British art dealer Gavin Brown is closing his New York-based gallery to join Gladstone Gallery. The merger, which was announced on 20 July, will see Brown (who ranked 48 on ArtReview’s Power 100 list last year) taking up a new role as partner at Gladstone Gallery, to which he will bring 10 artists currently represented by Gavin Brown Enterprises. Of the 48 artists on the soon-to-close gallery’s roster, Joan Jonas, Ed Atkins, Arthur Jafa, Rachel Rose, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Kerstin Brätsch, Alex Katz, Frances Stark, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Mark Leckey will make the move with Brown. Many other artists will not.
Founded in 1994 by the artist-turned-dealer, Gavin Brown Enterprises has been described by the New York Times as ‘one of the most consistently provocative contemporary art galleries in Manhattan’ which ‘flaunted a certain rebelliousness even as it became one of the more established names in the global art world’, and by Artnet (which first broke the news of the merger) as having conducted ‘decades of deeply influential programming’.
Closure was already on the cards for Gavin Brown Enterprises, as the gallery’s Chinatown space shut permanently last year, but this merger will see Gladstone grow not just its stock of artists but, as various news sources speculate, also in influence as a mega-gallery thought to be on par with David Zwirner, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth and Pace. Confirming the merger with Artnet, art dealer Barbara Gladstone told them: ‘I think that this moment in history is an important time to think of new possibilities in the art world… This new alliance with Gavin feels natural, evolutionary, and auspicious. I have long admired Gavin for his originality and individual presence, and these are extremely valuable qualities to me, which should be encouraged in all of us. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to work with Gavin and this remarkable group of artists.’
While the current headquarters of Gavin Brown Enterprises, located in Harlem, is set to close permanently (though an exact date has not been confimed), Brown will apparently continue to operate the Rome space (in Trastevere). As yet, it is also unclear as to what will happen to members of staff at Gavin Brown Enterprises, who have avoided being furloughed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and who were informed of the gallery’s closure yesterday. Gladstone Gallery responded to Artnet’s question on whether Brown’s team would be brought to Gladstone: ‘We are assessing the staffing needs of the new partnership and will have more information to share about this in the future.’
Of his decision to close and move into a new role, Brown said in an interview with the New York Times: ‘It’s been a very rapid process… Barbara is someone I’ve held in esteem for three decades,’ adding that they developed ‘a mutual disillusionment with the art world as it stands at the moment.’ ‘So it was natural,’ he said, ‘to be in that conversation with her, and when Covid hit, that situation sharpened.’
