wilcox.
- Beyond Virtual...Back to Actual: an exhibition emphasizing the dynamic qualities of materials as they change over time (refer to Actual Art).
- Artist of the Aughts: a showcase offering insights into artistic directions emerging in the 21st century.
- As is: an exhibition advocating for genuine art experiences under the principle "What you see is what you get."
- Rust Never Sleeps: featuring a collective of fourteen artists whose primary medium is rust.
- Time will Tell: curated by Valerie Shakespeare at Squibb International in Princeton, NJ, this exhibit presented artworks that underwent visible transformations throughout its three-month duration.