A resident of New York’s Upper East Side for three years, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin is pulling up stakes and heading downtown. Perrotin will open in 2017 at 130 Orchard Street, on the Lower East Side, in a space eight times as large as its present digs.
The gallery, which also has venues in Paris, Hong Kong, and Seoul (the latter announced in March), has occupied two floors of the building at 909 Madison Avenue, which it shared with dealer Dominique Lévy and which she is now taking over entirely. Perrotin will be there through the end of November.
Perrotin works with a range of artists, including populist figures like KAWS and JR, video artist Jesper Just, fashion photographer Terry Richardson, and sculptor Xavier Veilhan.
On the Upper East Side, he organized attention-getting shows like a multimedia installation by Elmgreen & Dragset in 2015 and the 2013 debut show by Paola Pivi, which included sculptures of a celebration of polar bears in various day-glow colors.
Not allergic to celebrity crossovers, Perrotin invited the musician Pharrell Williams to curate an exhibition at his Paris venue in 2014.
Emmanuel Perrotin and Pharrell Williams. Courtesy of Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan.
Perrotin’s new spot spans some 25,000 square feet over five floors, which, he says in an announcement, will allow him to mount several large exhibitions concurrently. The space will boast ceilings as high as 20 feet, he says. The 1902 building will be overhauled by New York architects Peterson Rich Office, overseen by principals Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich, both veterans of the firms Tod Williams Billie Tsien and Steven Holl Architects.
His new location is between Rivington and Delancey Streets, about 10 minutes’ walk from the New Museum. That institution provides an anchor for the growing number of galleries in the neighborhood, now hosting more than 200, up from just 69 in 2007, according to a report by Crain’s. Later this month, the International Center of Photography will join the herd when it opens its new home on the Bowery.