Shawn Hosner co-founded Thinskspace, a New Contemporary Art
Gallery. (photo courtesy of Thinkspace Projects)

Co-founder of Thinkspace Projects, Shawn Hosner, died of breast cancer on Feb. 14. She was 57 years old.

Thanks to Hosner’s energy, attention and love, Thinkspace is in its 19th year. As the senior director and financial coordinator, she helped create and move the gallery into a giant art complex space in the West Adams District. Her devotion to creating exciting opportunities for artists to present their work and investing in their elevation was always at the highest level. Along with her partners, they knew connecting with likeminded spaces around the country and the world would help strengthen their name and help expose the New Contemporary movement further.

In her nearly twenty years with Thinkspace, Hosner helped organize exhibitions for the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Fullerton Museum, the Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, the Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson and the Urban Nation Museum in Berlin, Germany. Recent collaborations with Tlaloc Studios, Antler Gallery, The Brand Library & Art Center, the Walter N. Marks Center for the Arts, and Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center have helped to fuel awareness and provide space for an entirely new generation of artists of color on the rise. Born and raised in Southern California, Hosner took great pride in advocating for these artists in Los Angeles.

“She was the ying to my yang; she helped to curate the gallery’s vision just as much as I. Her relationships with the artists were just as important as mine. We are both connected with different folks on different things, the perfect pair, and it’s hard to fathom the flow moving ahead, but we shall figure it out and use her energy and shining light as our guide. She was the ultimate gallery mom, lovingly referred to as such by so many,” said Hosner’s husband Andrew Hosner.

Hosner cast a wide net of service into the large community of Los Angeles. During COVID, she volunteered every Saturday with her friends at Nourish LA, a non-profit committed to providing food for families in need. She spent her free time every Monday and Tuesday of her busy schedule driving around Los Angeles, volunteering for Meals on Wheels, and bringing food to homebound older adults, most of whom she became very close with. Hosner loved animals and volunteered once a week at her local animal shelter.

Hosner leaves behind her husband Andrew and their beloved cats Otter, Newman, Frida, and Lily; her mother, Mary, sister Dana Peavey and brother-in-law, Jeff Peavey; her brother Dean Clore; nieces Heather Pinsonneault and husband Mark, Hannah Peavey and fiancée Ryan Labelle, great niece Alana Pinsonneault, stepsisters Jeanette House and Michelle Vezinaw, and stepbrothers Joey Indrieri and Dominic Indrieri.

A celebration of Hosner’s life will be held on Saturday, February 24, from 2 PM to 6 PM at Thinkspace Projects. The event is open to all.