New York’s Avant-Garde Finds a Home in John Giorno’s Former Building

In an art world filled with for-profit “immersive experiences,” Giorno Poetry Systems (GPS) offers the real thing at a refreshing change of pace. The nonprofit hosts interdisciplinary exhibitions, readings, salons, and vinyl listening sessions that pay homage to namesake artist John Giorno’s legacy as “a longtime galvanizer and scene-maker.” In its heyday, its headquarters in a 19th-century loft and onetime YMCA outpost on the Bowery served as The Bunker: William Burroughs’ loft and gathering space where he communed with Debbie Harry, Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Giorno, who later acquired The Bunker from Burroughs’ estate. In doing so, Giorno preserved his former bedroom, near which a new generation of artists, poets, and musicians still convene.

The Bunker in its current iteration focuses on liberating artists from the relentless self-promotion that often feels necessary to “make it” as a creative in New York City. Since becoming executive artistic director of GPS last year, Anthony Huberman has positioned the nonprofit as a vehicle for “peer-to-peer mutual support and artists showing up for other artists, especially in a world so dominated by ruthless competition and billionaire-based philanthropy.” Every Tuesday, The Bunker opens to the public for vinyl listening sessions, shopping in its “artist-curated” book and record store, where works from Giorno’s personal collection (and artifacts from his label GPS records) are interspersed with selections from Nicole Eisenman, Philip Glass, Cecilia Vicuña, and Ricardo Gallo.

“We’re distinct from other organizations because the prompt we give artists is to share their interest in someone else, whether they want to talk about them or curate a performance or host a dinner salon,” says Huberman. “Whatever the format is can change, but the focus is on artists’ perspectives on the work of their peers.”

Where GPS is making real waves is its burgeoning events lineup. Under Huberman’s direction, The Bunker has hosted collaborative art showcases that champion reciprocity. One recent example: a performance by Iceage frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt hosted by the painter Elizabeth Peyton, whose watercolor portraits of Rønnenfelt strike at the soul.