The U.S. Art Market Is Rethinking Its Future for the Better

Art Market

Interior view of ADAA’s The Art Show in New York City, 2023. Photo by Scott Rudd. Courtesy of the ADAA.

Summer is usually the quiet season for the art market, but the dog days of 2025 may prove to be among the most memorable in recent history.

In the space of just a few weeks, four prominent U.S. galleries announced they would cease operations in their current forms. Tim Blum shuttered his influential namesake gallery after three decades in business, Adam Lindemann closed his heavyweight gallery Venus Over Manhattan, and Olivier Babin confirmed the end of CLEARING, his tastemaking gallery that skyrocketed from a brick and mortar in Bushwick to international acclaim. Chelsea stalwart Kasmin, meanwhile, closed its doors after 35 years to make way for Olney Gleason, under the leadership of Nick Olney and Eric Gleason, who had been running the gallery since founder Paul Kasmin’s passing in 2020. In addition to the gallery shifts, the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) cancelled the 2025 edition of its long-running October art fair in New York.

To conflate each case would be misleading. Each move reflects its unique circumstances: an evolution in business model (Kasmin), the crushing overheads of multi-city operations (Babin), or simply fatigue with the pace and pressure of the business (Blum, Lindemann). Lindemann told Artsy that galleries are “very personal enterprises”—each decision to close is a story in itself.

Portrait of Adam Lindemann standing in front of Peter Saul’s View of San Francisco (1979). © 2025 Peter Saul/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy of the artist, and Venus Over Manhattan, New York.

Portrait of Olivier Babin. Courtesy of CLEARING.

“[Galleries] get grouped into like ‘the galleries are closing, the galleries are opening,’ but each one’s a little different, but they’re all ego-driven and nobody wants to close,” Lindemann said. “But every gallery in the world will eventually close. The only question is when.”

Still, each of the decisions—and the reasons given for them—comes at a very public moment of introspection for the art industry. Outlets from the Financial Times to Hypebeast are asking big-picture, almost existential, questions about the current shape of the art market. Is the pace of exhibitions and events unsustainable for galleries? Where are the new art buyers? Is the gallery system itself fit for purpose in its current form? These are just some of the issues that have come into public view recently, and they’re particularly pronounced in the U.S. market, which has been the main focus of recent events.

But, taken together, these discussions may be less about decline than about how those in the art world choose to look forward.

This is not the first time the American art industry has found itself in such a period of introspection. In the early 1990s, a sharp recession caused a downturn in the market that Time magazine described as “the great massacre of 1990.” Similar periods of tumult occurred in 2008, when around two dozen New York galleries closed according to the New York Times, and in 2016, when more than a dozen galleries in the city shuttered in 18 months. Then, as now, similar questions were asked about the future direction of the industry.

Exterior view of CLEARING in New York. Courtesy of CLEARING.

The wake of the 2008 financial crisis gave way to several shifts in the market. Recovery was driven by global diversification—particularly in Asia and the Middle East—while art fairs became crucial sales hubs. The crisis also accelerated early digital experiments such as Artsy and strengthened the financing of art through auction guarantees and art funds. These shifts not only stabilized the market but also laid the groundwork for innovations that defined later downturns, such as the widespread adoption of virtual sales during COVID-19 and even the rise of NFTs.

The underlying backdrop today, while not as severe, bears some similarities. Like the industry at large, the U.S. market is in a recognized downturn. Top-level auction and dealer sales have declined for consecutive years, as pockets of collector demand have cooled: “Some people who bought 200 works a year now buy 40,” CLEARING’s Babin said. “That’s an 80% drop, but it’s still substantial. There was a lot of fluff.”

For American galleries, this softening is occurring as business costs rise—a persistent factor that has been affecting galleries in districts such as downtown New York for a number of years now. “Since the pandemic, overhead and the cost of operating have effectively doubled,” art adviser Alex Glauber told Artsy. “Sustaining cash flow and covering overheads month to month, that number has gotten bigger, and the inflow of cash has gotten smaller.”

