Harry Blain and Graham Southern, the Dealers Behind Blain|Southern, Are Splitting Up Amid Turbulence at the Gallery

The art dealers Graham Southern
and Harry Blain, longtime fixtures on the London art scene, are
going their separate ways. Southern will be retiring and Harry
Blain will continue on after a “restructuring of the business,” the
gallery has confirmed.

“The gallery remains fully
committed to its artists, program, and London, Berlin, and New York
locations,” a spokesperson told Artnet News.

Still, there had been signs of
trouble. Last week, the artist siblings Jake and Dinos Chapman
announced—in an unorthodox fashion, via Twitter—that they would no
longer be working with the gallery, which they joined in 2017. No
official reason for the breakup was given, though it seemed abrupt:
the brothers were due to open a show at Blain|Southern’s Berlin
location in less than a month. (A spokesperson for the gallery says
that the timing of the two splits is coincidental.)

The partners’ split also comes on the heels of the news, first
reported in Artnet News’s Wet Paint
column, that the gallery would be vacating its Chelsea location
formerly occupied by Cheim & Read this summer, just one year after
it opened in May. (The gallery says it plans to relocate downtown
after learning of neighboring Marlborough Gallery’s plans to
purchase the building it currently occupies.)

Then there is also the detail
that Craig Burnett, the gallery’s director of exhibitions, recently
left.

Could financial trouble be
afoot, following the gallery’s ambitious expansion to Manhattan
amid a market that’s belt-tightening? The Art Newspaper, which first reported the
split, notes that artist Sean Scully—who joined Blain|Southern
last year—now says he is “in dispute” with the gallery,
presumably over money or artworks
(or both). (The business confirms the dispute but has declined to
elaborate, and Scully did not immediately respond to a request for
comment, nor did a number of other artists on the
roster.)

The two London-based art
dealers, Graham Southern and Harry Blain, co-founded their
eponymous gallery in London back in 2010, some years after selling
their former art-dealing business, Haunch of Venison, to Christie’s
in 2007. They duo made headlines when
they opened their eponymous gallery and took a number of big-name
artists with them, including Mat Collishaw and Bill
Viola. 

Filings cited by the Art Newspaper show that
Blain|Southern made 60 percent of its turnover from private sales
in 2018 ($40.9 million), up from 49 percent in 2017 ($30.5
million). But profits after tax were down last year, to $2.8
million compared with $3.6 million in 2017. The accounts also
report that the gallery is funded by “third party creditors” who
will continue to support the group “for the foreseeable future,” or
at least for 12 months from the date of the financial filings.

For now, both Scully and the
Chapman brothers remain on the gallery’s website, though no future
shows or fairs have been posted. The gallery says its lineup will be updated in
the coming weeks, along with new artists joining the
program. 

The post Harry Blain and Graham Southern, the Dealers Behind
Blain|Southern, Are Splitting Up Amid Turbulence at the Gallery
appeared first on artnet News.