NY Denny Gallery closes down after a decade of work. This place is the latest in a series of gallery-closing. Many people weren’t expecting the press release. It officially closed for business on October 7. The company recently marked its tenth birthday with an outdoor ensemble exhibition of all 16 of its portfolio artists’ works. This includes Jessie Edelman, Michael Mandiberg, and Sheida Soleimani.
Hard Times for the NY Denny Gallery After Dimin Left
The institution is closing “after over a hundred exhibitions, three gallery spaces, two continents, and ten years in business”, the gallery wrote in a message shared on social media. “The gallery’s recent milestones presented an opportunity to reflect on the accomplishments of the past decade and consider actively and openly what we would like to focus on for the next 10”, the gallery also added in its statement.
“After heartfelt consideration, we feel that it requires a shift”. The gallery, which Elizabeth Denny founded, debuted in 2013 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. During that year, Katie Alice Fitz Gerald also joined as an associate. The year 2015 saw the addition of trader Robert Dimin in the exact same position.
Four years later, the gallery, then known as Denny Dimin, moved to a bigger location in Tribeca. Also, the gallery created an additional office in Hong Kong, under Fitz Gerald’s direction. When Dimin left to launch his personal gallery late last year, things began to change. He admitted to Artnet News during the summer that the breakup wasn’t pleasant.
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Pressure for the Middle Class
“The breakup happened kind of abruptly at the end of December [2022]. It was not something I anticipated at the time”, he said. He also made reference to the “drastically different personality types” between him and Denny. “I don’t know if she ever really looked at me as a partner, even though we had a partnership agreement, my name was on the door, I cosigned the PPP loans, and the lease was in both of our names”.
The announcement comes as the middle class of the art market continues to feel the pressure of wider recessions. This also led to a worrying spate of gallery layoffs in the past few months. JTT, a beloved gallery that opened two years before Denny on the Lower East Side, shuttered in August. Foxy Production followed suit last month after 20 years, as did Queer Thoughts after 11.
“Am I tense? Maybe a little, but it’s encouraging anxiety”, Former Karma director Sara Blazej launched her personal gallery, Sara’s, this spring in the same Chinatown location as Foxy Production said. But, “even if there is some steep economic downturn coming and all the small galleries close or get cannibalized by larger ones, my feeling is that people will always find a way to do cool and interesting things, either within those new systems or not.”.
