American Art Galleries: The Lethal Summer

It can be said that this summer was deadly for the art market, especially in America. The turmoil peaked in August, when gallery closure announcements followed one another almost daily. In Los Angeles, Blum and Tanya Bonakdar declared they were shutting their doors. Meanwhile in New York, Venus on Manhattan and Clearing announced they were ceasing activities, while Kasmin underwent a profound restructuring under a new name. These were not small galleries collapsing under the difficulties of the contemporary art market, but well-established institutions—sometimes with more than 30 years of history—whose work shaped the art of the 2000s, and who nevertheless had no choice but to throw in the towel.

A convergence of factors explains this sudden hemorrhage, with runaway operating costs at the tip of the iceberg. Buoyed by the booming market of the 2010s, and fueled by cash freed up after COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, some dealers decided to multiply their spaces worldwide. Tim Blum, cofounder with Jeff Poe of the gallery that bore his name, added to his Los Angeles address by opening outposts in New York and Tokyo, employing some fifty staff to represent his roster of about sixty artists. Among them were Japanese stars Yoshimoto Nara and Takashi Murakami, whom Blum helped bring to prominence outside Japan, before they became megastars.