One of the flashiest openings in the art world this fall came not in the form of a suite of salable oil paintings or an of-the-moment sculptural showcase but rather from a one-time dry goods storage space which has been converted into the new home of New York’s Company Gallery by an upstart duo called BoND.

The duo is formed by Noam Dvir and Daniel Rauchwerger, partners in business and in life, who say their design was inspired by several different elements of the history of the city’s Queer arts community for whom Company was founded seven years ago.

The gallery’s roster features a veritable who’s who of hot young artists like Jonathan Lyndon Chase and Raúl de Nieves and was looking for a space to help inaugurate “a jump to a different chapter” with the help of some highly skilled hands from inside that same community.

“It was almost like a political discussion a little bit, and I think that we connected with Sophie on that level,” Dvir said of gallerist Sophie Mörner.

After being approached by Mörner, the pair began work on the presentation that eventually became the basis for a conceptual multilevel creation. Using the founder’s “vision” as a jumping-off point, Dvir and Rauchwerger incorporated their well-honed listening skills (both are former journalists) and comfort working within tight budgets to sway the Swedish Mörner into selecting their proposal, which included a unique balance of old and new. 

“It was always about making it work with what we have,” Dvir said.

They started by dividing the first-floor art and support areas in a way that complimented each other. Each one of the subsequent gallery spaces carries a completely different vibe connected by their signature arched portal, which splits the traditional white cube exhibition space upstairs and one-of-a-kind black box space in the basement—with a private bar and dance area to boot. 

“What can you do that is exciting with such a big basement?” Rauchwerger remembers asking. “You know, it can be a really interesting part of the building, and it can just be like, OK, well, this is all storage. And I think as soon as you decide that maybe you can see it as a club or a bar, as a gallery that's completely black, all these things become a bit more imaginative and exciting. So it's just something that you conceptually and then physically created into an exciting space within the gallery.” 

It was always about making it work with what we have.

Their finished work went on full display for the first time when the new space finally opened in October, commencing a creative platform for Queer artists that will help continue the tradition for years to come. 

“The day of the opening, we couldn’t eat, we were so excited,” Dvir said. “For me, actually the biggest thrill of this project was when we saw the art starting to be installed in space, because there is something about it that was so exciting to just see the architecture take a back seat all of a sudden, and there it is. So this was a big project, and I think that it turned out really exciting and will give Company as an enterprise a lot of exciting opportunities.”

It was a moment they say is a milestone for their year-and-a-half-old practice, one that Dvir shares is at once encouraging and tremendously personal to both himself and his partner. 

“It’s an incredible feeling that you're not only working on a project that matters to you. It's also very much monumental in kind of the path that you are charting for you and for your practice. I think it was a really kind of incredible moment for us and hopefully the first of many.”