Andrea Rosen has announced that after 27 years, she will close her New York gallery space in the coming months. Since 2002, the gallery has been the chief agent of the Felix Gonzales-Torres Foundation; going forward, Rosen will co-represent the foundation with David Zwirner Gallery.
Although the gallery will “continue to exist, with selective activities”, these will no longer include a permanent space or representation of living artists. Rosen represents a range of young to mid-career artists of international standing, including Andrea Zittel, Ryan Trecartin, David Altmejd, Mika Rottenberg, and Elliott Hundley and operates two neighbouring gallery spaces on 24th Street in Chelsea.
In a heartfelt e-mail sent on Thursday evening, Rosen laid out the thinking behind her decision, inspired, she said, by Gonzales-Torres and his legacy. “I have come to realize that in order for me to be fearlessly open and responsive to our times and the future, requires mobility, flexibility and the willingness to change”, she wrote.
“Of course my wish would have been to try to incorporate the depth of my growing intentions within my current immersive and beloved structure”, she wrote, but made no mention of any financial pressures, such rising overhead and operational costs that have doomed other New York galleries in recent years.
Rather, the decision “affords me the opportunity to work more with and in The Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation as I feel strongly that there is very significant work to be done in the Foundation specifically at this time”. The late Cuban-American artist is included in several current and upcoming group shows highlighting art from the 1980s and Aids activism.
Calling Zwirner Gallery “the obvious choice”, Rosen explained that she had approached David Zwirner last November about sharing representation of the foundation, which encompasses the artist’s archive, oversees copyright, and the Felix Gonzales-Torres Foundation Fellows Forum. She adds: “As one of the most influential and significant artists of our time, it simply makes sense that the work of Gonzalez-Torres deserves the attention and stewardship of more than one gallery providing a multi-pronged support structure.”