In the middle of this fidgety summer’s wave of gallery closure announcements, one Chelsea gallery used this dramatic momentum to finalize and announce a long-brewing legacy plan and succession. While the change was folded into the headlines as just “another gallery closure,” New York’s Kasmin Gallery revealed it would cease operations only to immediately reemerge as Olney Gleason, under the leadership of Nicholas Olney and Eric Gleason, who have led Kasmin as president and head of sales, respectively, since Paul Kasmin’s death in 2020.
Olney and Gleason saw in this particularly fragile juncture both the cracks the industry is revealing and the need for a shift to the next chapter—one they now aim to shape so the gallery can better respond to the challenges posed by the current environment. “We do feel like we’re in the midst of a reordering in the art world, which we believe is, in the long run, a very positive shift,” Olney told Observer a few days after the announcement. “There are great opportunities that come with this period of change and evolution, so it felt like the right move for both us and them.”
From a broader market perspective and in terms of timing, Olney and Gleason have been through a number of cycles, with a combined 50 years or so in the industry. “With that experience, we are able to recognize the wrong time and the right time to make a transition like this. We firmly believe this is the right time,” Gleason asserted.
Since Paul Kasmin passed away at the beginning of the pandemic, the planning and organization leading to this succession has been years in the making, always discussed and managed in close conversation with the estate. “While we’re sad that this chapter is coming to a close, I’m grateful to Nick, Eric and the entire team for all they’ve done to build an amazing organization alongside Paul, and for their dedication to honoring his legacy over the past five years,” Paul Kasmin’s daughter, Olivia Kasmin, said in a statement. She’s confident her father would be happy that the spirit of the gallery will continue under this new leadership.
So, here we have another kind of case study: a legacy plan not previously established by a gallery’s founder—as Barbara Gladstone did—but that the leadership team had to figure out after his death so the gallery could survive his passing. This is clearly another pressing issue for the industry: as the legendary dealers who built the last chapters of the art market age, every gallery will have to face this question—if they have the resources and structures to survive at a moment of economic pressure.
For Olney and Gleason, the solution was to secure a strong team that shares their ambitions, while maintaining close relationships and trust with their artists. “There will be a lot of continuity, which we find a real business strength, especially in such a competitive environment,” explained Olney. The emphasis on teamwork and collaboration—both within the gallery and externally—has been key. “Everything we’ve learned from taking that approach is now informing our next steps,” added Gleason.
Paul Kasmin was born in London in 1960 and grew up among a coterie of artists connected to the renowned gallery of his father, John Kasmin. When he opened his first gallery in Soho in 1989 (relocating to Chelsea in 1999), these historical and family ties to the art world allowed him to secure the estates of many notable 20th-century artists the gallery still represents, including recently rediscovered Surrealist women painters Leonor Fini and Dorothea Tanning, and contributing to the reappreciation of Lee Krasner’s work, whose estate they began representing in 2016. Last year, the gallery also added the estate of Jackson Pollock to its roster. Kasmin has long represented other key figures of American art, including William N. Copley, Stuart Davis (since 2018) and James Rosenquist, whose estate the gallery has represented in the U.S. since 2021.
Meanwhile, in the past five years, the gallery has added a strong group of younger talents, including rising names such as Theodora Allen, vanessa german and Diana Al-Hadid. The aim now is to continue this vital intergenerational dialogue, the partners confirm. “The cross-generational dialogue that was fundamental to Kasmin is something Nick and I will continue to uphold, presenting exhibitions of 20th-century modern masters alongside shows of new work by our living artists,” confirmed Gleason. “Since Paul passed away, a significant number of contemporary artists have either joined the gallery or had their first show here. That evolution will absolutely continue.”
Since the news broke last week, the response has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, Olney and Gleason confirmed. This was the result of groundwork laid well before, both on the collectors’ and artists’ sides. Even before Paul passed away, they were involved in those relationships, they said. “The enthusiasm we’ve received over the last week from our diverse collector base—which reflects the variety of our program—has been incredibly positive,” Olney observed. “We believe that momentum will carry forward, helping us continue to generate new audiences.”
The more recent strong focus on contemporary programs, bringing more emerging artists into the roster, has proven instrumental in broadening the collector base, according to Olney, allowing them to work across a wide range of price points. “It’s great to be able to work at the highest price points with top collectors worldwide while also bringing works into newer collections and engaging emerging buyers. Our program spans post-emerging and early to mid-career artists, iconic living artists later in their careers, and estates—covering the full arc of an artist’s career. That range allows us to have meaningful dialogues with collectors at every stage of their collecting interests over time.”
The announcement was also well received by the majority of the gallery’s artists, who welcomed the continuity of the team and the opportunity for a generational shift in leadership—one better positioned to address the structural and market changes now reshaping the art world.
Here, too, close relationships and trust were essential, with individual conversations held with each artist or estate in the days preceding the announcement. “We’ve really focused on communicating in all of these conversations,” said Gleason. “We believe so much of a gallery’s identity and program is the assemblage of artists who are true partners.”
While this change in name and leadership prompted a review of priorities, the partners acknowledged this is not unique to them—the entire industry has undergone self-scrutiny in recent years. In this period of market recalibration, Olney and Gleason know the gallery’s focus must return to the foundational aspects of the business, with some extracurriculars trimmed.
The gallery will continue participating in both American and international fairs in Europe, Asia, and beyond, but the emphasis will be on the gallery program and supporting the growth of its artists. “Our focus will remain firmly artist-centric and exhibition-centric,” Gleason stated. “I think the true measure of a gallery’s success is the success of the artists it represents and the legacies it helps preserve. Our focus going forward—something we’ve refined over the past five years—is to make the gallery the greenest possible pasture for artists to partner with, and for our team and staff to grow and advance their careers. If you create the best place for all stakeholders, good things naturally follow.”
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