British-born Sean Kelly open his eponymous gallery in 1991. The Gallery has garnered critical attention for its high caliber exhibitions and collaborations with the most significant cultural institutions around the world. After operating privately for four years, the Gallery’s first public space opened at 43 Mercer Street in SoHo. Innovative and revolutionary artists Marina Abramović, James Casebere, Callum Innes, Joseph Kosuth and Julião Sarmento were founding participants in the gallery’s original roster, all of whom still work with the gallery today. With a program embracing work ranging from performance to painting, sculpture to the conceptual, and a variety of mixed media Sean Kelly quickly set the bar high with a reputation for diverse, curatorially driven exhibitions, including thematic and historical presentations.
The Gallery expanded to Chelsea in 2001, moving to a converted 7,000 square-foot industrial space on 29th Street. That new spacious location enabled the Gallery to broaden its creative capacity and curate increasingly ambitious, museum-quality exhibitions to great critical acclaim. With this expansion in space, the Gallery grew its program to represent artists such as Iran do Espírito Santo, Antony Gormley, Rebecca Horn and Frank Thiel. In the ensuing years, the Gallery undertook representation of Los Carpinteros, Leandro Erlich, Laurent Grasso, Johan Grimonprez, Tehching Hsieh, Peter Liversidge, Anthony McCall, Alec Soth and Kehinde Wiley.
Sean Kelly relocated to the rapidly developing Hudson Yards neighborhood in October of 2012. Award-winning architect Toshiko Mori designed the 22,000 square-foot, two-story gallery at 475 Tenth Avenue, a historic 1914 building. Mori was subsequently awarded the AIA Design Award in Interiors for her unique architectural approach to the Hudson Yards location. Continuing its commitment to artists who challenge traditional boundaries of artistic practice, Sean Kelly has in recent years added internationally acclaimed artists David Claerbout, José Dávila, Candida Höfer, Ilse D’Hollander, Hugo McCloud, Mariko Mori, Liu Wei, James White and Sun Xun to its roster.
In addition to celebrating over twenty-five years of gallery exhibition programming, Sean Kelly has garnered international attention for its collaboration with renowned cultural institutions, coordinating hundreds of exhibitions on behalf of its artists at an array of prestigious museums including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; Kunstwerke Berlin, Germany; the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada; the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo, Japan; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Tate Gallery, London, England; the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia; the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, to name but a few.
Sean Kelly has continued to expand its program to include Julian Charrière, Landon Metz, Sam Moyer, Shahzia Sikander and Janaina Tschäpe ushering in a new generation of exceptional contemporary artists. The Gallery continues to work with artists who challenge their practice both aesthetically and conceptually. Throughout its history the same core values, integrity and ethics have remained central to Sean Kelly’s program, its commitment to excellence and quality remains unwavering.