We are thrilled to announce a new Symposia! program featuring CANADA Gallery co-founder and artist Wallace Whitney, alongside artists Astrid Dick and Michael David.

Wallace Whitney has spent decades balancing a remarkable career as a painter with his visionary role as a gallerist. In 2000, he co-founded the now-legendary artist-run gallery CANADA in downtown Manhattan—at a time when few in the art world would venture below Houston Street. Since then, CANADA has grown into one of the most influential contemporary galleries in the world.

This program offers rare access to Wallace’s expertise: in-depth critiques of your work, professional practice insights, and storytelling drawn from his 25+ years in the New York art world.

Special guests will include internationally recognized CANADA artists Katherine Bradford and Kahlil Robert Irving, who will join Wallace in open discussions about their work, their relationship with the gallery, and the dynamics of artist–gallerist collaboration. These sessions will feature candid conversation and participant Q&A.

Over the course of the program, participants will take part in three rounds of individual critiques with Wallace, enriched by perspectives from our esteemed mentors. Running alongside the critiques, Wallace will share the under-told story of founding and sustaining CANADA Gallery—shedding light on the challenges and opportunities of simultaneously being an artist and a gallerist. He will reflect on navigating the evolving New York art scene, visiting hundreds of artists in their studios, and helping to shape the careers of many.

Crucially, Wallace will also pull back the curtain on his curatorial process: how he selects work for the gallery, considers historical context, and engages with the contemporary moment.

Spanning eight months, this program is designed to give artists the time and space to absorb feedback, deepen their practice, and grow through sustained mentorship. The experience will culminate in an exhibition at Art Cake, with final selections presented to Wallace, Astrid, and Michael.

Course Tuition: $4250.00
Scholarships and payment plans available.

Wallace Whitney: is a NY based painter. His work has been the subject of many solo exhibitions, most recently Take the air at Ceysson & Benetiere in New York. Wallace is also an educator who has taught at the University of Tennessee and the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. His practice includes writing about art including catalogue essays for numerous artists and for magazines. Wallace has curated exhibitions in the United States and abroad, most notably Unfurled: Supports/Surfaces 1966–1976 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit in the spring of 2019.  Wallace is a co-founder of the artist-run gallery Canada.

Michael David: Guggenheim Fellow, recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, Yaddo and Edward Albee Fellow, Michael David has been exhibiting internationally since 1981, first with the historical Sidney Janis and then with M. Knoedler & Co. Exhibiting widely throughout the United States for 40 years, he has been the subject of much historical and curatorial acclaim. His most recent solo shows “The Mirror Stage” and "Night Time with Dreams and Mirror" were held at Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta, GA. His work is included in many prominent private collections and the permanent public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The Houston Museum of Contemporary Art, the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Margulies Collection in Miami and the Edward Albee Foundation in Montauk NY, and was the subject of a one-person exhibition at Aspen Museum of Art.  Considered an inheritor of Abstract Expressionism, David’s abstract work primarily centers on the use of a densely layered surface to facilitate a direct and immediate spiritual experience. He often incorporates religious iconography and symbolism, art historical themes such as the nude, and contemporary politics into his paintings resulting in a critical dialogue between the layered abstraction of the surface and the integrated representational imagery. Over the last decade, David established the Fine Arts Workshop in Atlanta and the Yellow Chair Salon, working with artists on an immersive one-on-one basis, helping to develop their voice and professional practices, finding exhibition opportunities and taking their individual expressions to the next level. His mentorship practice expanded to include residencies and workshops in Atlanta , Dallas, TX, Truro, MA and Brooklyn, NY. He has taught painting at Princeton, was head of the Graduate Painting Department at SCAD in Atlanta, and lectured and served as keynote speaker at many universities and art centers across the United States.  Over the last 12  years David has established, directed and curated two of the most successful galleries in Brooklyn: Life On Mars and M. David & Co.

Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Astrid Dick is a painter working and living in Paris. Dick has been a recipient of the Milton and Sally Michel Avery Visual Arts Fellowship at Yaddo and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, among others, and shown her work through solo and group shows in Europe, the US and Argentina, such as the Grand Palais in Paris and the Manoir de la Ville de Martigny, Switzerland. Most recently, she had shows at Moments Artistiques in Paris, MDavid & Co. Gallery, ArtCake and Below Grand Gallery in New York, Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta, and her work was reviewed in CULTURED, Hyperallergic and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. Her art writing has appeared in ArtPress, the Brooklyn Rail and Two Coats of Paints, among others. She holds a PhD in Economics from MIT. She has taught undergraduate and graduate university courses at INSEAD in France, where she was tenure-track faculty, as well as New York University and Columbia University.