David Zwirner will open its newest space in Chelsea on May 8 with a solo show for Michael Armitage.
Located at 533 West 19th Street, the new, two-story location is adjacent to Zwirner’s two connected 19th Street spaces and a block away from its West 20th Street gallery. Zwirner has occupied this lot since 2002 and the new building, designed by Selldorf Architects, replaces one that was torn down last year. The ground floor will have 18-foot-tall ceilings and the three 19th Street locations will have a combined 6,000 square feet of exhibition space. The new upper floor will house offices for the gallery.
In 2023, Zwirner abandoned plans for five-story, 50,000 square-foot headquarters on West 21st Street, telling the New York Times the cause was a developer’s “financial headwinds during Covid.” A report in Artnet News a couple weeks later revealed that the LLC for the property, controlled by developer Casco Development, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with a Zwirner-affiliated LLC being an unsecured creditor with a claim of $28.8 million.
Michael Armitage, Don’t Worry There Will Be More, 2024.
©Michael Armitage/Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner
The Armitage exhibition, titled “Crucible,” is the artist’s first with Zwirner since the gallery began co-representing him, with White Cube, in 2022. (The artist’s first Zwirner show was originally scheduled for last year in New York.) It will feature 11 paintings and 14 carved-teak panels. Focusing on themes of migration, the new works will continue the Kenyan British artist’s long concern with depicting various tableaux of Kenyans and current events in the country that have a surrealist, dream-like quality to them.
