Sean Kelly Gallery, founded in 1991 in New York City by British-born Sean Kelly, represents established and mid-career artists, particularly with work based in installation and performance.[1]
Owner Sean Kelly began in the British museum world by curating shows by sculptors such as Richard Deacon and Anthony Gormley early in their career.[2] He opened a place in SoHo, Manhattan, in 1995, with artists such as Marina Abramović, Joseph Kosuth, James Casebere and Robert Mapplethorpe.[3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Outside_Sean_Kelly_Gallery.jpg/220px-Outside_Sean_Kelly_Gallery.jpg)
History
The gallery was founded in 1991 and operated privately in SoHo, New York, until 1995. The original list of artists represented included Marina Abramović, Joseph Kosuth, James Casebere, Robert Mapplethorpe[4][5] and Julião Sarmento, who are still represented by the gallery. In 1995, the gallery relocated to a street-level space in SoHo.[4]
In 2001, Sean Kelly Gallery moved to 29th Street in the Chelsea gallery district. In 2012, it moved to a 22,000 sq ft (2,000 m2) space in the new Hudson Yards neighborhood.[6] The two story gallery was designed by architect Toshiko Mori.[7]
In 2018, Sean Kelly Gallery launched an initiative called Collect Wisely, an advertisement- and event-driven campaign aimed at reinvigorating the collectors’ interest in actual art, including ads placed in various publications (including the New York Times) featuring phrases like “Will history remember you as an investor or a collector?” and a billboard near the gallery on 10th Avenue carrying the slogan “Connoisseurship is not a dirty word.”[8] Another element of Collect Wisely was a series of invite-only salons held at the gallery, where people from a variety of backgrounds — collectors, but also writers, musicians and scientists — gathered for dinner and to discuss art’s emotional, rather than monetary, value.[9] Also, Kelly launched the Collect Wisely podcast, in which he talks one-to-one with collectors like Pamela Joyner and J. Tomilson Hill about the essential values of art, their reasons for collecting and their cultural passions.[10]
Also in 2018, the gallery opened a project space in Taipei.[11]
In 2021, Sean Kelly Gallery announced plans to open a 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) space in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, again designed by Mori.[12]
Artists
Artists represented by the gallery include:[3]
- Marina Abramović
- Dawoud Bey (since 2019)[13]
- Los Carpinteros
- James Casebere
- Julian Charrière
- David Claerbout
- Jose Dávila
- Awol Erizku (since 2022)[14]
- Leandro Erlich
- Iran do Espírito Santo
- Antony Gormley[11]
- Laurent Grasso
- Johan Grimonprez
- Candida Höfer
- Rebecca Horn[11]
- Tehching Hsieh
- Callum Innes[11]
- Idris Khan[11]
- Joseph Kosuth
- Liu Wei
- Peter Liversidge
- Kris Martin (since 2019)[15]
- Anthony McCall
- Hugo McCloud (since 2015)[16]
- Landon Metz
- Mariko Mori
- Sam Moyer (since 2016)[17]
- Shahzia Sikander (since 2017)[18]
- Alec Soth[11]
- Sun Xun[19]
- Frank Thiel
- Janaina Tschäpe[11]
- James White
- Kehinde Wiley
In addition, the gallery manages various artist estates, including:
- Ilse D'Hollander
- Poul Kjærholm
- Julião Sarmento
References
- ^ "New York listing". Time Out.
- ^ M.H. Miller (12 June 2018), Is the Art World Too Big for Its Own Good? T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
- ^ a b "Represented Artists". Sean Kelly.
- ^ a b "Sean Kelly Gallery". New York. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
- ^ Numbers: Which New York Gallery Represents the Most Warhol-ian Artists? New York Observer, September 7, 2012
- ^ Art in America
- ^ Randy Kennedy (October 26, 2012) Gallery May Lead Arts Migration to Hudson Yards New York Times.
- ^ M.H. Miller (1 May 2018), At a New York Gallery, Confronting the Art World’s Existential Crisis T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
- ^ M.H. Miller (1 May 2018), At a New York Gallery, Confronting the Art World’s Existential Crisis T: The New York Times Style Magazine.
- ^ Jan Dalley (26 April 2019), Inside Sean Kelly’s Collect Wisely, the art world’s go-to podcast Financial Times.
- ^ a b c d e f g Maximilíano Durón (November 11, 2021), New York’s Sean Kelly Gallery Expands to Los Angeles ARTnews.
- ^ John Chiaverina (September 6, 2018), Gladys Lin Named Director of Sean Kelly Asia, Will Open Project Space in Taiwan ARTnews.
- ^ Annie Armstrong (22 October 2019), Dawoud Bey, Portraitist of Civil Rights History, Joins Sean Kelly Gallery ARTnews.
- ^ Angelica Villa (1 September 2022), Closely Watched Photographer Awol Erizku Gets New York Gallery Representation ARTnews.
- ^ Maximilíano Durón (11 November 2021), Sean Kelly Gallery Now Represents Kris Martin ARTnews.
- ^ M. H. Miller (7 January 2015), Hugo McCloud Joins Sean Kelly Gallery ARTnews.
- ^ Nate Freeman (30 September 2016), Sam Moyer Joins Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, Leaving Rachel Uffner Gallery ARTnews.
- ^ Andy Battaglia (24 February 2017), Shahzia Sikander Goes to Sean Kelly Gallery in New York ARTnews.
- ^ Jessica Dawson (28 December 2014), An Artist Finds His Place in the Sun Wall Street Journal.