Marc Dennis, Ironman, Captain America, and a Russian Mobster Walk Into a Bar (2015).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

While much as been made of the seeming exodus of Chelsea art galleries as New York’s real estate prices skyrocket, at least one dealer is committed to the area: C24 Gallery, which opened its first show in its new building at 560 West 24th Street this week.

“How Many Miles to Babylon: Recent Paintings from Los Angeles and New York,” a group show curated by Los Angeles-based critic and curator Peter Frank, opened on December 17.

F. Scott Hess, Dancing at the Edge of Time (2015).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

According to Crain’s New York, the asking price for the two-floor, 4,500-square-foot space, with its skylight and 20-foot-tall atrium, was $12.6 million. The space, which is located in a newly constructed building, is just down the block from the gallery’s old headquarters at 514 West 24th Street.

The show’s eight artists are evenly split between the East and West coasts. A highlight is Marc Denis’s Ironman, Captain America, and a Russian Mobster Walk Into a Bar, an enjoyable superhero spoof which shows the aforementioned figures standing before Edouard Manet’s iconic A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.

“Is there a New York school of painting anymore, or a Los Angeles school?” asked Frank in a press release. “There are certainly eddies of like-minded activity occurring in both places, but in the age of accessibility, of cyber-connections and frequent flying, the art world has arguably become one immense cosmopolitan network.”

See more works from the exhibition below:

Heather Gwen Martin, Antic (2015).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

Lezley Saar, Lady Calantha (2015).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

Chris de Boschnek, Untitled No. 12 (2015).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

Jedd Garet, Architecture (2013).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

Fatemeh Burnes, Wonderland (2014–15).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

Geraldine Neuwirth, Crown Series in Yellow (2015).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

Marc Dennis, Money Shot (2015).
Photo: courtesy C24 Gallery.

“How Many Miles to Babylon: Recent Paintings from Los Angeles and New York” is on view at C24 Gallery, 560 West 24th St., New York, December 17, 2015 through February, 2016.