40 Years Later, New York Gallerist Jack Shainman Still Dreams Big

“First, you have to really believe in art and love art,” Jack Scheinman tells Artsy from The School, the gallery’s 30,000-square-foot project space in Kinderhook, N.Y. The School, which opened in 2013, embodied Scheinman’s large-scale approach to project planning, a practice he will continue with his newest space in Tribeca, a 20,000-square-foot space in an Italian Renaissance-style building.

The new space, which opens on the occasion of the gallery’s 40th anniversary, is a significant milestone for Shainman, who continues to prioritize more challenging projects. “For me, it’s the volume of the space and the ability to install so many different works. [projects] And really keep up with the vision of our artists,” the gallery owner told Artsy.

Shainman founded his gallery in 1984 with his late partner, Claude Simard, a French-Canadian painter and art dealer who died in 2014. The gallery opened its first location in Washington, D.C., initially funded by the sale of Simard’s work, and moved to New York’s East Village in 1986. A brief stint in Soho followed before the gallery moved to its current Chelsea flagship in 1997. Along the way, the gallery steadily grew to become one of New York’s most influential tastemakers, thanks to its reputation for showing artists first in New York, including Hank Willis Thomas and Toyin Ojih Odutola. Today, the gallery represents artists such as El Anatsui, Leslie Wayne, and Radcliffe Bailey.

An important feature of Scheinman’s philosophy is his long-term approach. “We have a lot of long-term relationships,” Scheinman says. Many of Scheinman’s artists have been pillars of his for more than two decades, including the late photographer Malik Sidibé, whom Scheinman first met in Mali in 2002, and Spanish painter Carlos Vega, Scheinman’s spouse, who was working as an art manager when Scheinman first met him in 1994.

From the beginning, the gallery owner was open to trying new artists and staying in touch with them as their careers developed. As Shainman’s roster grew to include many enduring figures, so did his vision and influence. The school—as its name suggests, it was a former high school—was located near Shainman’s farm in upstate New York, providing him with ample opportunities. Here, Shainman had the freedom to curate major exhibitions, such as its first exhibition of sculptures by American sculptor Nick Cave, with whom the gallery has been working since 2005.

Scheinman had similar motivations when he opened the Tribeca space, and he had expected the renovation to take six months. Instead, the massive upgrade of the former Beaux Arts Banking Hall—maintaining the architectural integrity of its 29-foot ceilings and elegant white marble columns—took nearly three years. Then, this January, after weeks of planning, the project culminated in a surprising transformation with the opening exhibition, an installation by Richard Mosse. Broken Ghost (2018-22) is presented on a 60-foot-wide LED screen. This immersive video documents the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, capturing the deliberate damage humanity has inflicted on the environment. Preparing such a huge space for such an ambitious exhibition was so daunting that Shainman joked that it could win a Guinness World Record, emphasizing why the new space was opened. If the institution isn’t going to show the works, Shainman can.

“I wanted this video to be shown in New York,” Scheinman said. “Several museums considered it, but no one wanted to do it, even though it has been shown all over the world. I just felt it was important to do it when it has such an important message.”

Through spaces like The School and the new Tribeca space, Shainman ensures that artists have the space and resources to bring their most imaginative and large-scale works to life. In both New York spaces, Jack Shainman Gallery recently closed a two-site exhibition of Diedrick Brackens’ Bloody Compass, with a large-scale tapestry hanging on the mezzanine level of the Tribeca. Meanwhile, at The School, a major exhibition of Nina Chanel Abney opened on May 18. Shainman continues to provide platforms commensurate with the ambitions of the artists he works with, and not just in a physical sense, and this commitment to the projects is evident.

“I gravitate toward artists who have substance—who not only have the ability to create something, do something, or represent something, but whose work also has some meaning,” Shainman says.

Shainman continues to recruit new artists, including conceptual artist Charisse Pearlina Weston and Philadelphia artist Becky Suss. This is consistent with his original intention to inject fresh energy into the art world. By integrating these new voices into the gallery’s forty-year legacy, Shainman creates what he calls a “chorus,” where different expressions and legacies come together and resonate, continuing Shainman’s founding vision to revitalize and diversify the art scene.

Meanwhile, in New York, the Tribeca and Chelsea neighborhoods have also seen a string of gallery closures, with mid-sized galleries like JTT, Denny Gallery, and Cheim & Read closing in the last year. For Shainman, every gallery closure is a loss for the city’s art community, and he noted that a greater density of art spaces would improve the market. “The art world in New York is very different—there are two marijuana stores on every block right now, which is a bit excessive, but with the [more] Gallery, it’s better this way,” he explained.