New York’s Laurel Gitlen Gallery Closes

While a new gallery seems to open on the Lower East Side just about every week these days, one of the neighborhood’s longtime residents, Laurel Gitlen, is closing. Gitlen, who opened up in the area seven years ago, announced her decision via e-mail this afternoon. “We are extremely proud of both the projects we have realized at the gallery and in collaboration with institutions, as well as the growing careers we have built and nurtured in this short amount of time,” she wrote.

Gitlen’s roster of artists included Corin Hewitt, Bill Jenkins, Anissa Mack, Joseph Montgomery, Emily Mae Smith, and Allyson Vieira. Over the years she had also worked with Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Michael Patterson-Carver. She started the gallery ten years ago in Portland, Oregon, under the name Small A Projects, and moved in 2008 to New York. In 2012 she moved the gallery, which she had come to run under her own name, from Broome Street to a larger, sleeker space on Norfolk Street.

Gitlen’s full letter follows below.

Dear friends,

After more than ten years, the gallery is closing.

From its initial incarnation as a project space in Portland, Oregon, to our last seven years here on the Lower East Side, the gallery has always focused on presenting ambitious, rigorous, and poetic exhibitions with visionary artists, in whom we believe deeply. We are extremely proud of both the projects we have realized at the gallery and in collaboration with institutions, as well as the growing careers we have built and nurtured in this short amount of time. We had the great privilege of taking part in an inspiring community of colleagues, curators, writers, and collectors. We are ever thankful for your joy, your support, and your friendship.

We look forward to the future, and to opportunities in which these conversations may continue.

The gallery is now closed to the public, but Chris and I will be available by phone and e-mail in the coming months. Thank you again for your enthusiasm, dedication, and patronage.

With immense gratitude,
Laurel