ModA (Modern Anthropology) Studios, a Los Angeles-based creative organization founded by George Fan, opened its first permanent location at 227 E 24th Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side on June 27, 2025, with a contemporary art exhibition titled “Love.” Curated by Sia Fang, the show features nine artists divided into main-exhibiting artists and a subsection called Untapped, the Collection. Artists include Ellen Carpenter, Magali, A Cult, Ching-Wei Wang, Felisa Nguyen, Ibtisam Tasnim Zaman, Edd Ravn, Hongshan, and Agen Xin, working across performance, installation, painting, and mixed media.
This opening marks ModA's expansion from Los Angeles to New York, establishing a permanent foothold in a major art hub. The exhibition's focus on interdisciplinary, anthropology-driven curation and its inclusion of emerging and student artists highlights a growing trend of alternative, research-based art spaces entering the competitive New York gallery scene. The show's thematic exploration of love, identity, and cultural displacement also reflects broader contemporary conversations around diaspora, belonging, and material experimentation.