Following a successful grand opening, Travessia, a gallery and boutique located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, embarks on its next journey with the first of the much-anticipated rotating solo installations. Artist Julia Chiang will be the first to exhibit her work at the independently owned gallery and boutique beginning June 1st. Housing international designers and artists from all over the world, Travessia fuses together fashion and art.

Julia contributed to Travessia’s group show during the retail space’s grand opening. The group show featured some of the world’s most imaginative artists, including Yuri Shibuya, Harumi Ori, Rob Mars and filmmaker duo Coan “buddy” Nichols and Rick Charnoski. These diverse and imaginative artists, as well as Julia, all share Travessia’s passion and ability of adaptation and creation. Seamlessly uniting art and design, Travessia’s founder, Hiroko Rodriguez, also offers sought after and rarely found women’s fashion brands such as Baum Und Pferdgarten, Custommade, StarStyling, Margarita Saplala and Travessia exclusive, Noma and Klasica.

As the first solo installation at Travessia, Julia Chiang’s Emigrate is a site-specific piece for the gallery. In this installation Julia tried to keep in mind one of Travessia’s concepts of transition and movement, the thought and belief that everything grows and flourishes through travel and exploration.

“Tools and functional items are often the first signs of discovering new civilizations or cultures, so I wanted to create a piece that reflected a sense of discovery,” says Julia. “Travessia is a store that, to me, is a melting pot of all Hiroko’s loves, travels and discoveries. Emigrate is a piece that relates to a moment in time – a feeling of stumbling upon something left behind or lost, something in transition, an arrival or departure.”

Julia Chiang is a graduate of New York University where she studied both Art History and Studio Art. Julia works with various materials ranging from hand embroidery and etched mirrors to large-scale installations. Her work has been shown in the Kantor / Feuer Window, Deitch Projects and Spencer Brownstone Gallery. Her new installation, “Emigrate,” is scheduled to open June 1st at Travessia.

Emigrate will consist of several empty vessel forms that function as planters. Individually hand made with no glaze, the vessels are left raw and organic in form and function. Placed throughout the boutique, this installation will encourage the public to explore and experience the exhibition and the space around and within it. The exhibit comes together as an installation inside Travessia, but to Julia, they are individual pieces that can be seen as sculpture or functional everyday items.

Travessia, located at 176 Stanton New York, NY, is the first gallery and boutique that is constantly evolving, allowing the space to become transformed time and again. Julia Chiang’s exhibition, Emigrate, will run from June 1st through July 15th. Emigrate is an inspirational journey created for Travessia that shouldn’t be missed.