The art market may have softened some, but the wobble hasn’t curbed art dealers’ ambitions. Veteran and first-time gallerists alike continue to dream big, whether they’re venturing into new neighborhoods, conquering new markets in far-flung countries, or opening the very first spaces of their own. Here, the heads of three galleries share their plans for much-anticipated debuts in New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles.
In May, after gallerist Nino Mier was accused of shortchanging some of his artists, he abruptly closed the L.A. branch of his operation. Now its former senior director is taking much of his real estate there and hanging out her own shingle.
Though the details came together quickly, Megan Mulrooney says the plan to strike out had been percolating for a while. Snapping up the shuttered spaces enabled her to avoid a protracted hunt for property and set a fast-approaching September 14 opening.
Technically, the gallery consists of a trio of addresses on Santa Monica Boulevard. Mulrooney says she’ll program them so that the exhibitions are in dialogue, with an eye toward facilitating an “intergenerational conversation” between emerging and midcareer artists, some of whom she worked with at Mier. “You go into the next space with the idea of the previous one,” she explains.
Her debut lineup includes solo shows by Marin Majić, whose marble-dusted canvases evoke other worlds, and Piper Bangs, a much-watched painter despite being fresh out of art school. For the third space, Mulrooney says she hopes to enlist artists as curators. “I’m really interested in having them curate shows so that I’ll be able to delve further into their histories, understand who influences them, who is in their circle of artists, how they connect and see the world,” she says. First up is Jon Pylypchuk.
A native Angeleno, Mulrooney got her start at Sotheby’s in London. She later gained experience as an appraiser and then at the online platform Paddle8. But joining Mier helped her realize that she could channel her know-how into developing artists’ careers. “I think the purpose of any great gallery—and what I hope my gallery will be—is that you walk out and you are enlivened,” she says. “You walk out and you are hopeful about yourself and the world.”
