Clearing gallery, which launched in New York in 2011 and opened an outpost in Los Angeles in 2020, has announced its closure in both cities. The gallery was known for its unpretentious atmosphere and for bringing attention to cutting edge artists in the early stages of their careers, including Harold Ancart, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Huma Bhabha, Meriem Bennani, and Lili Reynaud-Dewar. News of its closure comes hot on the heels of announcements that New York galleries Venus Over Manhattan and Kasmin were shuttering, with Kasmin revealing its closure only two days prior. Clearing will mount no further exhibitions, with a Coco Young show that closed in June in New York and a Henry Curchod presentation that closed in LA in July serving as its last.
“It was not an easy decision,” wrote founder Olivier Babin on Instagram. “Until the very end, we hoped to turn the corner. But with no viable path forward, we are closing today because we can no longer operate at the standards we’ve always held ourselves to for our artists, our teams, and our entire community.”
The French-born Babin, an artist himself, established Clearing in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, where it remained for more than twelve years before moving into sleek new digs on the Bowery in Manhattan, near the New Museum, in 2023. At the time, Babin told Cultured that he felt the gallery had outgrown the Bushwick ecosystem and that he worried their artists would outgrow Clearing if it didn’t scale up. “It’s pretty much the same job to sell a painting for $5,000 as it is to sell it for $50,000 or $5 billion,” Babin told Artnet News in 2022 ahead of the move. “But it’s easier said than done.”
The Los Angeles branch was forced from its original Beverly Hills home in 2022 by zoning laws and moved to North Western Avenue, then a burgeoning arts hub. The gallery also operated an outpost in Brussels from 2012 to 2024, when Babin turned the space over to a co-gallerist who now operates it under his own name.
“Over the years, we’ve also had the privilege of seeing many of [our] artists take part in major museum exhibitions, biennials, and publications moments of recognition and resonance that we were proud to be associated with and to support,” wrote Babin in Clearing’s farewell post. “We want to thank all the artists who gave meaning to this adventure, and we salute the institutions, curators, and collectors who championed their vision. To our teams past and present thank you for your dedication and hard work. Clearing was, first and foremost, a shared endeavor, and any success we encountered belongs to all of you.”
