New York’s Alexander and Bonin Gallery Shutters After 28 Years

Alexander and Bonin, a New York gallery known for its diverse slate of conceptual artists, has closed after 28 years in business.

Carolyn Alexander, a cofounder of the gallery with Ted Bonin, confirmed on Thursday that Alexander and Bonin had officially shuttered on December 31. The gallery’s closure came roughly eight months after Bonin died suddenly, at age 65.

“I’ve been in the art world for almost 60 years, first with Marborough London in the 60s, then in partnership with Brooke Alexander, and finally in partnership with Ted Bonin,” Alexander wrote in an email to ARTnews. “His passing last April affected me deeply and I reached the conclusion that it was time to retire.”

Both dealers had worked at Brooke Alexander’s gallery; the two went on to form their own gallery in 1995. Alexander and Bonin started out in SoHo before moving two years later to Chelsea, which at the time was not the densely populated gallery district that it is today.

The gallery continued to be ahead of the curve—it moved to Tribeca in 2016, well before a host of other galleries started to do so in the coming years, and relocated once more to SoHo, where it was sited at the time of its closure.

In its stable were a host of esteemed artists: Willie Cole, Rita McBride, John Ahearn, Ree Morton, Paul Thek. And at a time when many New York galleries did not show many Latinx or Latin American artists, Alexander and Bonin bucked the trend, mounting shows for Doris Salcedo, Eugenio Dittborn, Jonathas de Andrade, Dalton Paula, and Rigoberto Torres.

Alexander and Bonin acted as a crucial launching pad for a range of artists who have now achieved international fame. Mona Hatoum held six solo exhibitions with the gallery, while Emily Jacir staged four shows there, including one that was mounted before she won the Golden Lion prize for a young artist at the Venice Biennale.

“It has been rewarding to represent artists from Europe and the Americas,” Alexander wrote in her email.

The last exhibition held at Alexander and Bonin, a three-person show featuring work by Fernando Bryce, Dittborn, and Jorge Macchi, closed in June.

Alexander and Bonin is the latest New York gallery with a significant legacy to shutter in the past year.

Over the summer, JTT, a gallery known for raising emerging talents to wider recognition, made the shock announcement that it was closing after 11 years; its founder, Jasmin Tsou, would go on to join Lisson Gallery’s staff. Other younger galleries, like Queer Thoughts, Foxy Production, and Denny Gallery, soon followed.

Yet it is not just smaller, edgier spaces that have been closing for good. Cheim & Read, a blue-chip gallery in Chelsea known for supporting painters, ended a 26-year run at the end of December, while Washburn Gallery, also in Chelsea, said this year that it was calling it quits after 53 years.