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The Headlines
OUT WITH THE OLD. The Financial Times writes that with many prominent baby-boomer gallerists feeling the heat of the art market’s ongoing contraction, “many of their potential successors [Gen Zers] are working to completely redefine success in the field.” In many cases, this means more collaboration, greater transparency, and avoiding burnout by attending fewer art fairs. The paper points to the recent high-profile closures of Adam Lindemann’s Venus Over Manhattan and, of course, Tim Blum’s operation, “yet conversations with millennial and Gen Z dealers suggest Blum’s closure has done little to scare the younger generations away from building empires — mainly because they were uninterested in that path in the first place.” Bridget Donahue, who founded her eponymous gallery in New York in 2015, said Blum shutting up shop doesn’t resonate with her. After working for bigger gallerist before going it alone, she decided to commit to five shows a year and one or two art fairs because she “remembers that unenjoyable pace of work.” Adding, “We made a corrective move to protect myself and my artists from the burnout that Tim describes,” she said. Matthew Brown, who opened his namesake gallery in Los Angeles in 2019, at age 23, said: “I don’t want to speak for other dealers, but my feeling is that there is more interest in transparency, experimentation and building platforms that reflect the present.” He cited Art Collaboration Kyoto, a hybrid event in which Japan-based dealers invite international peers to share a fair booth as “a way to minimize costs while maximizing networking opportunities abroad.” Marc Speigler, the former global director of Art Basel, also weighed in: “The new model I see emerging is people who, rather than trying to build empires, are trying to build communities. They’re not trying to build a client base of hundreds of people. They’re trying to build a core client base so tight and coherent that a gallerist could literally invite them to a cocktail party at their house.”
Related Articles
NO STOPPING HAUSER & WIRTH. The art market may be on shaky ground, but no one told the megas, Harrison Jacobs writes for ARTnews. Hauser & Wirth, which currently has 17 locations worldwide, has just revealed plans to open a new gallery in Palo Alto, California, in spring 2026. The Palo Alto space will be the gallery’s third location in California, joining itsDowntown Los Angeles complex—which includes the farm-to-table restaurant Manuela—and its West Hollywood outpost, which opened in 2016 and 2023, respectively. “Northern California occupies an equally powerful position [as Los Angeles] as home to a fantastically dedicated community of collectors and the museums they have built,” gallery president Marc Payot said in a statement. “Perched in its prime spot on the edge of the Pacific Rim and populated by generations of astute and ambitious patrons of the arts, the Bay Area is a place where we are proud to be creating a new space, an energy center for our artists and the community.” The new 2,600-square-foot gallery—Hauser & Wirth’s first in the Bay Area—will occupy a former post office at 201–225 Hamilton Avenue, a short walk from the Stanford University campus. Architect Luis Laplace, principal of Laplace, will lead the renovation. Hauser & Wirth is the first mega-gallery to take a bet on the Bay Area since Pace Gallery closed its outpost there in 2022—a somewhat surprising development given that the region routinely ranks among the wealthiest metro areas in the United States. Gagosian operated a location in San Francisco, near SFMOMA, for around four years until December 2020. According to Henley & Partners’s U.S. Wealth Report 2024, the Bay Area has a comparable number of millionaires and centi-millionaires—and slightly more billionaires—than New York. On Tuesday evening, collector Komal Shah, who lives in the area with her husband Gaurav Garg, told ARTnews that the new gallery “makes a lot of sense” for Hauser & Wirth. “Part of the Bay Area culture is to not talk about possessions or collecting, but there is an active community,” Shah said, noting Hauser’s ties to regional collectors, its connections to nearby Stanford, and a growing population of young collectors who she said need to be cultivated and engaged. “I’m confident that Hauser will do it right—with a host of programming, books, and activations alongside the art,” she added. “They know how to go into a place and energize it.”
The Digest
Four artworks by Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Diane Arbus surrendered to the US Department of Justice in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal are now being auctioned online by the US Marshals Service. [ARTnews]
Intersect returns to the Aspen Ice Garden for its 15th year with its largest number of exhibitors to date from July 29 to August 3. “Although the broader art market is experiencing a bit of a slump, the elite Colorado enclave offers dealers plenty of opportunity to connect with knowledgeable collectors,” Cultured writes. “Aspen includes a unique art-loving collector community that moves without the financial restraints of some other areas,” notes the fair’s CEO, Tim von Gal.” [Cultured]
A painting by Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dali found in a house clearance is expected to fetch up to £30,000 ($39,984), after being bought for just £150 ($200). It was found in a house in Cambridge and has since been authenticated as an original. An anonymous art dealer purchased it and the mixed media piece will be up for sale at an auction in October. [BBC]
EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art, has announced the program for its 41st edition. Titled “It Takes a Village,” it borrows from the proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” to focus on ideas of collaborative partnership, social justice and historical repair. [EVA]
The Kicker
ROUTE TO WIRIKUTA. UNESCO has added Mexico’s Wixárika pilgrimage route to Wirikuta (Tatehuarí Huajuyé) to its World Heritage list, marking the country’s 36th site and the first inscription of a living Indigenous tradition under the 1972 World Heritage Convention, The Art Newspaper reports. Spanning roughly 310 miles across five states, the corridor ends in Wirikuta, San Luis Potosí, where hikuri (peyote) is ritually consumed. Rich in biodiversity, the route holds deep spiritual and cultural meaning for the Wixáritari, integrating nature, ancestry, and human life. This recognition follows over 30 years of advocacy by the Wixáritari, one of Mexico’s 70 Indigenous groups. Despite modernization, around 60,000 still speak the Wixárika language, maintaining traditions through geographic isolation and resilience. The listing emphasizes the need for stronger conservation, sustainable tourism, and regulation of extractive industries. Described by UNESCO as a “braid of trails,” the route includes 20 sacred sites across Jalisco, Nayarit, Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí. The pilgrimage, lasting about a month, is central to the Wixárika ritual calendar, involving chants, dances, and offerings. Only designated shamans (mara’akate) undertake the journey from the Sierra Madre to ensure the success of the agricultural cycle and the spiritual health of their communities.