Gallery 18 celebrates Women’s History Month

In celebration of Women’s History Month, Gallery 18 at The Riverdale Y opened an art exhibit this past weekend that puts women’s art on display.

Artists Andrea Mohin, Beverly Karnell, and Devon Valentin-Dixon will have their art on display at the gallery through April.

Valentin-Dixon grew up on Sedgwick Avenue and her history with The Riverdale Y is nearly lifelong.

“I started at The Riverdale Y with the after-school program,” she said.
“That’s where I made a bunch of my friends, that’s where I met my husband.”

Eventually, she taught Hands On Art at The Y and worked at the after-school programs she had once attended. Now, at 33, Valentin-Dixon works at SAR Academy as a welcome ambassador, and works on her art in her free time.

What inspires her?

“I love the Bronx,” Valentin-Dixon said. “I love community and that’s I think at the root of it.”

Notably absent — and sorely missed — was the exhibit’s curator, George Gutierrez, who died this past week. He is remembered fondly by his wife, Romina Carrillo Gutierrez and friend, Valentin-Dixon.

Valentin-Dixon met Gutierrez through her husband, Charles.

“That was George, to know him is to love him,” said Valentin-Dixon.   “George was the kind of person that you meet and suddenly you see things differently. Life is more colorful.”

Carrillo Gutierrez said that her and her husband were partners, in more ways than one.

“He was the curator and I did the back end,” she said. “One of the artists joked that I was the muscle.”

Carrillo Gutierrez said that her husband knew when he picked his artists for this March exhibition that he was going to pick Valentin-Dixon.

“He knew that she was painting because he followed her on Instagram and he was just encouraging her. He would write comments beneath her posts and text her to tell her he liked a piece or to push her to keep working.

“He could see something in me that I struggled to see myself, and I will be forever grateful for that,” remembered Valentin-Dixon.

Mohin’s involvement in the show was due in part to her asking to be part of one of  Gutierrez’s shows. Mohin has been an award-winning photographer for The New York Times since 1989. In the last 15 years, her photography has focused on the arts scene of New York, specifically ballet.

In November, when Mohin requested to be part of a show, Gutierrez asked what kinds of photos she could provide and after clarifying that all of her arts photography was owned by The Times she suggested her personal photos of the view from her house in the country.

Gutierrez was eager to include Mohin’s work as it would be a side of her and work that nobody had ever seen.   

For Saturday’s opening, she contributed four pieces of art, one of which, she said is very different from the rest.

Valentin-Dixon said she typically sticks to acrylic and watercolor but will try anything she can get her hands on.

“Just seeing a good color palette on someone’s outfit in the wild on the bus, it could be flowers at the corner store, a good playlist,” she said.

In fact, one of her pieces on display is drawn from flowers she spotted at her nearby bodega.

The piece that stands out though is inspired by her time in North Carolina. Valentin-Dixon has one piece that is a barn quilt,

“Before the pandemic, my husband and I moved to North Carolina because we were worried we weren’t going to be able to afford living together in New York,” she said. “So, we were there for like six months before we were married. We saw a bunch of barn quilts down there, and they’re not so much a thing up here and it was something that we would look for while we were down there. We saw a lot and it’s kind of a big wooden piece and it’s got a big state fair ticket on it.”

All artwork on display is available for purchase, Carrillo Gutierrez said they sold five pieces at the opening reception alone.

Carrillo Gutierrez took over the gallery while her husband was sick, but said she would not be continuing to work at the gallery.

Without her husband’s help, she said it took a village to put everything together.

For this last exhibition, she joked that for set up “only one guy helped us, it was all women power.”

Having her work be a part of something she grew up in really resonates with Valentin-Dixon and despite having had her art on display at the gallery over the past year it still means a lot to her.

“I can’t say enough good things about Gallery 18 and The Y,” she said. “I’m always happy to be in the same room as these people, especially when I’m not the only woman in it.”

The gallery, located at 5625 Arlington Ave., is open Sunday through Friday during regular business hours.