Life & Work with Albert Abdul-Barr Wang

Today we’d like to introduce you to Albert Abdul-Barr Wang.

Hi Albert, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, my name is Albert Abdul-Barr Wang and I am a conceptual artist and University of Utah photography student based out of Salt Lake City, UT, and Los Angeles, CA. In December 2020, I co-founded Office Space in Salt Lake City.

This gallery presents every other month challenging and cutting-edge exhibitions of artists that address political and controversial themes, as well as highly conceptual work(s) which do not fit the mold of a traditional, uncontested space. Due to our recent success this spring in joining the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) as an international gallery, we have expanded from our original Utah location into a second gallery space out in Burbank. In our Los Angeles location, this endeavor is being led by co-director Patrick Winfield Vogel, who is a recent graduate from CalArts; the Salt Lake City gallery space is managed by Francesca Ball and Justin Watson as an assistant director.

Originally, this gallery was founded as a response to both COVID-19 and coping with two near-death experiences due to anti-Asian hate in Utah. I had won the Working Artist grant as an undergraduate student so I wanted to give back to the community by helping to start an in-your-face, bold contemporary art space that would go against the grain of the conservative and pretty stale local Utah art which has been focused mostly on Mormon indoctrination and the promotion of white privileged manifest destiny. As part of our NADA membership, our galleries continue to push forward the boundaries of contemporary art while raising awareness for sociopolitical issues such as race, feminism, or environmentalism.

For our Los Angeles space, we just finished up our two shows featuring Norman M. Klein and Chelsea Emuakhagbon. Currently, we have Ruoyi Shi exhibiting there with some brilliant video art pieces and installation that addresses cultural and humanistic differences and similarities. It is a must-see! Most of our focus as a team is to implement a support system for both emerging and mid-career artists who desire to experiment within the parameters of their own art practices in conjunction with a homegrown area.

Right now we look forward to being in our second round of the ArtFair 14C out in New Jersey (https://artfair14c.com/) so we look to meeting all of you there in our booth soon! I would like to thank our whole gallery staff, my mom Ruey, and my girlfriend Emily for their support!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
This has not been a smooth road. We have experienced every adventure ranging from having to switch physical spaces at the last minute to art fair rejections. Often our team has faced trying to sell and promote some very experimental and difficult-to-sell artworks. Regardless, we will continue on this path for our curation.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Our galleries encompass a representation of fifty artists who live in various areas ranging from Poland to Venice Beach. We specialize in a mixture of traditional and cutting-edge contemporary art ranging in media from paintings to software/new media art.

We are most proud of our teamwork across two cities as well as our membership in NADA where we are able to interface with the larger art community across the globe. In Utah, we are the main international art gallery that pivots around a solid and sometimes risky approach to curation that focuses on themes and community.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Our quality for enabling our success has been our open-mindedness and not letting social norms determine how an art gallery should be operating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.officespaceslc.com/ and https://www.albertabdulbarrwang.art/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officespacegallery/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBu62TCflLMfHRBmG0Q9XKQ

Image Credits
Office Space and Office Space Burbank