P·P·O·W Meditates
Thursday morning, I rushed over to Tribeca for the 8:45 a.m. guided meditation at P·P·O·W Wendy Olsoff, the gallery’s co-founder, had posted about the Thursday ritual on Instagram a week earlier. The post: a ChatGPT-generated image of her half-miniature schnauzer, half-shih tzu (a schnau-tzu) Ollie soaring through a clear blue sky. The meditations are free, open to the public, and led by Douglass Stewart.
Senior Director Trey Hollis met me at the door. We did breath work and moved through several positions, among a Guadalupe Maravilla and a Portia Munson, ending in Shavasana. The lights were off, and the eight kinetic motorized Martin Wong Popeye sculptures, currently on view at the gallery, were still, just like us.
Olsoff, whom I reached in Chicago, began working with Douglass in 2018 or so (she still sees him one-on-one every week) and introduced him to the gallery shortly thereafter. He’s accompanied the gallery and its artists through every move: from West 22nd Street to Zoom during the pandemic and now to Tribeca. “He radiates generosity,” she told me, and I agree. Regulars include co-founder Penny Pilkington, James Cohan preparator Roy Williams, and P·P·O·W artist Phoebe Helander.
I asked what she hoped the staff had taken away from the meditations. “Mindfulness,” she said, and a capacity “not to be so reactive.”
“Working in a gallery is so stressful, it’s such stressful work,” Olsoff said. “I always meditate before art fairs. I like Miami because I get to do it on the beach.”
What about Basel? “My room,” she said.