What happens to a white-walled room on West 25th Street after the gallery that built its name there stops showing art? For the space at 545 West 25th Street, the answer arrived this month. Marlborough Gallery said it would stop holding exhibitions and representing artists from June 2024. Now London- and Baku-based Gazelli Art House has opened its first U.S. space in those rooms.
The same pattern shows up all over the West 20s this fall. Some dealers are leaving because of what their space costs. Others are signing on because of where it sits. Chelsea's gallery district is re-sorting itself, and between now and the end of November you can walk the re-sort block by block.
The Rooms That Changed Hands
The departures came first, and each one had a specific reason.
Garth Greenan left his longtime space on West 20th Street for two storefronts facing each other on Greene Street in SoHo. He told The Art Newspaper that after moving from a tenth-floor Chelsea space down to street level on the same block, "I realised that I didn't want to feel like I'm at a trade show every day."
Galerie Templon closed its Chelsea outpost at the end of April after its landlord sought a substantial rent increase at lease renewal. At closing, Templon was paying $55,000 a month for the space. Mathieu Templon, who ran the New York operation, told Artnet the gallery is looking for something smaller in Tribeca or on the Upper East Side. "If I go to Tribeca, I can have a beautiful space for way, way less," he said. Jonathan Travis, the broker helping with the search, put the broader point plainly: "Some international galleries that took substantial new spaces in New York don't necessarily need them to operate here."
The arrivals moved into almost the same footprint. Victoria Mouraux Durand-Ruel opened her namesake gallery at 555 West 25th Street and called Chelsea the "obvious choice since it's where the contemporary gallery community is today." Gazelli opened two doors down. And 47 Canal, the closely watched gallery named for its origins where Chinatown meets the Lower East Side, opened at 529 West 20th Street, on the block Greenan left.
| Address | What changed | What's on view now |
|---|---|---|
| 545 W. 25th St. | Former Marlborough space, now Gazelli Art House's first U.S. gallery | Put the Kettle On, group show, Sept. 23–Oct. 31 |
| 555 W. 25th St. | New gallery, Mouraux Durand-Ruel | Lucien Clergue photographs, Sept. 22–Oct. 17 |
| 529 W. 20th St. | 47 Canal arrives on Garth Greenan's former block | Cici Wu, solo show, Sept. 24–Nov. 7 |
| W. 20th St. | Garth Greenan Gallery departs for Greene Street in SoHo | |
| Chelsea outpost | Galerie Templon closed at the end of April |
What the Newcomers Say They Came For
The new arrivals don't describe Chelsea as a bargain. They describe it as a place with history and a working community of galleries, which is a different reason to sign a lease than the one behind the 2015-era build-outs.
Gazelli founder and chief executive Mila Askarova said the expansion builds on the gallery's "interest in inhabiting places with cultural history and creating programmes that unfold through sustained dialogue rather than temporary presence." Inheriting Marlborough's rooms fits that description well. The opening show draws on the gallery's international roster, including Pauline Boty, Derek Boshier, Agil Abdullayev, Brendan Dawes, Memo Akten and the Recycle Group.
Mouraux Durand-Ruel is 28 and a descendant of Paul Durand-Ruel, the Parisian dealer who was instrumental in championing the Impressionists. Her first show pairs Clergue's black-and-white nudes from the beaches of southern France with his portraits of Pablo Picasso in Provence in the painter's later years. She says her aim is to "bridge Europe and the United States."
So a 16-year-old international gallery and a first-time dealer have both chosen the same stretch of West 25th Street. For anyone who walks past these doors, that means two new programs within a few steps of each other, both open through mid-October.
The Largest Building on the Street Is Re-Cutting Its Own Space
The best evidence that Chelsea is re-sorting rather than emptying comes from the biggest building on the block. Pace is looking for a tenant to take over part of its eight-story headquarters at 540 West 25th Street. A Pace spokesperson told ARTnews the space in question "is not part of the gallery's public areas," and that there will be "no impact on our exhibitions, programs, or visitor experience."
