New York galleries head for SoHo as Chelsea holds its ground
Garth Greenan Gallery in New York has left its longtime home on West 20th Street in Chelsea for two shopfronts facing each other on Greene Street in SoHo.
The new rooms sit at 10 and 25 Greene Street in lower Manhattan, according to The Art Newspaper. They opened with two solo exhibitions — shows devoted to a single artist — for Rosalyn Drexler and Cannupa Hanska Luger, one in each space.
Greenan knows Chelsea well. He opened the gallery in a tenth-floor room there in 2011. Five years later he moved it to street level on the same block, before making the break for SoHo.
Another arrival is days away. Ben Ward Gallery, a new venture from dealer Ben Ward, is due to open on 17 September on the second floor of 76 Wooster Street in SoHo. Its debut is Speaking in Tongues, a solo show of paintings by Titus McBeath adorned with found objects.
That means paint plus things picked up and fixed to the surface. Bottle caps, wood, fabric. The kind of work that rewards a close look.
A third name is stretching south rather than leaving its old patch. Ateliers Courbet, a contemporary design gallery based in Chelsea, is expanding to 53 Crosby Street in SoHo. The second address will run as a multifunctional space for craft production, public programming and artist residencies, the live-work stays where makers develop new work on site.
There is movement in both directions in Manhattan. Templon Gallery, which has branches in Paris and New York, closed its New York branch in Chelsea, citing a looming rent increase, according to Artnet News. The closure was reported on 8 June.
Chelsea is not emptying out. Long-range tracking of New York gallery addresses by Crain's, reported in 2015, still placed Chelsea as the city's leading gallery district, according to Artnet News. Large commitments have underlined that pull since then, including a plan announced in 2018 for David Zwirner in New York to build a 50,000-square-foot gallery in Chelsea designed by architect Renzo Piano as a new headquarters. It was described at the time as a US$50 million project and its seventh space.
For visitors, this means a shorter walk between shows. Two Greenan programmes face each other across one SoHo street. A new gallery opens around the corner days later, and a design space adds making and talks to the mix.
No single lease decides a district. But three addresses in SoHo, all opening within weeks of each other, give gallery-goers a fresh cluster to visit on foot.
