Will Shott

Will Shott never meant to open a gallery. The space was supposed to be a showcase for his jewelry. Now, with an art gallery in the front and Will's studio in the back, www.willshott is the place where art and jewelry end up in the same room, and sometimes the same piece.

There's a term in hip-hop: flipping. It's a production technique that involves rearranging a beat or loop to create a unique sound. It's about looking under, over, and behind a pattern to tear down a monument and give it new life.

Will's jewelry is like this. It's classic jewelry-making turned inside out — a Black Jesus carved in jade with a gem-studded crown of thorns, a half-emerald, half-diamond engagement ring, a string of ivory pearls transformed into a chain of silver pearls, sometimes with his tag, www., interspersed.

The art on the walls follows the same logic. Headshots of downtown NYC art people by LES-local Lucien Smith. Paintings and objects made from masks, skateboards, feathers, and fur depicting Marcus Jahmal’s experience of growing up in Brooklyn. Birds, candles, and airplanes by Vakahn Arslanian, displayed in frames built from actual airplane debris.

In other words: everything here has been taken apart, reversed, and turned into something new — sometimes even a piece of jewelry you’ll want to take home.

Will studied sculpture in Houston while working backstage for a hip-hop promoter with clients like A$AP Rocky. The scene he encountered — grillz, pendants, chains, bling — sent him to an old-school jade carver instead of back to school. His first piece, the Black Jesus, earned nods from Kendrick Lamar. In 2022, when display cases didn't arrive in time for his NYC showroom opening, he staged an impromptu show with collaborator Trevor Andrew — aka Guccighost. The gallery stuck, and he hasn’t looked back.