Steven Friedman of London is the latest dealer to announce a new location in Tribeca, a New York area that is becoming a hot spot for art spaces.
The Stephen Friedman Gallery at 54 Franklin Street, which opens no later than the end of this year, will be the first US location for the gallery, which opened in Mayfair, London, in 1995. The Tribeca Gallery’s future space features a Romanesque revival façade, complemented by the area’s signature iron castings.
The Stephen Friedman Gallery space dates back to 1891 and still has the original glass façade. The space previously housed Postmasters, one of the first New York galleries to move from Chelsea to Tribeca. The gallery left the premises last year due to a dispute with the owner and has maintained a nomadic model ever since.
Friedman says he resisted the opening of an outpost in the US for years. But the gallery’s growth since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has made this year a good time to open a New York location. According to him, The Stephen Friedman Gallery has a substantial American collector base and a handful of artists, particularly British artists, who had no representation in New York, had asked Friedman if the gallery could recreate their magic.
And when it came to opening a space in New York, Friedman says he knew where it should be. “I headed straight for Tribeca — that was always the area I wanted to be in,” Friedman says, citing the area’s architecture, restaurants, and proximity to fellow merchants he has known for decades.
The Stephen Friedman Gallery has named Alissa Friedman as the gallery’s senior director for New York. It should be noted that Stephen Friedman and Alice Friedman are not relatives. For three decades she worked in art galleries in New York.
The Stephen Friedman Gallery plans to use the New York space as a launching pad for markets in other US cities such as Chicago. This month, the gallery presents artist Pam Glick’s personal stands at the Independent and Frieze New York exhibitions.
