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Westwood Gallery, located on the Bowery in Manhattan, recently celebrated its 30th anniversary with an exhibition of 80 works of art selected from its history of over 180 exhibitions featuring works by 800 artists. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) Bettmann Archive The exhibition was on display from September 6 through October 25, 2025. The gallery, which was founded in 1995 by James Cavello and Margarite Almeida in SoHo’s Broadway arts corridor, said its program “has a reputation for championing historically overlooked artists, advancing scholarship and serving as a bridge between art, community, collections and education.” Since its inaugural exhibition of overlooked Bauhaus artists of the 1920’s, many of the gallery’s exhibitions have helped restore visibility to underrepresented figures in art history. These artists include Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), revolutionary Art Deco cubist artist; Leo Matiz (1917-1998), Colombian photographer of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros; John Thomson (1837-1921), Scottish photographer who captured 19th century images of the people of China and the Far East; László Paizs (1935-2009), Hungarian artist whose work was influenced by WWII and the Hungarian Revolution; Boris Lurie (1924-2008), Holocaust survivor who went on to co-found the NoArt! Movement in NYC in the 1950s; Lucien Clergue (1934-2014), photographer of Picasso and Jean Cocteau’s 1960 film Testament of Orpheus; and Pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987), who, along with Victor ‘Hugo’ Rojas (1948-1994), was the subject of an 18-year research project culminating in an exhibition at the gallery of 13 mannequin sculptures, created c. 1979-80. Living artists the gallery represents include Danny Simmons, founder of Neo-African Abstract Expressionism; Inger Johanne Grytting, artist in the meditative Mark-Making movement; Don Porcaro, marble and stone sculptor; and Nobuho Nagasawa, an interdisciplinary artist whose Covid-era installation in the gallery invited communal mourning and reflection through sound, ritual and symbolism. The gallery’s founders also support senior artists, serve on nonprofit boards and advocate for children’s education and health. They also produced River of Gold (2018), a documentary film on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Cavello also is the first gallerist elected president of a New York City Business Improvement District (BID), the SoHo Broadway Initiative. Other gallery projects include collaborating with global governments, corporations and technology partners to develop and invest in impactful exhibitions and environments that offer cultural context and engage the public. These projects include the creation of the largest glass sculpture in Asia in 1998, permanently installed in Lincoln House in Hong Kong; curating a large-scale exhibition for the Egyptian government during the United Nations General Assembly; and developing a large-scale, permanent, public art project planned for New York City in 2026. The anniversary exhibition was not just a milestone in the gallery’s history, but it also was a moment to honor the artists who have empowered and worked with it to share their stories. The gallery also said the exhibition was “an opportunity to reaffirm the gallery’s commitment to thoughtful and deeply engaged curation and to continue to shape how art history is written and remembered.” “Our journey is rooted in a deep passion for art history and rediscovering voices that deserve to be heard,” said Almeida, co-founder and executive director. “We’ve spent three decades building a curatorial program grounded in scholarship and fearless exploration. This exhibition is a tribute to the artists who have entrusted us with their legacies,” said Cavello, co-founder and curator. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions
