Anat Ebgi Is Latest Gallery to Expand to Tribeca With New 5,000 Square-Foot Location

Anat Ebgi Gallery is joining the flurry of activity in Tribeca with a new location at 372 Broadway.

The 5,000 square-foot landmark space will span two floors, on-site storage, a viewing room office, and a mezzanine level, exceeding the gallery’s three locations in Los Angeles.

The opening in Tribeca marks an ambitious return for Ebgi, who is from the East Coast and lived in New York for several years before moving to the Los Angeles in the fall of 2008. Ebgi has expanding her gallery to three locations on Wilshire Blvd, Fountain Ave, and La Cienega Blvd.

The decision to expand to Tribeca, and at such a large location, was fueled by an ability to be closer to European clients and engage in the New York art community.

“I felt like the energy of New York was just so incredible that I wanted to participate in it and be part of it,” she told ARTnews.

Soon after a visit to the city in the spring, Ebgi also encouraged the gallery’s partner and senior director Stefano di Paola to look spaces in New York with realtor and art collector Jonathan Travis. Di Paola knew that Ebgi wanted to be in the Tribeca neighborhood instead of Chelsea or other areas of New York because of its specific art community. “So many of the galleries that we’re friends with, we love their programs we see ourselves aligned with [them],” he said.

In addition to high ceilings, great lighting and and a prime location, di Paola also wanted a space that felt significant and not a “tiny showroom” that would enable Ebgi and her team to put on really good shows for its artists, like Greg Ito, Elias Hansen, and Samantha Thomas, allowing them to gain another level of visibility.

“Many are from LA, who’ve never shown in New York, or artists who maybe have shown in New York, but like 40 years ago, who want to, you know, are due for another exhibition, like Tina Girouard,” Ebgi said

After finding the location near P.P.O.W. and Andrew Kreps, Ebgi said things moved “very, very quickly” even with discussions about a recession in the art industry. “I feel like it’s never really a good time,” she said. “I’m going into this very eyes wide open, very much aware and like thoughtful about how this is all going to happen.”

“I’m gonna push through even regardless of what is happening in the world, and then because shit is always happening in the world all the time, you know?,” she told ARTnews on October 12. “I feel like the expansion is really more about the belief and the dedication in the artists and the program.”

Ebgi cited her experience opening her first space in the fall of 2008 (“the worst time to open”), signing her leases for the Wilshire location in the spring of 2020 (“also a really scary, unpredictable time”) and the Fountain address in November 2021 as teaching her about how to operate through extreme logistical challenges.

“I still do all my bookkeeping,” she said. “I try to be incredibly responsible because I am responsible for 30 artists, and a staff of people and I try to make these decisions, even though they can seem very risky.”

di Paola said the gallery’s plans for the new space include an exhibition of feminist artists like Gourard and Faith Wilding that contextualizes their work alongside artists who are coming in their wake, like Jordan Nasser and Jessica Taylor Bellamy. “I think that New York will provide a really wonderful opportunity in order to flesh out that history,” he said.

Ebgi is soft-launching its new space on November 2, during the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual fair. The official opening of the gallery will be in January, showcasing connections between the gallery’s artists. The first solo show will be the Los Angeles artist Greg Ito.