55 GANSEVOORT is pleased to announce the opening of “TODD EBERLE: MANHOLE/HELLFIRE”, on view from November 10th through November 30th at the gallery’s storefront location. The exhibit is a site-specific installation of an iconic photograph by famed artist, Todd Eberle.

In the 1990s, Eberle captured the dangerous opportunities for pleasure that once defined New York’s Meatpacking district in his evocative photograph of the wall sign for the infamous S&M club, “Manhole”.

The exhibitions at 55 GANSEVOORT are entirely visible, at all hours, by peering through the windowed doors. A stone’s throw from the old Manhole, Eberle’s photograph is enlarged to a life-size scale and suspended by chains from the gallery’s ceiling-- it is a sculptural presentation that evokes the activities of the long dormant club. More naïve passers-by than those who used to enter the club might be perplexed by the signage for a no longer accessible moment in the Meatpacking district’s checkered history. It is a stark reminder of how radically the neighborhood has changed in the last decade.

Todd Eberle was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1963. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “Manhole” provides the distilled essence of an Eberle creation: his ability to capture the specificity of a fleeting cultural moment.