That was fast. Just a year and a half after returning to Chelsea from the East Village, Taxter & Spengemann has announced that they are closing up shop. “Fake Stakes Ate the Cake,” the gallery’s current exhibition of iPhone photos by Cara Benedetto, will be its last.
Taxter & Spengemann lasted two year’s at its previous location, in Frank Stella’s old studio on East 12th Street, a decidedly off-the-beaten-path location for a contemporary art gallery. The move to 18th Street in the summer of 2010—also not a prime location—seems to have been unsuccessful in keeping the gallery’s head above water.
Hopefully the gallery’s roster of hip and emerging artists won’t have too much trouble finding more stable New York representation. Several of them have had solo shows at other galleries this year: Matt Johnson at Blum & Poe in Los Angles; Frank Benson at Overduin and Kite, also in L.A.; David Chieppo at Zurich’s Galerie Brigitte Weiss; Wardell Milan at Annarumma 404 in Naples; and Scott Olson at Galerie Nordenkake in Stockholm.