After 35 years in enterprise, New York’s Kasmin gallery is closing its doorways. The gallery will now launch a deliberate transition into a brand new enterprise known as Olney Gleason, a gallery led by Nick Olney, Kasmin’s president since 2020, and Eric Gleason, a senior director since 2013.
Each males have deep roots at Kasmin. Olney joined in 2007, after six years at Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco. Gleason, who started his profession at Marlborough, met Olney in 2010 and formally joined the gallery in 2013.
“Kasmin is a ship that’s come into port after a protracted and significant voyage,” Olney informed ARTnews. “Olney Gleason is a unique vessel, launching from the identical harbor, however on a brand new course.”
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That course is one Paul Kasmin helped chart. Earlier than his demise in 2020, the founder had mentioned with Olney what a transition into what would turn out to be Olney Gleason may appear to be. The plan was all the time there. What wasn’t fastened was the timing.
“We had these conversations whereas Paul was nonetheless alive,” Olney stated. “What we’re doing now aligns with these early discussions, and the property is totally supportive.”
“Whereas we’re unhappy that this chapter is coming to a detailed, I’m grateful to Nick, Eric, and the complete workforce for all they’ve executed to construct an incredible group alongside Paul, and for his or her dedication to honoring his legacy over the previous 5 years,” Olivia Kasmin, certainly one of Paul’s daughters, stated in a press release to ARTnews. “I’m assured that Paul could be comfortable that the spirit of the gallery will proceed. We want Nick and Eric all one of the best on this thrilling new chapter.”
Born in London in 1960, Paul Kasmin grew up surrounded by artists related to his father, legendary supplier John Kasmin. He opened his personal gallery in SoHo in 1989 earlier than relocating to Chelsea a decade lader, finally establishing three exhibition areas, together with the primary gallery at 509 West twenty seventh Avenue. In 2018, the gallery was renamed merely Kasmin.
Its roster bridged generations and disciplines with a program that embraced each Surrealist masters and modern sculptors alike. Early Kasmin artists included Walton Ford, Jamie Nares, and Elliot Puckette. They continued to stay on the roster, which now additionally counts historic artists resembling Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, Robert Motherwell, Lee Krasner, and James Rosenquist.
Kasmin has been actively constructing its roster of artists and estates in recent times. In September 2024, the gallery began representing Jackson Pollock’s by way of the Pollock-Krasner Basis. Since 2020, the gallery has additionally added Diana Al Hadid, Ali Banisadr, and vanessa german to its roster and staged exhibitions of labor by Les Lalanne and Bosco Sodi.
A consultant for Olney Gleason declined to specify which Kasmin artists could be on the Olney Gleason roster, saying solely that an announcement of the founding program shall be made quickly.
The turning level for Kasmin gallery got here in 2020, throughout a crucible of overlapping crises. Its nameasake supplier died simply as New York was going into lockdown. It was, as Olney put it, a “excellent storm of change.” The gallery was all of a sudden navigating a management shift, a worldwide pandemic, and an unsure market suddenly.
“That second was galvanizing,” Olney stated. “It compelled us to reassess, to adapt, to actually take into consideration what sort of gallery we wished to be. In some ways, the current years have been an ideal laboratory for refining and proving how we need to work. It gave us confidence.”
That confidence is mirrored within the new gallery’s roster. Olney Gleason will open its first exhibition this fall in Chelsea, with a roster of about 25 artists and estates. Round 80 p.c of the artists and estates becoming a member of Olney Gleason started working with Kasmin throughout the final 5 years, the gallery’s founders stated.
“We’ve given a number of consideration to modern artwork in recent times,” Olney stated. “And that’s going to proceed. However we’re additionally considering historic work that speaks on to the artwork being made now. We need to create a dialogue between the twentieth and twenty first centuries.”
Gleason echoed that sentiment: “Kasmin’s program advanced dramatically within the final 5 years. Olney Gleason is the subsequent step in that evolution. However we stay dedicated to the cross-generational dialogue that’s lengthy been our hallmark.”
Olney and Gleason each spoke about the necessity to construct one thing lasting—not only a gallery, however a tradition. As Olney put it, representing artists is just not a 9-to-5 job. It’s a lifestyle.
“It is a probability to take all of the experiences we’ve had—the great, the unhealthy, the irritating, the formative—and construct the sort of gallery we’d need to be a part of,” Olney stated. “We’ve had the uncommon alternative to start out from scratch and ask: What ought to a gallery be right now?”
That query is particularly related in a altering market. A generational shift is underway, and Olney Gleason desires to be a part of shaping what comes subsequent.
“There’s a brand new era of collectors, sellers, and artists,” Gleason stated. “We need to be leaders in that era. We need to assist outline its values.”
“Functionally, the gallery has all the time been artist-centric,” Gleason added. “It’s our duty to offer artists with the assets they should develop their practices and add significant traces to their CVs. The business is beginning to acknowledge the significance of that mannequin—and I believe we’re going to see a shift again to it.”
Olney stated that whereas the gallery is new in title, its identification has been forming for years.
“We’re extremely grateful for the group that made Kasmin what it was,” Olney stated. “Paul, the artists, the workforce—it’s been an honor. What comes subsequent is a tribute to all of it.”
