Jenna Ferrey's foray into the New York City art scene started serendipitously. During what she calls an "existential crisis" while studying for a PhD in philosophy at the University of Calgary, Ferrey impulsively applied to Sotheby's art business program. "I was so certain that I wanted to move to New York and that I loved art and wanted to be in that world," she says.
The world Ferrey stepped into in 2017, however, was not what she anticipated. "It was a weird time to move to the United States," she says. "And it got increasingly weirder as a Canadian." It wasn't just the political climate that gave her pause. Shortly after landing a job working in an art gallery on the Lower East Side, the pandemic forced the space
to close its doors indefinitely.
Ferrey stayed in the city because she didn't want to bring COVID-19 back to her small hometown in Alberta and passed the time by developing the concept for her gallery, Trotter&Sholer, a moniker that combines her grandmothers' maiden names. While searching for a space to present a pop-up exhibition, she found a spot on Suffolk Street and began mounting shows that took advantage of the gallery's large windows, allowing passersby to enjoy work comfortably throughout the pandemic.
Since then, Trotter&Sholer's reputation has soared. Ferrey has mounted two exhibitions curated by the bedazzled New York editor Mickey Boardman, and the gallery's first show of 2026 featured the lively abstract paintings of Big Apple artist Jane Haimes. Ferrey also does a fantastic job of spotlighting Canadian artists.
The gallery's most recent exhibition was a solo show by artist-curator Jude Abu Zaineh, a Palestinian-Canadian talent whose interdisciplinary oeuvre was a highlight at Art Toronto in 2024. Montreal sculptor Jannick Deslauriers was part of a duo show last spring. Ferrey has collaborated with Kristofer Sakamoto-Marshall of the nomadic gallery, The New Other, bringing Jaspal Birdi - a Toronto- based artist whose hypnotic pieces combine photography and painting - to present her first solo show in New York.
"There's so much support for Canadian art in Canada, but you don't want to just be siloed as a Canadian artist," Ferrey says. "To in any way push Canadian artists into a more global art market can be really valuable."