Francisco Correa Cordero, the founding father of New York gallery Lubov, died on August 2. The information was introduced in a put up on the gallery’s Instagram account, which didn’t present a trigger or age.
“He completed and lived for his dream by way of the gallery of a protected and significant neighborhood for artists – what he constructed by way of Lubov can be felt by way of the artwork neighborhood endlessly,” the gallery’s put up reads, which notes that Correa Cordero “handed away peacefully surrounded by what he liked essentially the most – his chosen household, laughter and a lot love.”
Lubov didn’t instantly return ARTnews’s request for remark. A pinned Instagram put up from February 2025, that includes a Photoshopped “WANTED” poster for the seller, lists his birthday as July 14, 1989, which suggests he would have been 37.
The gallery’s presently web site lists a solo present for Kane Huynh for the autumn, with its most up-to-date exhibition having been a solo for Adelisa Selimbašić, which closed on June 21.
Correa Cordero opened Lubov in November 2016 in a second-floor unit at 373 Broadway in Tribeca, lengthy earlier than the neighborhood turned a blue-chip gallery neighborhood. In 2019, Lubov moved to a fourth-floor house at 5 East Broadway, on the border of the Decrease East Aspect and Chinatown, with the opening present being a solo for José Manuel Mesías, introduced by Havana’s El Apartamento as a part of Condominium.
The gallery’s first-ever present was a solo for Chicago-based artist Boris Ostrerov, which was additionally his first New York solo present. Within the years that adopted, Lubov would turn out to be identified for its eclectic mixture of exhibitions, from single- and two-artist reveals to group exhibitions, with each rising artists and well-known names, together with Marsha Pels, Andres Serrano, My Barbarian, Eunnam Hong, Covey Gong, Parker Ito, Mimi Park, Shannon Cartier Lucy, and Mira Dayal. The gallery’s exhibitions would usually be featured by a number of publications, together with the New York Occasions, New York, Artforum, ARTnews, Artwork in America, Bomb, and Interview.
“Francisco supported my first solo gallery present in New York, and so clearly trusted my imaginative and prescient for the set up from the beginning,“ Dayal informed ARTnews in an e-mail. “I wished to work with him particularly as a result of he was one of many few folks supporting labor-intensive, site-specific, and commercially irreverent work, and he was additionally variety and curious. It’s notably difficult to run that sort of program, particularly whereas additionally working for an additional group, and so it was thrilling to see how he expanded the gallery and its neighborhood over time—I particularly keep in mind the keenness over his first present of Shannon Cartier Lucy’s work, his non permanent hair salon, and his glorious present with Mimi Park. Years after we labored collectively, he nonetheless confirmed a lot assist for me and my work. I’m positive he can be missed by so many artists.”
For the NADA Miami honest in 2022, the gallery described itself as “assist[ing] the manufacturing and exhibition of recent work by rising artists by way of commissions and solo exhibitions,” including, “By connecting totally different generations with a number of views, and from varied areas on the planet, Lubov is dedicated to selling missed practices and experimental approaches.”
Born in Mexico Metropolis, Correa Cordero beforehand labored at galleries similar to Exit Artwork, Martos, and Yancey Richardson earlier than setting out on his personal. He additionally labored as government coordinator for Impartial Curators Worldwide (ICI) from 2015 to 2022.
“Francisco was one of many hardest working folks I knew, which was one thing in him that was fueled by ardour and countless pleasure on the prospect of constructing the inconceivable potential,” ICI government and creative director Renaud Proch wrote in an e-mail. “He was a dreamer in the absolute best methods: he spent hours determining easy methods to make one thing occur, as a result of it wanted to occur. His dreaming moved us ahead, introduced artists out of the shadows, rewarded us with bizarre, difficult, significant, thrilling artwork. His dreaming, like a lot of the artwork he championed, was countercultural; it discovered a spot in our lives even when the situations for its existence had been absent. I honor his braveness, I’ll miss him, and I’ll at all times keep in mind his fixed beaming, considerably nervous smile.”
A number of artists, curators, and galleries added their remembrances within the feedback to the put up saying Correa Cordero’s passing. Margot Norton, chief curator of Berkeley Artwork Museum and Pacific Movie Archive, wrote, “Actually totally heartbreaking to listen to this 💔💔💔 what an excellent, delicate champion of artists and fantastic particular person.” San Juan–primarily based gallery Embajada commented, “We love you Francisco amigo ❤️😢 Relaxation in Peace🕊️ 😓.”
Artist Dennis Kardon, who had a 2024 solo present at Lubov, wrote, “This can be a big loss. He was the uncommon gallerist with an genuine instinct for what was heartfelt in work and elevated each artist that drew his curiosity. The artworld wants folks like Francisco to energy the engine of latest artwork. His welcoming appeal and optimism are uncommon and he drew in a complicated crowd of younger (and never so younger!) artists and writers. I hope he’ll dwell on as a aim for everybody in artwork to be open and observe their desires.”
