From Chelsea to the Upper East Side, New York’s Gallery Landscape Is Getting a Makeover Ahead of the Fall Season

Make sure to consult Google Maps before you head out on your
first gallery crawl this fall. Over the summer, there has been a
mini-flurry of gallery moves and closings across New York City.

One major change is taking place in Chelsea, where mega-dealer
Larry Gagosian has absorbed the storefronts next door to his
already gargantuan 24th Street location. They were formerly home to
Pace Gallery and Mary Boone Gallery.

Boone, who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in
prison in February for tax evasion, has closed her gallery. Her
midtown location on West 57th Street will be taken over by Yares
Art, which specializes in Color Field painting, according to
ARTnews. Meanwhile, Pace is vacating its former space
to unveil a glittering, consolidated
new headquarters a block away on 25th Street in September.

The new Gagosian location, first reported by
Bloomberg, is reportedly a long-term lease. A Gagosian
representative did not respond to artnet News’s request for
comment.

Fresh Blood Uptown

The gallery landscape is shifting uptown, too. Art dealer and
former Christie’s associate vice president Alexander Berggruen is
taking over the lease for Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery’s space at
Madison Avenue and 78th Street on the Upper East Side this fall,
marking his first solo foray into the gallery world. (The news was
first reported by the Canvas.)

Berggruen, whose parents’ eponymous San Francisco gallery is
marking its 50th anniversary this year, told artnet News that the
deal came about in talks with owner David Nash, who had been
considering moving to a smaller uptown space that was more focused
on private sales. The location of the new, by-appointment showroom
will be announced this fall; Mitchell-Innes & Nash will retain its
Chelsea flagship on West 26th Street.

While Chelsea was once the go-to locale for an ambitious new
gallery, Berggruen says his first choice was always the tonier,
quieter Upper East Side. “Chelsea is changing quite a bit, and this
was more suited to my needs and the more intimately presented
exhibitions I’m planning,” he said. “A lot of collectors who I work
with tend to be based on the Upper East Side.”

The first show, slated for October, will be focused on language
and text and will feature work by artists including Paul Klee, Ed
Ruscha, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Baldessari, and Barbara Kruger,
among others.

Meanwhile, two other Upper East Side galleries with a focus on
more emerging art, Clearing and Half Gallery, have had to vacate
their respective spaces on the other side of 78th Street a year
before their leases were up due to the landlord’s fire code
violations.

Clearing did not respond to questions. A representative for Bill
Powers, Half Gallery’s owner, says he is looking to relocate but
has not yet found a new site. He has, however, already determined
his inaugural show at the to-be-determined location: a solo
presentation of work by New York-based artist Tanya Merrill. Her
oilstick-on-linen works inspired by the American West have earned
her critical accolades and a spot in a group show at Gagosian
curated by Powers that is due to open at its project space on 75th
Street this fall.

The post From Chelsea to the Upper East Side, New York’s
Gallery Landscape Is Getting a Makeover Ahead of the Fall
Season appeared first on artnet News.