Marquee Projects: The First Ten Years
Ten years—the average lifespan of Great Danes—is minuscule when compared to that of old
oak trees (300-600 years) but long for Manhattan art galleries (3 years).1 How then shall we
take the measure of a lifeform as precocious and prolific as the Marquee Projects on its tenth
anniversary?
The numbers are impressive. In ten years, a whopping eighty-some exhibitions opened to the
public, showcasing the works of nearly 200 artists in multiple mediums, often mixed: painting,
drawing, and photography, yes, but also sculpture, ceramics, textiles, video, sound,
performance… Mark Van Wagner invited eleven guest curators and two NYC galleries to
collaborate, attesting to an openness to cross-pollination. Although there are no statistics of
the number of visitors, a back-of-envelope reckoning by the number of glasses washed and
bottles of wine served in a typical opening reception yields a conservative estimate of fifty
people per opening, or 4,000 over the decade.
The photos in the pages that follow tell a deeper story than numbers about the project to which
Mark and Tonja Puffer have devoted themselves—art as community-builder. The gallery, steps
away from the Four Corners on a tree-lined street leading to the marina on the Great South
Bay, is a natural gathering place for visitors from afar and near. Once, a passer-by who was not
known to be an art lover saw the giant white sign “We Buy Gold” etched in golden letters
displayed in the front window and went in to inquire, only to be told that it is part of a show
called “It’s A Sign.”2 A conversation about the nature of art and representation ensued. In
Artist’s Talks and on the stoop, discussions were heard ranging from patriotism (“Flag Me
Down, Pick Me Up,” 2018), immigration and belonging (“Strangers in Stranger Lands,” 2020),
to queering the body ("Somebody Nobody Anybody,” 2022), to name a few of my favorites.
The most important work of the gallery—carework—is often invisible. The consideration that
Mark and Tonja extend to every casual visitor is magnified when it comes to the artists they
support and mentor. Creative blocks, career anxieties, artistic tensions… are soothed by pep
talks into the wee hours of the night. The labor of a gallerist is artisanal: slow, attentive,
meticulous and barely perceptible. Good art, however construed, is a feast for the senses and
the mind; care is the glue that holds it altogether.
What happens next? Is Marquee Projects to be a Great Dane, an oak tree, or some other
beloved, powerful species? Only time will tell. But one thing is certain: a new specimen of an
art gallery has taken root by the sea, robust seeds have germinated from cross-pollination,
deep in the soil an intelligent mycelium network has grown, under the sky an ecosystem
populated by diverse agents has begun to form, and the butterflies have returned. It is
beautiful.
— Dorothy Ko
1 The figure of three years refers to the median lifespan of gallery firms in Manhattan between
1970 and 2003. See Jenny Schuetz, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett and Richard K. Green, “Location
Patterns of Manhattan Art Galleries: Evidence of Agglomeration Economics,” USC Lusk Center
for Real Estate Research Brief (Spring 2011): 2.
2 The show ran Oct. 28-Nov. 19, 2017. We Buy Gold is a work of ink and enamel on paper by
Jeff Feld, 2015.