RUBY/DAKOTA

We live in a world of oversharing. But oftentimes, in the endless stream of content and confessions, it can feel like we’re not hearing the truth. If the antidote is intimacy and listening with care to the people around us, then the art you’ll see at Ruby/Dakota may have perfected the formula.

Shows here ask us to tune in, take note, and listen with care to the messy, sticky parts of the soul. Past shows, with titles like ‘Morning Pages’, ‘Slumber Party,’ and ‘Stretch Mark,’ listened in on coming-of-age conversations and the difficulties of telling an authentic and personal story about the inner working of the heart and mind in today’s media-saturated world.

It's as if the values of the previous generation’s artists, curators, and gallerists aren’t the benchmark here. Instead, Ruby/Dakota plunges you headfirst into the voices of young people you’ll find in downtown NYC and the psyche of a generation.

Hannah Studnick opened Ruby/Dakota in the summer of 2024. After years of working in reality TV (Teen Mom, Making a Momager, Love Match Atlanta, MTV Cribs), and after her twin sister passed tragically in 2018 when they were both twenty-five. If her mother hadn’t named them Hannah and Emma, she would have named them Ruby and Dakota. The gallery is as much about honoring Emma as it is about looking to the future with hope and the belief that art is a vehicle for living well in it.