"Someone said the shapes look like lungs, and another was finding crutches," Julia Trotta says of "On the Absent", the show currently on view in her new experimental gallery, Fake Estate. The paintings, by Brooklyn-based Argentinean artist (and former lingerie designer!) Patricia Iglesias, are based on architectural drawings she found of Brooklyn's Caledonian Hospital. Free form abstractions, these exercises in colorist technique reference the ideas of affliction and disease in a dreamy, beautiful motion that almost makes you forget the context.

So far, Trotta has shown exclusively female artists in the space, which she founded as a showroom and turned into a gallery just eight months back. Fake Estate itself is quite notable—it only fits about six visitors at a time and exists in a former utility closet in the West Chelsea Arts Building on 26th Street. Its name is a homage to the tiny, unlikely plots of land bought by Gordon Matta-Clark (famous for his works in abandoned buildings), an artist who she's always admired.

"Fake Estate is in the same spirit," she explains, and each new show transforms the tiny space. Trotta enjoys collaborating closely with her artists ("Guiding and editing their work in preparation for a show is an amazing process") and plans to keep us guessing with future shows—one upcoming exhibit, "The Realist Imagination," will be guest-curated by renowned feminist art historian Linda Nochlin (Trotta's grandmother!) and the lineup includes a few males in the mix.

Iglesias's work will be on view until April 12th, and for a repeat visit this month, check out the opening for the artist Sarah Chuldenko (a former assistant to Jeff Koons) on April 24th. We'd tell you to bring a friend, but there will be more breathing space for the rest of us if you leave them at home!

Fake Estate is located at 526 West 26th Street, 502-A. Email info@fakeestate.us for more information.

- Susannah Edelbaum

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