Mariane Ibrahim

You know, running a gallery is a little more complicating.

But the thing with Seattle is like, since I had that much freedom and I could do what I wanted to do, it was also a place where it wasn't materially and financially not too risky.

I was not asking myself, how am I going to pay the rent?

Because it was at my scale, it was compatible, you know, with the program.

I suppose I have that sort of a gallery spark that you probably have.

You do the shows that you want to see, you know, as a viewer.

So you kind of project yourself as a viewer and say, what shows would I like to see if I push the door of this gallery?

And sort of you create that sort of exhibition.

But with Seattle, I was particularly naughty because I wanted to shock them a little bit more.

I wanted to kind of get them out of their comfort zone.

And I've had all kinds of comments, you know.

So there was a lot of freedom that I was able to do.

My focus has always been and stayed with bringing the artists of African descent forward.

And for me, in that sort of a space in Seattle was a little bit unusual.

But I did meet fantastic and interesting people that would be out of town, that they will sort of come to me naturally because they've heard this and this, and they've heard that they have been doing this project.

But I think my escape from Seattle was to travel around the world and do

the art fairs.

How can you stand out when you are a gallery from Seattle?

That was, you know, the part where I feel like you have to do something to stand out, you know, although whenever they will see, you know, on the label that the gallery is from Seattle, it's

It's pretty exotic for the art world to come from that sort of a periphery.