Venus Over Manhattan, the New York gallery based by collector Adam Lindemann in 2012, will shut after its present exhibition concludes. The present, a solo presentation of works by painter Susumu Kamijo, is on view by way of July 18th.
In a private article printed on Artnet Information, Lindemann introduced the closure and mirrored on the gallery’s trajectory. “I surrounded myself with an important younger group who did numerous the heavy lifting,” he wrote. “They’ve been an important a part of the expertise. I’ve seen it from each side, and now it’s time to wave the white flag… veni, vidi, however not vici… I didn’t win. However Venus was by no means about profitable.”
Lindemann, an avid artwork purchaser whose assortment included works resembling Jeff Koons’s Hanging Coronary heart (1994–2006) and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Satan) (1982), made the choice to open a gallery in 2012 “Everybody advised me to not, so after all I did,” he wrote.
Venus Over Manhattan first opened on the third flooring of 980 Madison Avenue, simply above Gagosian and close to to Michael Werner Gallery and White Dice. Lindemann named the gallery after the Wheeler Williams sculpture that hangs on the constructing’s façade. The gallery opened a second location on Nice Jones Road in 2022. The following 12 months, it closed the Higher East Facet location in favor of a second storefront on Nice Jones Road.
Lindemann defined that his determination to shut his gallery was influenced by a wide range of elements. “Opening a gallery as a collector actually does reach alienating each side,” he wrote. “Sellers mistrust you, and most collectors don’t get what you’re as much as, in order that they flip up their noses in disapproval—and even worse, they resent you for switching sides.” Along with the collector–vendor divide, Lindemann cited disillusionment with artwork truthful politics as a contributing issue. “Do you need to know the reality about truthful committees?” he wrote. “They gleefully ask you to get down in your palms and knees, wag your tail, and beg for forgiveness. Then, callously, they waitlist you in permanentia.”
In 2023, a choice of Lindemann’s assortment went up for public sale at Christie’s, together with items by Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol. The sale fetched $31.46 million with charges.
Venus’s closure follows different latest bulletins about shifts in gallery operations. Final week, Tim Blum introduced the closure of the Los Angeles and Tokyo places of his eponymous gallery after greater than 30 years in enterprise. Blum cited a necessity to maneuver towards “a extra versatile mannequin” and described the present artwork enterprise as unsustainable. In an interview with ArtNews, he referred to as the gallery’s participation in Artwork Basel final month “a thunderclap.”
Not like Blum, Lindemann concluded his stepping again from artwork coping with finality: “There will likely be no pivot to consulting nor personal dealing.” As an alternative, he wrote, “I’m going again to air kisses, handshakes, fist bumps, facet hugs, head nods, winks, waves, massive smiles, thumbs up, and good vibes.”
