Letting Go of Brick-and-Mortar at Christie’s Education

Letting Go of Brick-and-Mortar:
the Future of the Gallery

Wed., September 21st

Panel Discussion and Dialogue: 7.00-8.30 PM
Wine and Cheese Reception: 8.30-9.30 PM
Christie's Education - 1230 Avenue of the Americas 20th Floor, New York, NY 10020

Register here or use the order form below.

Gallerists are under unprecedented market pressures leading many to move on from the brick-and-mortar gallery convention. Prominent amongst these are Nicole Klagsbrun and Jay Gorney, who will present on alternative entrepreneurial and curatorial models. Noted art market analyst and journalist Josh Baer will provide historical contextualization and structural insight. Richard Lehun, founding member of the Stropheus Art Law Collective, will present on the opportunities and challenges created by these new art business practices. The event will be followed by a reception with a selection of curated wines.

Panelists

Nicole Klagsbrun, moved to New York from Belgium in 1982 where she became director of the Olsen Gallery. In 1984 Klagsbrun co-founded Cable Gallery. In 1989 she started her eponymous gallery in Soho, which made the move to Chelsea in 1998. Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery represented noted artists including Jimmie Durham, Candida Höfer, Elaine Reichek, Billy Sullivan, and Mika Rottenberg. In 2013 Klagsbrun gave up the gallery model to work from her office on 26th Street.

Jay Gorney, a native New Yorker, worked at the Sidney Janis and Hamilton galleries, opening Jay Gorney Modern Art in 1985 in the East Village. During its 13-year run, Gorney represented Martha Rosler, James Welling, Gillian Wearing, Haim Steinbach, Jessica Stockholder, Catherine Opie, Sarah Charlesworth and Allen Ruppersberg, among others, and mounted major exhibitions of the work of Richard Prince, Michaelangelo Pistoletto, and Joseph Kosuth. Gorney moved his gallery to SoHo in 1987. In 1999 Gorney joined forces with John Lee and Karin Bravin to form Gorney Bravin + Lee, which showed artists such as James Siena and Justine Kurland. As director of Mitchell-Innes & Nash’s Chelsea space from 2005–2013, Gorney built a program centered around mid-career and younger talents, including Virginia Overton, Chris Martin, and Pope.L. In 2013 Gorney transitioned out of the physical gallery and is currently an independent advisor and curator, and the special advisor to the estate of Sarah Charlesworth.

Josh Baer, is an art advisor, curator and art market journalist. He began his career in 1979 as director of the influential White Columns, and ran his own gallery from 1985-1994. After closing the gallery, Baer decided to focus on private art advising, teaching and writing. It was the same year that he launched The Baer Faxt, and started teaching arts-administration at The Fashion Institute of Technology. Later he became a bi-weekly contributor to New York Magazine. Baer advises collectors and curates exhibitions for leading galleries and auction houses from his office in downtown New York.

Dr. Richard M. Lehun, Esq. is responsible for artist-gallery, consignor-auction house, agency, and other fiduciary relationships at Stropheus Art Law. He completed a doctorate in fiduciary law from McGill University while cross appointed as a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School. Lehun has a Magister in Aesthetics from the Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, and a fine arts diploma from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb).

Letting Go is a collaboration between Christie's Education and Stropheus Art Law.