For Glenn Aber, art has always been intertwined with compassion. After a successful career in textiles, Aber sold his business and retired at the age of 48. He felt as though something was missing in his life, which then took a sudden turn.
“I got involved with an orphanage in Costa Rica for abused children and there was one girl named Anita who had been abused by her mother’s boyfriend and was unable to walk,” says Aber. “I was able to bring [her] to New York after about six months.” Aber supported Anita and secured a vital surgery at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital to help her walk again. “After two months she stood up from the wheelchair and started walking,” says Aber. “That was probably the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done in my life. Seeing her walk, I started crying like a baby.”
That act of compassion led to another: “You do something like that and it’s really very meaningful,” says Aber. So, when his wife a short time later mentioned a New York Times article featuring artists in Vietnam and encouraged him to travel there to buy art, Aber jumped at the chance. He was soon in the country he had protested on behalf of during antiwar rallies as a youth, and he turned his attention to supporting dozens of Vietnamese artists.
“Within the next year and a half, I probably accumulated 225 to 250 paintings, all of Vietnamese art,” says Aber. “People weren’t traveling much to Vietnam at that time, so the artists were really struggling, and I was able to help them.” He soon had hundreds of paintings at his home in Purchase, and he needed to open some kind of gallery space to house his growing collection. He was also carting pieces to roughly nine art shows a year in far-flung locations like Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles, and was looking for a more stable setup.
And so, last year, Ai Bo Gallery was born. A stylish space just off Purchase Street on Purdy Avenue, Ai Bo Gallery reflects Aber’s deep of love Southeast Asian art, while at the same time offering plenty of sleek sculptures and daring contemporary works that would be at home in a living space, business, or office.
“When I am in the gallery and I see people are around art, [I see how] it changes their whole mood and they forget about issues that … are troubling them,” says Aber. “So, here I am at 76 and I’m flattered because people are buying art that I love and I’m making them happy. What could be better than that?”
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