Sean Kelly Gallery was founded by its British-born owner in 1991 and operated privately in SoHo until 1995 when its first public space opened at 43 Mercer Street. During these formative years, it established a reputation for diverse, intellectually driven, unconventional exhibitions. The original list of artists represented included Marina Abramović, James Casebere, Callum Innes, Joseph Kosuth and Julião Sarmento – exemplifying the Gallery's commitment to presenting important, challenging contemporary art.
Read MoreIn 2001, Sean Kelly moved into a converted 7,000 square-foot industrial space on 29th Street in the Chelsea gallery district. The move to this new, spacious location enabled the Gallery to mount increasingly ambitious, museum-quality exhibitions to great critical acclaim. During its early period in Chelsea, the Gallery's roster of artists expanded to include such notable figures as Iran do Espírito Santo, Antony Gormley, Rebecca Horn and Frank Thiel. In the ensuing years, the Gallery undertook representation of Los Carpinteros, Leandro Erlich, Johan Grimonprez, Laurent Grasso, Tehching Hsieh and Anthony McCall.
In October 2012, Sean Kelly opened a new 22,000 square foot space at 475 Tenth Avenue in an historic 1914 building. Award-winning architect Toshiko Mori designed the two-story gallery, which opened with an exhibition of work by Antony Gormley. Toshiko Mori was awarded the AIA Design Award in Interiors for her unique architectural approach to the Hudson Yards location. Since moving to the new space, Sean Kelly continues to add internationally acclaimed artists to its roster, such as David Claerbout, José Dávila, Candida Höfer, Mariko Mori, and Sun Xun.
The Gallery's artists have consistently been included in major international exhibitions and recognized with esteemed awards across the globe. Several of the gallery's artists have represented their countries at the Venice Biennale, including Joseph Kosuth (Hungarian Pavilion, 1993), Julião Sarmento (Portuguese Pavilion, 1997), and Marina Abramović, who won the prestigious Golden Lyon Award for Sculpture in 1997. In 2008, Abramović was the recipient of the Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art and in 2009, during the 8th Florence Biennale; she was presented with the Lorenzo il Magnifico award for Lifetime Achievement. Japan’s distinguished Praemium Imperiale Prize for Sculpture was awarded to both Rebecca Horn (2010), who, in 2011, was also the recipient of the Grande Médaille des Arts Plastiques, Académie d’Architecture de Paris, and Antony Gormley (2013). Most recently, José Dávila was selected as the winner of the 2014 EFG ArtNexus Latin America Art Award, Kehinde Wiley was presented with a 2015 U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts, Candida Höfer was awarded the 2015 Cologne Art Prize and in 2016 Anthony McCall was presented with The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Art, which honors exceptional accomplishments and encourages creative work.
Since its inception, Sean Kelly has garnered extensive attention for its work with many of the most significant cultural institutions in the world. The Gallery has coordinated hundreds of exhibitions on behalf of its artists at an array of prestigious museums including the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, Italy; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; Kunstwerke Berlin, Germany; the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada; the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo, Japan; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Tate Gallery, London, England; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, to name but a few. As the Gallery continues to grow, its commitment to excellence and quality remains unwavering.
Ocula Photolog The Armory Show 2020 The Armory Show (5–8 March) features presentations by leading international galleries, innovative artist commissions, and dynamic public programs. The 2020 edition of The Armory Show, welcomes 183 exhibitors from 32 countries, convening Midtown Manhattan at Piers 90 and 94.
Ocula Photolog ADAA The Art Show 2020 Members of The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) joined forces for The Art Show at the end of February (27 February–1 March 2020). The 2020 iteration saw more than half of its presentations dedicated to a single artist and 19 exhibitions focused on female artists, in addition to vibrant thematic and group surveys.
Ocula Report Armory Week Lowdown: Art Shows to See By Casey Carsel, New York After structural issues forced The Armory Show into last-minute relocation pirouettes last year, the fair returns between 5 and 8 March 2020 with a flourishing programme, complemented by stand-out shows across New York City.
Ocula News Art Basel Launches Online Showrooms After Cancelling HK Show Hong Kong, 21 February 2020 With tens of millions in China confined to their homes, galleries and institutions have likewise pivoted to online events.
Related Press Idris Khan’s first UK public sculpture addresses our photo-obsessed culture 13 November 2019, Wallpaper* Rather than scrolling through a million images at a dizzying rate, the sculpture itself asks us to pause for a moment in quiet contemplation. Its textured surface, which appears almost frayed, echoes the delicate edges of each photographic print. Together, these lines create a dynamic rhythm that relates to much the artist's other works, in which...
Related Press Candida Höfer Takes Her Expansive Lens to Mexico 31 October 2019, Hyperallergic Candida Höfer's photographs are so geometric and so precise that they can appear slightly uncanny, leaving viewers vaguely unsettled. Her work has been described as a 'deadpan inventory of public spaces,' 'chillinglingly awesome,' containing a 'hostility... that is bracing,' and possessing a 'classical concept of beauty.' These characterizations...
Related Press Simone Leigh, Wangechi Mutu, Kehinde Wiley, and Vinnie Bagwell In the Running for New Central Park Memorial 3 October 2019, Hyperallergic J. Marion Sims, sometimes referred to as the 'father of modern gynecology,' was a 19th-century doctor who conducted brutal, nonconsensual experimental surgeries on enslaved Black women without using anesthesia. A monument for the surgeon stood in Central Park for 80 years, across the New York Academy of Medicine on 103rd Street, until it was...
Related Press The Hollow Heart of Antony Gormley’s Spectacle 28 September 2019, Hyperallergic LONDON — The English sculptor Antony Gormley is a man who believes in the art of spectacle. Of the 12 galleries devoted to this career-spanning retrospective at London's Royal Academy, three of them are engulfed by single works on a monumental scale. Another one is presided over by single sculptures on a smaller scale which, evidently in...
Related Video & Audio Collect Wisely. Episode 20 - Erling Kagge 18 December 2019, Sean Kelly In this episode, we are speaking with Erling Kagge. Based in Oslo, Norway, Erling is a lawyer, publisher, writer, and explorer and has been an art collector for over 30 years. He is the first person to ever surmount the Three Poles; the North Pole, the South Pole, and the Summit of Mount Everest. His collection champions young emerging artists...
Related Video & Audio Collect Wisely. Episode 19 - Leo Shih 17 October 2019, Sean Kelly In this episode, we were in Taipei to speak with Leo Shih. Leo's collection originates in the 1990s and ranges from first-generation Chinese oil painters to contemporary work, with a focus on Chinese and Taiwanese artists.
Related Video & Audio Collect Wisely. Episode 18 - Alain Servais 19 September 2019, Sean Kelly In the eighteenth episode of Collect Wisely, we are speaking with Alain Servais. Based in Belgium The Servais Family Collection features several hundred works from international artists working in a variety of mediums with one notable distinction, there are no paintings. The collection is housed in a converted factory in Belgium, called the Loft....
Related Video & Audio Collect Wisely. Episode 17 - Tiqui Atencio 3 July 2019, Sean Kelly In the seventeenth episode of Collect Wisely, we are speaking with Tiqui Atencio. Based in London, New York, and Monaco, Tiqui is a passionate collector in pre-Columbian, Latin American and Contemporary Art. She founded and chairs the Tate’s Latin American Acquisitions Committee and is chairwoman of the Guggenheim Museum’s International Director’s...
