Magenta Plains

About the Gallery
Magenta Plains is a contemporary art gallery founded in 2016 by David Deutsch, Chris Dorland, and Olivia Smith. The gallery originally opened on the Lower East Side and recently relocated to a multi floor 4,500 square foot space at the intersection of Canal Street and Bowery. With an intergenerational emphasis, the gallery's mission is to foster context and meaning for the development of new ideas and emerging art as well as to present and preserve older generations of artists' work.  

The gallery represents artists including Jennifer Bolande, Ebecho Muslimova, Rachel Rossin, Ken Lum, Zach Bruder, Don Dudley, the Estate of Barbara Ess, Tiril Hasselknippe, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Alex Kwartler, Liza Lacroix, Anne Libby, Chason Matthams, Peter Nagy, and Bill Saylor.  Additionally, the gallery presents a dynamic discourse through its program of curated group shows and project-based solo exhibitions including Sascha Braunig, Danica Lundy, and David Ostrowski.  

Magenta Plains has presented memorable historical solo exhibitions including William Wegman’s rare, altered photographs and drawings from the 1970s and 80s, Lillian Schwartz’ critically acclaimed debut New York solo gallery show at age 89, German artist Georg Herold’s caviar paintings and sculptures, as well as collages and moving image from acclaimed experimental filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek.

About the Presentation
Magenta Plains will present work by Roberto Juarez in a solo presentation at Independent. Roberto Juarez emerged in the 1980s as a vital voice in the East Village and downtown New York art scene, working alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and David Wojnarowicz. Born in 1952 in Chicago to Puerto Rican and Mexican parents, he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and then UCLA’s Graduate Film Program before moving through Paris and eventually settling in New York.  His work from this era—featured on the cover of the 1987 Whitney Biennial catalog—engaged with cultural and queer identities, the anxieties of the AIDS crisis and his ongoing inspiration from pre-Columbian ceramics, textiles and folk art. Although often referenced as neo expressionist, this work was more personal and self reflective on the chaos and complexity of the time. Blending abstraction and representation, he explores themes of mythology, nature, and cultural hybridity.

Currently living between New York City—where he and a group of artists purchased a building on 8th Street near Tompkins Square Park in the late 1980s—and Canaan, NY. Juarez first gained attention with a solo show at Robert Miller Gallery in 1981. He later expanded into large-scale public murals, creating works for Grand Central Terminal in New York, Miami International Airport, the University of Michigan, among others. His recent international exhibitions include a 2024 two-part survey in Italy at Apalazzo Gallery in Brescia and Palazzo Tiepolo in Venice. Magenta Plains’ solo presentation of Juarez’s work at Independent will mark his first in New York since 2014.