In recent years, the FLAG Art Foundation in New York has supported and showcased work by some of the most dynamic artists of our time. Since opening to the public in 2008, FLAG has presented over 100 exhibitions featuring nearly 1,000 artists. According to its website, the foundation’s mission is to organize solo, two-person and thematic group exhibitions highlighting emerging and established artists from around the world, drawing on a diverse network of curators and thinkers from within and beyond the art community.
Over time, the foundation has earned recognition for spotlighting artists early in their careers, unveiling promising talents with strong upward trajectories. Central to this mission is the Spotlight series, which features a single new or never-before-exhibited artwork by an artist paired with a specially commissioned piece of writing.
Inspired by this successful initiative, the FLAG Art Foundation launched FRESH PAINT last summer, expanding its focus to showcase works by both emerging and established artists in the Parrish Art Museum lobby to foster direct engagement with contemporary issues and cultural movements. Developed in close collaboration with the institution, the series allows both groups to bypass the traditional, years-long exhibition planning timelines, offering a more agile platform to respond to cultural events and rapidly present newly created artworks by artists from their networks. Lauren Halsey, who made headlines last year with her monumental temple installation for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop commission, inaugurated the project with her intricate, multi-layered piece portal hoppin hood poppin (2023).
The FLAG Art Foundation has a longstanding history of partnering with museums, including facilitating loans through the Fuhrman Family Foundation and supporting the “Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation Prize,” which provides a $200,000 unrestricted award to an artist along with two solo exhibitions—beginning at The Contemporary Austin in Texas and traveling to FLAG—accompanied by a publication and related public programming. Over the years, FLAG has collaborated with a wide range of local, national and international organizations, such as Art & Newport in Newport, The Harlem Children’s Zone, The Lab and Museum School in New York, New Curators in London and New York’s Road Runners, reaching diverse audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
As the foundation prepares for the second iteration of the project at the Parrish Art Museum, featuring a new work by Derrick Adams paired with long-form text by Brooklyn-born writer and multidisciplinary artist Folasade Ologundudu, Observer spoke with FLAG’s founder, Glenn Fuhrman, who has been working closely with the museum to develop the program.
The Spotlight series at the FLAG Art Foundation highlighted emerging talents, while this series focuses more on work by established contemporary artists. How did you select and invite the participants while working closely with the museum to develop the program?
Both programs highlight recent work by contemporary artists, and we strive to enfranchise both emerging and established artists at FLAG and the Parrish. As FLAG’s Spotlight series and FRESH PAINT only feature one work, we can be spontaneous and flexible with our selections. Sometimes, we seek out specific artists who could interestingly juxtapose or be in conversation with the broader exhibitions on view. At the same time, other times, these presentations stem from more serendipitous interactions with an artist at a dinner or opening event.
What does it mean for a private institution such as the FLAG Art Foundation to partner with a museum, and how do you see this kind of partnership developing over time? Is this part of a broader vision?
FLAG has a long history of working with museums. As a non-collecting exhibition space, we rely on the generosity of others who own and lend. As such, museums like the Hirshhorn, MoMA, The Whitney and LACMA—to name just a few—have always played a central role in FLAG’s programming. We also have a long-standing partnership with The Contemporary Austin in Texas, where we co-sponsor the Suzanne Deal Booth/FLAG Art Foundation Prize; our current exhibition, Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend, comes from that collaboration. I view our relationship with the Parrish as the latest in this series of partnerships and could not be more excited about it.
Collectors have become increasingly active and influential, both on the market and institutional side, in shaping the contemporary art scene and establishing artists. What is their role today, how should they engage with other players and how might their role evolve when they open their collections to the public through a museum or foundation?
I don’t have a strong view of collectors’ roles or responsibilities, as I think collecting is incredibly personal. FLAG does not exist to show my collection, so it differs from other institutions branded more closely around showing their founders’ collections.
Can you tell us who else will participate in the FRESH PAINT series?
We will have to see. So far, this collaboration has been super successful for both FLAG and the Parrish. We are excited about the upcoming program of participating artists and would be very interested in finding other institutions that want to collaborate similarly.
Derrick Adams’s Getting the Bag for FRESH PAINT will be unveiled at the Parrish Art Museum on October 14 and remain on view through January 5.