The Artists of 30 East 14th Street Show

In November, 2024, Village Preservation released a report detailing the extensive artistic history of the area South of Union Square. Part of our ongoing campaign to designate this area as a historic district, we have also been working to gather letters of support from individuals and institutions with ties to these artists. We ended up in touch with the Susan Teller Gallery, which in the 1990s held a show that focused on the art of artists who lived or worked at 30 East 14th Street, a building within the proposed district. The building was constructed in 1880, and during the 20th century became an artistic hub, with scores of artists living or working inside.    

The Susan Teller Gallery was founded in 1988 and was located in SoHo for 26 years before changing to an appointment-based format. The Artists of 30 East 14th Street show was held at the gallery’s SoHo home in 1992, and featured the work of twenty different artists who lived and/or worked at 30 East 14th Street.   

The brochure’s cover includes a piece by Kenneth Hayes Miller, an artist who maintained a studio at 30 East 14th Street from the 1920s until his death in 1952. Miller became known for his depictions of the salesgirls and shoppers who filled 14th Street and the area around Union Square. Two of these paintings were included in the Artists of 30 East 14th Street show, and his Leaving the Shop was used as the cover image for the brochure.  

We came into contact with the Susan Teller Gallery through the Estate of Charles Keller. Keller was another artist who maintained a studio at 30 East 14th Street and had two pieces included in the show. One of them, People’s Meeting, 1943 is pictured below.  

Keller shared his studio with fellow artist Harry Sternberg. Sternberg was a painter, printmaker, and teacher at the Art Students League, where he would first meet Keller as his instructor. Much of Sternberg’s art focused on exposing social injustice, and the two pieces included in the 30 East 14th Street show were no different. One of the pieces, called Enough (also known as Bound Man), was done by Sternberg in 1947, and is meant to illustrate the post-World War II Labor system. Many workers ended up in the coal, auto, electrical, and steel industries with conditions that resulted in strikes across the nation.  

The show’s brochure provides valuable context for when, and how, the artists came to be at 30 East 14th Street. Susan Teller conducted much of the background research at Associated American Artists, a now defunct New York City art gallery that existed from 1934-2000. Explore the entire brochure as PDF here.

Check out our South of Union Square Advocacy campaign page to learn more about the proposed district, and click here to urge city officials to recognize and landmark this area.