The Jack Hanley Gallery is set to close in New York’s TriBeCa neighborhood after thirty seven years in operation reports. The gallery was established in Austin, Texas, in 1987 as Trans Avant Garde Gallery; founding dealer Jack Hanley moved the business to San Francisco in 1990, changing its name to the current one. Hanley for a short time in the 2000s ran a second space in Los Angeles but closed both California galleries in 2008 and set up shop in New York.
From its inception, Jack Hanley Gallery sought to elevate little known artists, in the 1990s giving future heavy hitters such as Zoe Leonard, Christian Marclay, Jack Pierson, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Erwin Wurm some of their earliest solo shows. The gallery also mounted exhibitions for Tauba Auerbach, Xylor Jane, and Torbjørn Rødland, as well as, more recently, Elizabeth Jaeger, Margaret Lee, and Amy Yao. In 2022, it gave NFT artist Beeple his first one person show. “We would like to extend our deepest thanks to all of the incredible artists who have shared their artworks and visions with us over the years,” said Hanley in a statement. “They are the foundation of this gallery and community, and it has truly been a privilege to work alongside them.”
Jack Hanley Gallery is the latest of a spate of small and midsize contemporary art galleries to announce their closings in the past eighteen months, among them Simone Subal Gallery, Deli Gallery, Fortnight Institute, David Lewis Gallery, Helena Anrather, Queer Thoughts, JTT, and Foxy Production, all downtown. Farther north, in Chelsea, Cheim & Read closed, while Washburn Gallery and Betty Cuningham Gallery announced that they were moving their respective businesses online. The storied Marlborough, which also had outposts in London, Madrid, and Barcelona, closed in June after eighty years in business.
The gallery will go dark for good on December 21, following the close of its last show, an exhibition of new works by Ed Loftus.
