Templon Gallery has closed its New York branch, becoming the latest international dealer to reassess its footprint in the city as the gallery sector remains under pressure.
Last week, mega-gallery Pace announced sweeping reductions, including plans to part ways with roughly 50 artists and 50 employees. Scores of smaller galleries have also closed branches or shuttered in recent years as the post-pandemic surge in art buying gave way to a prolonged market downturn.
Founded in Paris in 1966 by dealer Daniel Templon, Templon represents established contemporary artists like Will Cotton, Kehinde Wiley, and Jim Dine. It opened a New York outpost in 2022, taking over the 6,500-square-foot Chelsea space on the corner of Tenth Avenue and West 27th Street that had long housed the Kasmin gallery. The market was on fire, and the gallery invested in its New York debut, hiring Studio MDA to renovate the building before opening with a solo exhibition by the Senegalese artist Omar Ba.
Omar Ba, Right of Soil – Right to Dream 1 (2022). Courtesy the artist and Templon.
The decision to leave Chelsea came after the gallery’s landlord sought a substantial rent hike as its lease approached renewal, according to Mathieu Templon, the founder’s son, who oversaw the New York operation.
“It was way too, too much,” he said in a phone interview.
By the time the gallery closed, at the end of April, following an exhibition of figurative paintings by David Smalling, it was paying $55,000 a month for the space.
Of the four full-time employees who had worked at the gallery, two remain, according to Templon. Monica King, who was the director for about a year, departed for Richard Saltoun Gallery on East 66th Street.
Mathieu Templon is relocating back to Paris with his growing family, but he plans to return to New York regularly and is looking for a smaller space in Tribeca or on the Upper East Side.
“We had to make some business decisions,” he said. “I loved this space, but it didn’t make sense. If I go to Tribeca, I can have a beautiful space for way, way less.”
Will Cotton, Sisters (2024). Courtesy of the artist and Templon, Paris – Brussels – New York Photo © Charles Roussel.
Templon’s retreat follows similar moves by London-based galleries Stephen Friedman and Timothy Taylor, which have both closed New York locations after expanding in the city between 2021 and 2023. (The Stephen Friedman Gallery later entered administration in the United Kingdom.)
“Some international galleries that took substantial new spaces in New York don’t necessarily need them to operate here,” said real estate broker Jonathan Travis, who is helping Templon find its next home.
Templon emphasized that the gallery is not abandoning New York. Several works by gallery artists have been installed in a design studio in Midtown Manhattan, while his current SoHo rental will serve as a private showroom, open by appointment. The gallery’s exhibition program will resume once a new space is secured.
“I feel like it’s important for the gallery to have a space in New York,” he said, “but not at any cost.”
