After 16 years of highlighting the work of Bay Area and international artists in new media, technology and exploring social issues, Altman Siegel gallery will close at the end of November.
“It is with both pride and sadness that I announce that Altman Siegel will close its doors to the public,” gallerist Claudia Altman-Siegel announced in an email sent Wednesday, Oct. 15. “As it has become too difficult for a gallery this size to scale in this climate, I have made the incredibly tough decision to close rather than diminish either the space or the commitment to exhibit conceptually uncompromising work.”
Its final show will be a presentation of new work by Tokyo artist Shinpei Kusanagi, which opens Friday, Oct. 17. The gallery’s final day is Nov. 22.
Altman Siegel presented her first show at the downtown gallery hub at 49 Geary in 2009. Titled “A Wild Night and a New Road,” the group show took its name after an Emily Dickinson poem.
In 2016, the gallery relocated to its current 5,000-square-foot space at Minnesota Street Project in the Dogpatch neighborhood. More recently, she opened a temporary location in a Presidio Heights venue in 2024 that allowed Atlman Siegel to present in a more intimate space.
“Each chapter allowed the gallery to take risks, experiment, and keep pace with the evolving practices of our artists,” wrote Altman Siegel. “Now, 213 exhibitions and art fairs later, the project is coming to a close.”
Aimee Le Duc, executive director of campus experience at the Minnesota Street Project, noted the arts hub is “very sorry to see them go but we certainly understand and respect her reasons for closing.”
Lynn Hershman Leeson’s exhibition “About Face” at Altman Siegel gallery in San Francisco in March 2022. (Gabrielle Lurie/S.F. Chronicle)
In its 16 years, Altman Siegel has represented local artists such as Liam Everett, Chris Johanson, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Trevor Paglen, Zheng Chongbin as well as national and international artists including Troy Lamarr Chew II, Simon Denny, Jessica Dickinson, Kiyan Williams and Grant Mooney. Many of them saw their careers reach new heights, including major museum shows, acquisition into permanent collections and new publications.
In 2021, Everett created a temporary vinyl mural that covered the gallery’s facade at 1150 Minnesota St. The project was in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose and the Minnesota Street Project and was received with acclaim.
Chew’s work is known for mixing paintings with extended reality experiences through apps, as seen in his 2022 show with the gallery titled “The Roof Is on Fire.” At the time of its opening, it was noted as an innovative combination of art and technology.
A new installation by Johanson is currently on view at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ exhibition, “Bay Area Then,” which showcase artists from San Francisco’s Mission School of the 1990s exploring contemporary themes.
On Saturday, Oct. 11, Altman Siegel closed Hershman Leeson’s “About Time,” Â the artist’s third solo show with the gallery. It featured work ranging from an anti-aging serum and excerpt of her electronic diaries to new works on paper.
Hershman Leeson joined Altman Siegel in 2020 and has since been given a major retrospective of her work at the New Museum in New York in 2021 and was honored at the Venice Biennale in 2022. She called the gallery’s support “essential” to her gaining that wider recognition for her practice.
“Whether they highlight social issues, respond to difficult questions about society or rethink traditional subjects and mediums, Altman Siegel has strived to exhibit artists who ask urgent questions and force the viewer to think in a new way,” the gallerist said.
This article originally published at Altman Siegel gallery to close after 16 years in San Francisco.