Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/417885
also want a venue for showing their acquisitions, and set about creating such a space with the intention of inviting artists to come and create new work. Mana Contemporary developed into a larger project devoted to community and the creative process. What differentiates his endeavor is the desire to show how work is made. "It's not just the product," he says. "Mana is about the process; it's about fostering community; it's about conversation." With that in mind, Lemay installed glass walls in the center's artist studios so that participating collectors and visitors can observe both the working process and the end result. "We don't get that at art fairs," he notes. "There, art is just a commodity." That hasn't stopped Lemay from setting his sights on the world of art sales as well. Mana Contemporary's first selling show, curated by artist Ray Smith, took place in New Jersey this past summer, and Lemay will further expand its commercial activities during Art Basel. From December 4-7, Mana Contemporary will host "Mana Monumental," a fair devoted to monumental work of the variety Lemay himself makes. Two additional fairs will debut simultaneously in Miami: "Dirty Geometry," an exhibition of contemporary art from Latin America, and "Recent Projects by Gary Lichtenstein Editions at Mana," featuring limited-edition silkscreen prints. "I hope and believe that the world will copy me," says Lemay of his ultimate goal for Mana Contemporary and the community-based model he has established in Jersey City. That marker of success, it seems, isn't far off: Kushner Real Estate Group is already building artist residences and studios right behind the original Mana complex. Yet Lemay, who has plans to open Mana Contemporary centers in Los Angeles, London and the Far East, might simply beat any aspiring imitators to it. "It's not just the product, Mana is about the process; it's about fostering community; it's about conversation." —Eugene Lemay Earlier this year, Lemay held "Strata," an exhibition of his large-scale works at the space. PHOTO BY KENDALL TICHNER 124 CULTURED