About Us

Yellow Chair Salon was founded on a simple conviction: meaningful artistic growth happens in community.

Long before it became an educational platform, Yellow Chair Salon was a spirit that emerged around Michael David’s gallery, Life On Mars. On Sundays, artists, writers, curators, collectors, and friends would gather, often spending hours talking about art, culture, politics, sports, and the realities of creative life. At the center of these gatherings sat a worn yellow chair—a painting-studio chair that had traveled between Atlanta and Brooklyn for years.

The chair became an unlikely symbol of the gallery itself. It represented openness over hierarchy, dialogue over performance, and the understanding that artistic growth happens not only in the studio, but through sustained exchange with others. It was a place where conversations began, friendships formed, and creative communities took shape.

When the pandemic brought physical gatherings to a halt, that spirit found a new home online. What began as a series of informal conversations initiated by Michael David evolved, in partnership with the Truro Center for the Arts under the leadership of Cherie Mittenthal, into a virtual residency and mentorship initiative. During a period marked by isolation and uncertainty, artists gathered across screens to share work, exchange ideas, and remain connected to a broader creative community.

What emerged was something unexpected. The virtual format made it possible to bring together an extraordinary network of artists, educators, critics, curators, and gallerists from around the world. Today, the Yellow Chair Salon community includes artists working across the United States, Ireland, England, France, Chile, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, and beyond, united by a commitment to rigorous dialogue, artistic growth, and mutual support.

As the community expanded, so did its offerings. What began as a single gathering evolved into a constellation of programs designed to support artists at different stages of their development.

Salon provides an intimate space for critique, inquiry, and accountability, where artists come together to share work, exchange ideas, and deepen their practice. Symposia! builds upon that foundation through sustained mentorship and access to leading artists, educators, critics, and curators. The Independent Study Program offers a fully customized ecosystem of mentorship, exhibitions, studio opportunities, and professional development tailored to the needs of each artist. Within this framework, PODS creates highly personalized circles of artists and mentors engaged in ongoing dialogue, critical exchange, and shared growth.

Today, Yellow Chair Salon enters a new chapter through its collaboration with Art Cake in Brooklyn. Expanding the Independent Study Program and Master Class offerings, the partnership provides dedicated studio space for artists while creating new opportunities for artistic production, research, critique, exhibitions, and public engagement.

More than a workspace, the studios function as an extension of Yellow Chair Salon’s founding philosophy: that artistic practice flourishes when supported by meaningful relationships, thoughtful mentorship, and an engaged creative community. Through studio access, residencies, visiting artists, exhibitions, public programs, and sustained dialogue, artists are given the space not only to make work, but to situate that work within larger conversations.

This collaboration builds upon Art Cake’s longstanding commitment to supporting artists through affordable studio space and community-centered programming. Together, Yellow Chair Salon and Art Cake are creating a framework where studio practice, critical engagement, education, and exhibition opportunities can exist as part of a single, interconnected ecosystem.

What began around a worn yellow chair in a gallery has grown into an international community of artists connected by conversation, mentorship, and a commitment to creative growth.

The yellow chair remains what it has always been: an invitation to join the conversation.