The storied Chelsea gallery Kasmin will shutter this autumn as a way to transition to a brand new enterprise known as Olney Gleason. The brand new gallery can be led by Kasmin president Nick Olney and senior director Eric Gleason, who’ve each been with Kasmin for greater than a decade. They are saying the transfer is in step with the desires of the gallery’s late founder, Paul Kasmin.
“We had these conversations whereas Paul was nonetheless alive,” Olney advised Artnews, which first reported the information. “What we’re doing now aligns with these early discussions, and the property is totally supportive.”
Kasmin was the elder son of John “Kas” Kasmin, the legendary London artwork seller who gave David Hockney his first solo present. The junior Kasmin later opened up a gallery in New York, and was among the many earliest sellers emigrate from Soho to Chelsea. He died after an extended sickness on the age of 60 in 2020. Throughout its 35 years in operation, the gallery he based staged greater than 350 exhibitions and represented over 100 artists.
Olney Gleason will proceed to work with an unspecified variety of the artists and estates from Kasmin’s roster, in keeping with a press launch. Kasmin is remembered for rising the marketplace for François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne within the US, and for taking on Lee Krasner’s property in 2016. All three artists are nonetheless represented by the gallery. Prior to now 5 years, Kasmin has turned extra towards modern artwork, snapping up artists like Diana al-Hadid and Vanessa German. It has additionally continued to work with the estates and representatives of historic figures, staging reveals of works by the Surrealists Leonor Fini and Dorothea Tanning; final autumn, the gallery grew to become the unique consultant of the property of Jackson Pollock.
Olney Gleason will set up a flagship area in Chelsea and stage an inaugural present this autumn. A consultant for the brand new gallery wouldn’t say whether or not or not it can function from Kasmin’s present areas on tenth Avenue and West twenty seventh Road. In response to Artnews, the brand new enterprise will work with round 25 artists and estates, roughly 80% of which started working with Kasmin throughout the previous 5 years. Greater than 40 artists are listed on the Kasmin web site now; the gallery consultant declined to touch upon which of Kasmin’s artists would observe to the brand new enterprise.
