ON VIEW NOW · TWO EVENINGS THIS WEEK · NEW YORK
Hi {{first_name|there}},
Every New Yorker keeps one: the stranger across the platform you still think about. Gwen Yip has been painting them for fourteen years. Spencer Patrick paints the rooms they disappear into. Second Nature holds both, through August 29 — installation views below, along with one Sunday of wine among the paintings and one night for the founder’s work in a pop-up event.
IN THE GALLERY · THROUGH AUGUST 29
Second Nature
Gwen Yip & Spencer Patrick · through August 29
Second Nature, installation view — main and back rooms. Collective Z, 2026.
In the back room, Gwen Yip's strangers are exactly where you left them — across the tracks, turned away, held at a distance by pillars and the dark gap of the roadbed. A transit worker pushes his cart down an empty platform in In Passage; in this year's At the Railing, a figure leans and waits. Fourteen years of the Subway Backs, and not one face — posture carries everything.
Second Nature, installation view — back room. Collective Z, 2026.
Follow them home and you're in Spencer Patrick's main room, where the city's privacies hang wide open: a swimmer face-up just beneath the surface in Float, two figures folded together beneath the houseplants and a glowing window in Artificial, a crushed can on the marble in Diet Coke. Eyes closed, every room arranged down to the last tile — ten paintings of comfort as we've learned to manufacture it.
Second Nature, installation view — main room. Collective Z, 2026.
Collecting Second Nature
Browse the collection online — works, pricing, and direct inquiries or offers — or see it in person, Wednesday–Saturday, 1–6 PM and by appointment.
THIS SUNDAY · SECOND NATURE, AFTER HOURS · 21+
A Study in Taste
Sunday, August 16 · 4:30–7 PM · Collective Z, 325 Broome Street 1W
For one evening we hand the floor — not the walls — to our partners at The Queer Cellar: six featured bites, each created in response to a work in Second Nature and paired with a wine selected by sommelier David Baldwin, so dish, glass, and painting arrive in conversation. Not a seated dinner — move through the show, taste, mingle, and return to your favorites.
A taste of what to expect — bright, seasonal bites built on compressed fruit and fresh herbs; rich, savory flavors balanced by pickled elements and unexpected sweetness; and playful turns of smoke, texture, and familiar ingredients made unfamiliar.
Collective Z community: 25% off tickets with code QCCZVIP
All are welcome
Presented with The Queer Cellar · limited capacity to 20 · solo guests warmly welcome
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 · GREENWICH VILLAGE
Midsummer Viewing Party — Paintings by Alex Z. Wang
Tuesday, August 18 · 6–8:30 PM · 20 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1C
For one night, Dr. Viviane Trinh opens her Fifth Avenue rooms for a viewing of my own paintings — a dozen works from the Luminous Currents and Deep State series, joined by a group of small canvases debuting that night. The setting is part of it: the works seen the way people actually live with them. Wine and light refreshments.
Space is limited; RSVP required.
The week at a glance
Second Nature — Gwen Yip & Spencer Patrick
Through August 29 · Wednesday–Saturday, 1–6 PM, and by appointment
Collective Z, 325 Broome Street, 1W, New York, NY 10002
The Queer Cellar: A Study in Taste
Sunday, August 16, 4:30–7 PM · at the gallery · 21+
Code QCCZVIP — 25% off for the Collective Z community
Midsummer Viewing Party — paintings by Alex Z. Wang
Tuesday, August 18, 6–8:30 PM · 20 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1C · free with RSVP
See you this week,
Alex Z. Wang
Founder & Director, Collective Z
Collective Z · 325 Broome Street, 1W, New York, NY 10002