Portrait of Megan Skidmore and Kinsey Robb at ADAA’s The Art Show, 2024. Photo by Deonté Lee/BFA. Courtesy of ADAA.

It’s in this context that many are in a reflective mood when thinking about the sustainability of current business structures in a fast-changing climate, which includes larger political and economic issues in its mix. That combination of factors was a large part of why the ADAA decided to postpone its 2025 fair, according to its director, Kinsey Robb.

“The last six months have really been a period of extraordinary change in the art world at large,” said Robb. “We’ve watched some restructuring of federal and private funding for arts institutions. We’ve seen policy headwinds from tariffs to legislative proposals reshaping the terrain. And we’ve watched galleries close, rebrand, merge, etcetera. For the ADAA, this has been a moment to take stock to ask what works—what must evolve.”

Likewise, Lindemann wanted to take stock when he felt the gallery could no longer provide what he wanted for his clients and artists. “A gallery is something that needs continuity,” he said. “When I could no longer provide that continuity, [I closed]. Good galleries have to support their artists and their markets, and that requires a lot of mojo.”

Interior view of ADAA’s The Art Show in New York City, 2024. Photo by Scott Rudd. Courtesy of the ADAA.

For others, this moment is an opportunity to reconsider the fundamentals. As Kasmin transitions into Olney Gleason, its figureheads made clear that they want to slow the pace and refocus. “There’s been a large focus on a lot of extraneous elements of our industry for the last many years,” Gleason told Artsy. “Whatever correction has happened, this has realigned a lot of things we’ve kept all along,” such as maintaining “a very strict focus on our artists.”

If galleries and fairs are recalibrating, many collectors are taking a moment to consider, too. Collector Jeff Magid observes that much of the art world feels “closed off” to new buyers, offering few points of entry. That perceived insularity, he says, has left even established collectors wary while sidelining the potential influx of new participants. In fact, this disconnect between galleries and collectors is now being widely recognized and considered: Just 17% of collectors surveyed in Artsy’s Art Market Trends 2025 report said the art market meets their needs. “Earlier crises were mostly economic,” noted Babin. “This one feels more like a shift—cultural habits, psychological changes, how people want to spend not only money but time and energy.”

Exterior view of Kasmin. Photo by Charlie Rubin. Courtesy of Olney Gleason.

But there are several bright spots. Emerging artists—categorized as those in the earlier stages of their professional art careers—and works at lower price points are two of the most prominent areas that have seen increased interest amid the wider market downturn. “We just need more opportunities…and welcoming scenarios with good art at reasonable prices, and people will want to buy,” Magid told Artsy.

For many, this moment presents an opportunity. “This is a chance to reevaluate and course-correct,” said Glauber. This could mean a refocusing for many in the gallery sector, whether that’s stepping away from some expensive endeavors and homing in on new buyers. “The next step is probably some more thoughtfulness put in,” Olney said. “Finding an equilibrium between being incredibly active and making sure you’re doing everything for a reason—focus on the exhibition, focus on artists’ career building—is where we see galleries going.”

Portrait of Eric Gleason and Nick Olney. Photo by Charlie Rubin. Courtesy of Olney Gleason.

Gleason describes things plainly: “We are in the midst of a generational shift. Wonderful galleries that have been around for decades are slowing down, and there’s going to be a new generation of dealers and gallerists—we hope to be leaders amongst that cohort.”

So, while many are keen to talk things down, the reality is more nuanced. Indeed, this isn’t the first time the U.S. art market has asked itself such questions. “The art world has an enormous capacity for reinvention,” said Robb. “We’re all creative. We’re representing creatives. We’re creative in our own ways. This is an opportunity for some exciting change to take shape.”

MR

Maxwell Rabb

Maxwell Rabb (Max) is a writer. Before joining Artsy in October 2023, he obtained an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from the University of Georgia.