Art Cake

Art Cake is a gallery and production venue in Sunset Park. Founded in 2019, it operates a dual model where event space rentals support ten affordable artist studios selected through rotating curator committees.

Art Cake is a production venue and artist studio complex built on an economics of exchange. Founded in 2019 by Cordy and Ethan Ryman in a converted 1920s industrial building in Sunset Park, the space operates a dual model: the ground floor rents out as a flexible 5,000-square-foot event space for film shoots, photo productions, performances, and exhibitions; revenue from those rentals supports ten affordable artist studios upstairs, where residents selected by rotating committees of New York curators, writers, and artists work for one to two years. The building itself carries history—it housed a paint distribution factory and eight years as Financier Patisserie's headquarters before the Rymans gutted and renovated it with architects Smith & Sauer. What animates Art Cake is the belief that sustained studio practice requires both space and financial viability. The venue doesn't subsidize artists through grants or appeals for donations. Instead it builds affordability into the operational structure itself.