Finding the Studio

The Studio Registry began with a studio.

When I first found my way to the Hunters Point Shipyard and eventually into my own studio space, I did not fully understand how much it would change the way I thought about creativity, artists, and the spaces where work is made.

I do not consider myself an artist in the traditional sense. But having a studio gave me room to create, experiment, build, and imagine in a way I had not experienced before. The space itself became a source of momentum. It made ideas feel more possible. It gave me a reason to show up, to make things, and to stay connected to a larger creative environment.

Being surrounded by artists only deepened that feeling. Over time, I began building relationships with the artists around me — visiting studios, hearing about their practices, seeing works in progress, and understanding how personal and layered each artist’s process can be. The more time I spent in these spaces, the more I realized how powerful it is to experience art outside of a traditional gallery setting.

There is something different about seeing work in or near the place where it lives before it goes out into the world. A studio can hold process, history, risk, doubt, humor, discipline, failure, and discovery all at once. It offers a kind of access that is difficult to recreate anywhere else.

That experience is what led me to create The Studio Registry.

The Studio Registry is built around the idea that people should have more meaningful ways to connect with artists, their work, and the spaces that hold their practice. Through studio visits, private viewings, pop-up exhibitions, artist features, and available works, the goal is to create a more personal and direct way to experience contemporary art.

This project is not about replacing the gallery model. It is about creating another path — one rooted in access, relationships, storytelling, and the studio itself.

This is the beginning of The Studio Registry, but the idea has been forming for a while: through conversations, visits, shared spaces, and the quiet realization that being near artists and their work can change how you see everything.

I am excited to begin sharing that experience more widely.

— Roman Guillen
Founder & Director, The Studio Registry