CAVE Gallery

CAVE, the current home of LEIMAY, opened as a gallery and performance space in 1996. CAVE gallery featured 70 visual art exhibitions with 300 artists while also featuring live music and performance art. CAVE Gallery became well-known as a locus for experimentation in all mediums. Here, away from heavy commercial pressure, in an environment that supported exploration, artists were able to present work ‘nakedly’ by offering raw works charged with the spirit of the avant-garde. In addition to studio arts, openings often included music and other kinds of performances. From Japanese painter Naoki Iwakawa to No wave band DNA bassist Tim Wright, European sculptor Villu Jaanisoo,  draughtsman David Opdyke to hundreds of known and unknown artists for ten years, CAVE gallery aggressively combined all manner of media, and each opening was a welcomed attack on the senses.

“…none of these match the Cave, a Williamsburg venue that aggressively combines all manner of media. It’s one thing to buy an abandoned garage and turn it into a gallery/performance space, but Shige Moriya, along with a group of other artists, also decided to call it home… Breaking free from the worn-out models of conventional galleries and spaces, the Cave proves that different arts and media can not only co-exist but enhance each other.” – Jason Gross, The Village Voice, March 7, 2000.

“In 1996 the Cave Gallery opened, the first recognized art gallery on the Southside, run by Shige Moriya and Naoki Iwakawa, which is considered by many to be the foremost avant garde fine art and performing space.” – Yuko Nii, NY Arts, 2002.