Murmurs, a gallery located in Downtown Los Angeles that was known for its eye for spotting rising talent, announced this week that it will close after seven years in business. Its final exhibition was a solo for Rodrigo Ramírez Rodríguez, which ended on June 27.
In an Instagram post, cofounders Allison Littrell and Morgan Elder and director Gabrielle Datau wrote that the “bittersweet news” came after “a long period of reflection.” They cited the “intense economic squeeze” that the art world is currently facing.
“Our passion has always been rooted in championing ambitious sculpture and installation—work that is experiential, profound, and often difficult to commodify,” they wrote. “Rather than compromise the programmatic integrity that defines Murmurs, we have decided to redirect our energy into modalities that can more sustainably support the artistic ecosystem while mitigating financial pressures placed upon artists.”
Murmurs is the latest gallery to close over the past year, which has noticeably impacted the LA gallery scene at all levels. Among those that have closed in LA include Blum, LA Louver, and the Box, while Tanya Bonakdar and Marian Goodman Gallery have closed their LA outposts. Other galleries known for their venturesome programs that have announced an end to their businesses include Galerie Philipp Zollinger in Zurich, High Art in Paris, Project Native Informant in London, and Lyles & King, which made its announcement earlier this month.
Murmurs opened in August 2019 with the goal of “carv[ing] out a distinct sanctuary for ideas and practices that the traditional art world often overlooks,” the team wrote. The gallery’s name “was chosen for its meaning — the collective undercurrents running through a society that are not obviously apparent,” according to its website.
Its inaugural exhibition was a show exhibition titled “As Above, So Below,” which explored “a contemporary perspective of Renaissance Humanist philosophy [that] considers nature as a tool to shift human perception and forge a relationship between inner and outer realms,” according to a description.
In the years since, it would establish itself as a gallery to watch, mounting prescient exhibitions for artists whose stars were on the rise, including Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, who is included in the 2026 Whitney Biennial; Alison Nguyen, who will be included in the forthcoming 2026 Busan Biennale; Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego; and Roksana Pirouzmand, who was featured in the 2023 edition of the Made in L.A. biennial.
The gallery mounted over 40 exhibitions during its run, as well as hosting performances and public gatherings and having a cafe and retail shop on site. It also participated in major art fairs like Zona Maco, Frieze Los Angeles, Frieze London, the Armory Show in New York, and Liste in Basel, Switzerland. At the time of its closure, it represented seven artists, including Rodriguez Montoya, Ron Athey, Karla Ekaterine Canseco, and Marsha Pels.
In their post, the Murmurs team described its final show for Ramírez Rodríguez as a fitting end to their project: “It is a brilliant distillation of what Murmurs has always stood for: art that is poignant, urgent, and fiercely independent.”
They added, “Stepping away from our physical space is incredibly difficult. Murmurs has been our home, our passion, and our daily reality for nearly a decade. We are immensely thankful to the artists who trusted us with their visions, our collaborators, staff, collectors, and everyone who stepped through our doors or simply shared their time with us. The real impact of Murmurs isn’t found in the walls of a building, but in the community we built together. While this format is ending, our dedication to the arts is not. We believe that championing artists is about keeping dialogue alive, offering genuine advocacy, and showing up for the community.”
