Simone Subal Gallery will shutter later this month, becoming the latest New York gallery to announce its permanent closure this year.
Founded in 2011, the Lower East Side gallery currently represents artists such as Julien Bismuth, Baseera Khan, Anna K.E., Florian Meisenberg, and the late Brain O’Doherty. Its current show, a solo exhibition for painter Nova Kiang that closes on June 22, will be the gallery’s last.
“I personally came to the conclusion that this was the right time to end this chapter of my life, and I always believe it’s best to leave a party when it’s in full swing,” Simone Subal, the gallery’s namesake founder, told ARTnews in an email. “That’s what I’m doing now, leaving when I know I’ve had the best time and no regrets.”
Subal’s gallery specializes in art dealing with the body and is known for its cutting-edge shows of work by emerging artists.
Emily Mae Smith, a closely watched figurative painter, had two solo shows with Simone Subal Gallery before joining the blue-chip galleries Petzel and Perrotin. B. Ingrid Olson, an artist whose sculptures are currently on view in the Whitney Biennial, had her first New York gallery show with Simone Subal in 2015. Kiki Kogelnik, a famed Austrian painter who died in 1997, was the subject of three exhibitions at Simone Subal Gallery.
In addition to running her own gallery, with Chapter NY founder Nicole Russo, Subal also facilitated Condo New York, a gallery share program through which Manhattan dealerships turned over part of their respective spaces to their out-of-town colleagues. Condo, which was first staged by Vanessa Carlos in London, was envisioned as a less expensive alternative to art fairs. “It’s this belief in community, that we are stronger together,” Subal previously told ARTnews.
Alongside her New York gallery, Subal and a group of dealers from Berlin and Prishtina runs a temporary Vienna space called Am Schwarzenbergplatz. She did not detail her future plans in her statement to ARTnews.
The closure of Subal’s gallery comes during a period when many commercial art spaces in New York are disappearing. Last week, Tribeca’s David Lewis Gallery said it would permanently shutter in July. In March, Helena Anrather, a neighbor of Simone Subal Gallery, closed. And last year, Foxy Production, Queer Thoughts, and JTT all ended operations. All of these galleries were smaller and devoted to emerging artists, and had been around for more than a decade.
Yet it is not just young galleries that have closed: Cheim & Read ended its 26-year run last year, and Marlborough Gallery, which has been around for 80 years, will wind down operations this June.
Asked about the trend, Subal said, “Like many others, I’ve certainly seen the market wax and wane over the past decade or so. I’m proud that I was able to stay true to my original vision. Thanks to the strong support for the gallery’s artists, we’ve been able to accomplish so many of our goals.”
