David Zwirner is to open a new gallery space in New York. Rather than merely additional real estate to his New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong empire, this will be for-profit but, the gallery says, have the ethos of a kunsthalle. Crucially it will also be headed by curator Ebony L. Haynes, who will exercise a degree of autonomy, and be staffed exclusively by Black employees, as well as Black students undertaking an internship programme.
Haynes joins Zwirner from Martos Gallery and Shoot The Lobster NY & LA, where she was a director. She is currently a guest professor and critic at the Yale School of Art, and earlier this summer she started the monthly, free, Black Art Sessions, which provides free and accessible classes to Black students interested in knowing more about how galleries work. She sits on the boards of the New Art Dealers Association and the Cassandra Press.
The gallery is yet to find a specific property for the new venture.
‘Ebony and I started talking in January about the possibility of her joining the gallery. Over the course of our conversations, Ebony introduced me to her much more ambitious idea. Like so many of Ebony’s stellar exhibitions and projects, this space will undoubtedly create a new mold for gallery programming today. I am so excited to work with her on realizing her vision,’ Zwirner said in a press statement.
