New York According to: Karen Jenkins-Johnson of Jenkins Johnson Gallery

Jenkins Johnson Gallery was founded in San Francisco in 1996, with its New York outpost initially based on West 26th Street in Chelsea, before founder Karen Jenkins-Johnson upped sticks and crossed the bridge to Brooklyn in 2017. The gallery is wholly Black-owned, and represents both established names – including Dewey Crumpler, Mary Lovelace O’Neal and Gordon Parks – as well as supporting up-and-coming Black artists.  

Chris Waywell: Can you say a little about the neighbourhood where you have your gallery?

Karen Jenkins-Johnson: The gallery is in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, on the east side of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I absolutely love this area. It’s a community with an amazing history of immigrants from the Caribbean. So you get neighbourhoods within neighbourhoods: Little Haiti, Little Caribbean. North of the gallery is the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanic Gardens. South is King’s Theater, a gorgeous, historic venue. 

The gallery is right across the street, so you have this view in winter of the snow-covered park. You have beautiful sunsets. It’s a place where people come together: they grill; they ice skate; they walk; they run; they bicycle. It’s a smorgasbord of all of Brooklyn, a wonderful, smaller version of Central Park. It’s truly a public community gathering place, a reflective place. You know, art is reflective. Art helps open people’s minds. Art is calming. Art asks questions. People have questions with themselves.

This is a time to for people to be reminded: a time for artists, curators and gallerists to go to work. Karen Jenkins-Johnson

CW: How did you come to have a gallery here?

KJJ: We actually own the building. It’s a historical landmark because developers are tearing down these beautiful buildings built in the late 19th and early 20th century. My son Rindon is an artist. When it was time [for him] to get a studio, the cost of a studio versus a place to live was almost the same. So my husband told him: Why don’t you research rents and see if we could find a place that you could use as a studio and we could use as an art centre? We finally landed on this beautiful gem. The owner had it passed down by her family. She didn’t want to live there by herself, so she was thrilled to sell it to us and know that it would become a community place where people would come and see exhibitions. I had just closed my space on West 26th Street. I’d been there nine years. There was a transition period where people were starting to leave Chelsea and go to Brooklyn. 

CW: Is that sense of history, and that diasporic community, important to you in terms of where your gallery is located?

JKK: I’m kind of chuckling because as a Black person going to a Black community of course I’m going to feel at home! I’m excited about being where my people are. It’s wonderful getting to know the community. Not only art: there are Black-owned businesses all around us. There are Black florists, Black restaurants and coffee shops. It’s wonderful being part of a melting-pot community where you just fit in instead of sticking out. Right across the street you have people just setting up drums, grilling. That’s an art in itself, it’s part of our culture. 

CW: What are your local eating and drinking recommendations?

KJJ: There’s a wonderful little restaurant called Winner in the Park. There’s also Risbo, which is a French-Caribbean restaurant. People go there for the roast chicken. Some people think it’s the best in New York. They have wonderful mac ’n’ cheese, too.

CW: What are some of your favourite galleries in Brooklyn (or New York in general)?

KJJ: The Brooklyn Museum was doing cutting-edge things before other museums would take a chance on things. So Brooklyn Museum, that’s a must. The Studio Museum has always been one of my favourite museums in New York. It’s closed at the moment but it’s going to reopen soon. It’s been around for very, very long time, and Thelma Golden, along with Ray McGuire, who’s head of the board, have changed the art canon with that institution and with its artists-in-residence programme, and the supporting programmes they have in their communities in the summer in Harlem. I really enjoy the Whitney and the special things that they’re doing to promote the arts with the Biennial, which is reaching out to America.

CW: What’s a show you’ve seen in New York recently that you particularly enjoyed?

KJJ: The Alvin Ailey [‘Edges of Ailey’ at The Whitney, September 2024 – Februray 2025]. That show was groundbreaking. My brother passed away with AIDS in 1990. It was a horrific time: people were dying like flies; people were scared to be in the same room with him; we were losing creative people all the time. For Adrian Edwards, the curator, to go back and document this after 30, 35 years was really phenomenal. And then the video that they had around one side of the room was really astounding. Hearing people speak about it was really touching. There’s somebody in the White House right now who just doesn’t really care about humanity and climate, and without research we would not have medicines to help people with these illnesses. I think that it’s a wonderful time to have had that exhibition, a wonderful reminder of how far we have come and we still need to go. This is a time for people to be reminded. It’s an important time for artists, curators and gallerists to go to work and bring really important, substantive exhibitions that uplift people.

CW: Who’s the artist you are bringing to Frieze New York this year?

KJJ: I’m bringing a solo presentation by Dr. Esther Mahlangu. She’s a a living legend, an artist and cultural ambassador of the Ndebele Nation of South Africa. She does abstract geometric paintings. I don’t know if you remember seeing her at the Venice Bienniale [in 2024], but she first got major international attention in 1989 as part of the ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, She’s 89 now and she’s continuing to get major new projects. She’s got a 16-panel mural in London at the Serpentine Gallery at the moment. 

CW: How long have you worked with her?

KJJ: We just started working with her in the fall. Part of our job is to help with the American market and connect her with institutions and collectors, to help bring her into the art canon. She’s very well known in South Africa, Africa and in Europe, but she’s not really known here. So we’re thrilled to be able to do that. And that’s what Frieze is all about: bringing somebody that people may not know to America. 

CW: What’s the worst thing about Brooklyn?

KJJ: One of the things that’s happening with Brooklyn, especially since the pandemic, is traffic. People running red lights and parking on crosswalks. These aren’t necessarily people living in Brooklyn, but people coming through.

CW: And the best?

KJJ: Once you go across the bridge to Brooklyn, it’s a whole other world. You get to hear the birds singing. These little parks scattered throughout Brooklyn make the community more warm and inviting. It’s a warm place.

Jenkins Johnson Gallery, 207 Ocean Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11225. The gallery has a solo presentation by Dr Esther Mahlangu at Frieze New York 2025 (Stand B18).

Further Information

Frieze New York, The Shed, 7 – 11 May, 2025. Tickets are on sale – don’t miss out, buy yours now. Alternatively, become a member to enjoy premier access, exclusive guided tours and more.

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Frieze New York is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing its legacy of celebrating artistic excellence on an international scale.

A dedicated online Frieze Viewing Room will open in the week before the fair, offering audiences a first look at the presentations and the opportunity to engage with the fair remotely. 

^{Main image: Karen Jenkins-Johnson. Courtesy: Jenkins Johnson Gallery}