The OK Harris Gallery is an art gallery located at 383 West Broadway in SoHo, New York City.
Previously located at 485 West Broadway, in the early 1970s it hosted exhibits by Alan Vega, some of which were advertised as "Punk Music" [1] predating the later Punk rock by some years.
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Ivan C. Karp was co-director of Leo Castelli Gallery from 1959 to 1969, during which time he was involved in launching the careers of pop artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Tom Wesselmann and John Chamberlain. In 1969 he broke away and founded OK Harris in the SoHo district of Manhattan. As the first gallery on West Broadway OK Harris led the way in the area's development as a center of fine arts.
In addition to being at the forefront of the Photo Realist movement in 1969, OK Harris was among the first galleries to exhibit the work of Duane Hanson, Deborah Butterfield, Manny Farber, Richard Pettibone, Robert Cottingham, Robert Bechtle, Marilyn Levine, Nancy Rubins, Malcolm Morley, Luis Jiminez, Jake Berthot, Jack Goldstein, Porfirio DiDonna, Al Souza and Arman.
OK Harris exhibits contemporary art and photography, and on occasion mounts shows of antiques and collectibles. In its capacious facility, it is able to mount 5 one-person shows simultaneously and has seven such exhibitions in the course of a year. The gallery maintains a complete photographic archive on its exhibitions from the time of its inception, freely available to students and scholars for research.
The gallery attempts to show the most significant artwork of our time without prejudice as to the style or materials employed, the sole criteria are innovation of concept and maturity of technique.