Metro Pictures Gallery

Metro Pictures was a New York City art gallery founded in 1980 by Janelle Reiring (previously of Leo Castelli Gallery),^[1] and Helene Winer (previously of Artists Space).^[2] It was located in SoHo until 1995 when it moved to Chelsea.^[3] The gallery closed in December of 2021.^[4]

Artists

Metro's opening group exhibition in 1980 included Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Laurie Simmons, James Welling, and Richard Prince.^[5]

During the early and mid-1980s, Mike Kelley, Louise Lawler,^[6] Martin Kippenberger, John Miller, Tony Oursler, Walter Robinson, and Jim Shaw joined the gallery.^[7] Subsequent generations of artists included Gary Simmons, Olaf Breuning, Andy Hope 1930, Andre Butzer, Sara VanDerBeek, Tris Vonna-Michell, Trevor Paglen, Camille Henrot, Sam Falls ,^[8] Judith Hopf,^[9] and Gretchen Bender.^[10]

History

In 1996, Metro Pictures teamed up with two other galleries – Gladstone Gallery and Matthew Marks Gallery – to acquire and divide up a 29,000 sq ft (2,700 m²) warehouse at 515 West 24th Street.^[11] The space was renovated by 1100 Architect in 2016.^[3] It closed in December 2021.^[12]