CEO Marc Glimcher has called the building "a 2015 decision," pointing to the overheated art market at the time it was planned. The Financial Times reported the rent at $9 million a year, a figure Glimcher neither confirmed nor denied. Set that beside Templon's $55,000 a month and the pressure becomes clear. Galleries are adjusting the size of their Chelsea footprint to fit today's market, and the address itself still has pull.
That also explains why the most visible names are holding this fall's anchor slots. The new shows opening at the district's largest galleries run on schedules that read like long-term commitments.
A Calendar That Builds Toward Mid-November
Here is the fall in order, starting with the newcomers and finishing with the established galleries:
- Through Oct. 17: Lucien Clergue at Mouraux Durand-Ruel, 555 W. 25th St.
- Through Oct. 31: Put the Kettle On at Gazelli Art House, 545 W. 25th St.
- Oct. 29, 6–8 p.m.: The opening reception for Lari Pittman's The Remedy of Analog Space and Time at Lehmann Maupin, 501 W. 24th St. The show runs through Dec. 19.
- Oct. 29–Dec. 12: Yoshitomo Nara at David Zwirner, spread across 533 W. 19th St. and 537 W. 20th St.
- Through Nov. 7: Cici Wu at 47 Canal, 529 W. 20th St.
- Nov. 11–14: The first Art Week NYC.
- From Nov. 12: Georg Baselitz, Meine Schule, at Gagosian, 555 W. 24th St., through Jan. 23, 2027.
Zwirner's Nara show opens just as 47 Canal's first show enters its final week, and both sit on the same pair of streets. On the night of Oct. 29 you can walk from the Pittman reception on 24th Street down to Nara on 19th and 20th, then see Cici Wu around the corner.
Art Week Puts the Old Rooms and the New Ones on One Map
Art Week NYC is a new citywide initiative from Penske Media Corporation in collaboration with Artforum, ARTnews and Art in America. It runs Nov. 11 through 14 across Chelsea, the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side and Tribeca. The program includes coordinated openings, gallery walkthroughs, performances, conversations and curated walks, and the New Museum is partnering on a day of public programming. Counts vary by source. Artforum's August announcement listed 76 participating galleries, and the organizer's directory has since shown more.
The Chelsea portion of the directory shows the turnover in a single list. Gazelli Art House, open for less than two months by then, appears alongside David Zwirner, Gagosian, Gladstone, Hauser & Wirth, Galerie Lelong, Lisson, Karma, Lehmann Maupin, Hollis Taggart, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and DC Moore Gallery.
For a guided version, ArtTable is running a Chelsea gallery walk on Nov. 12 from 9:30 to 11:45 a.m., with stops at Galerie Lelong, Lehmann Maupin and DC Moore and talks from their directors. Tickets are $15 for members, $20 for member guests and $25 general admission. The organizer hasn't yet published festival-wide hours or an admission policy and says the full schedule will come through early-access updates. The Baselitz opening at Gagosian on Nov. 12 falls in the middle of the week.
Beyond the Gallery Blocks
The same season reaches past the commercial galleries. On the High Line at 24th Street, Amol K. Patil's commission The Voices Cast in Dust is scheduled from this October through September 2027. As of Sept. 30, the High Line says it is working to reopen the Rail Yard Preserve to the public "this fall." No date has been announced, so treat it as a target until one is.
Two smaller venues fill in the in-between days. Neighbor, at 176 Ninth Ave., opens Tarah Paul's photography show I Will Never Leave You on Oct. 2, with an artist talk on Oct. 23 and a closing reception on Nov. 13. Hudson Guild Gallery, at 441 W. 26th St., is showing Lola Sandino Stanton's Many Ways of Being through Nov. 5.
A Saturday this October covers most of it. Start with Clergue and the Gazelli group show on 25th Street, walk down to Cici Wu on 20th, and go up to the High Line at 24th to see whether the Patil commission is installed.
The forces moving galleries in and out of the West 20s are the same ones shaping the buildings around them: the cost of large spaces, the appeal of an established address, and owners rethinking how much room they need. If you live near these blocks and want a candid read on how that applies to your own co-op or condo, Eileen Foy is happy to walk through it with you. Request a Private Consultation.
