Sperone's new mid-block glass building. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

We visited Sperone Westwater’s much-ballyhooed new edifice, a striking sliver of glass jutting heavenward on an otherwise dingy Bowery block yesterday morning.

Intoxicated by the pungent fresh paint aroma, we (the invited press pack) paced around the new gallery, hung with a stellar selection of architecture and Cubist inspired paintings by Argentine Guillermo Kuitca, dating from 2008 to 2010.

Sperone Westwater joins the LES migration with a transformative statement – an eight-story building by Foster and Partners. The gallery, established in 1975, leaves behind the Meatpacking outpost it occupied since 2002. (We blogged about the relocation saga here and here).

The new 20,000 square-foot venue features three floors of sky-lit public gallery space, two private gallery levels, a library, basement storage, and two floors of offices.

The marquee element is a so-called “moving room.” An elevator-like structure, the room travels (very slowly) between the second and third floor, providing extended exhibition space. Splashy red paint coats the outside of the moving gallery, visible from the Bowery. The floating facade animates the milled-glass and black metal exterior.

Architect…

Photo via Gavin Brown's enterprise

Gavin Brown’s enterprise, site of the currently installed Rob Pruitt extravaganza, has not wasted an inch of exterior real estate.

Three artist designed billboards have been mounted, featuring the graphic stylings of Mark Leckey, Richard Prince and Joe Bradley.

Portrait of a Young Girl (Antoinette M. Kraushaar), 1917 by George Benjamin Luks. Courtesy: Brooklyn Museum

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Kraushaar Galleries, the grande dame of American art vendors, celebrates 125 years in the business this fall with a book and a special exhibition at New York’s Archives of American Art.

So how old is 125 in gallery years? Seriously old. Just three other New York galleries have the distinction of having crossed their 125th milestone – James Graham & Sons (1857), Knoedler & Company (1846), and Babcock Galleries (1852).

Kraushaar Galleries: Celebrating 125 Years, written by art historian Betsy Fahlman, provides an overview of the gallery’s history, from its early days as an art supply shop to its role as a champion of American art. The book will be released on September 7, 2010 and sold at the gallery.

An exhibition of original letters, invoices, ledgers and archive material from the Kraushaar Galleries’ records at the Smithsonian Archives of Art will be on display from September 8 until December 8, 2010.

Charles W. Kraushaar opened the gallery at its original 33rd Street and Broadway location in 1885, selling artist supplies to young undiscovered talents such as Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran,…

Jasper Johns Three Flags, 1958 Encaustic on canvas 78.4 x 115.6 x 12.7 cm Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 50th Anniversary Gift of the Gliman Foundation, Inc., The Lauder Foundation, A. Alfred Taubman, Laura-Lee Whittier Woods, and purchase 80.32. Photo courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art, New York © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Pace Gallery is turning fifty, and instead of a midlife crisis, the gallery is whooping it up with a retrospective show at Pace’s four Manhattan locations. 50 Years at Pace unites some of the major works that Glimcher and Co. have handled, including loans from MoMA and Washington’s National Gallery.

Each show examines a different piece of Pace’s history. The 57th Street location will recreate elements of important past exhibitions, including Pablo Picasso: The Avignon Paintings, The Sculpture of Picasso, and De Kooning/Dubuffet: The Women.

The show includes loans from public and private collections. MoMA’s Woman II by de Kooning and Mondrian’s Large Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow (borrowed from a private collection) will be shown alongside vintage gallery announcements, posters and photos of the original exhibition installations.

The 534 West 25th Street space will feature Pop art and Abstract Expressionism. Works by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein will be on view, as well as Jasper Johns’ 1958 Three Flags. When Pace sold the work to the Whitney Museum in 1980 for $1 million, the painting…

Art dealer Lawrence Salander, seated on end of bench, surrounded by his lawyer Charles Ross and three adult children this morning at New York State Supreme Court. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

A pair of burly court officers escorted a tearful, handcuffed Lawrence Salander from a courtroom this afternoon, shortly after a judge doled out his sentence. Salander, the former dealer and Sunday painter who had plead guilty to a $120 million art fraud in March, received six to 18 years in prison.  Judge Michael J. Obus termed the saga “deplorable.”

The hearing, which commenced around 9:30 a.m. this morning, concluded nearly four hours later. Ten victims stood before a podium and described tales of emotional and financial pain.

Salander’s lawyer Charles Ross asked the court for leniency, citing  Salander’s family–seven children– and poor health, noting the dealer had been an alcoholic for over forty years.

Salander, wearing wrinkled khakis,  was accompanied by his three adult children–Ivana, Isaac and Jonah. Salander’s wife Julie, who has split with her husband, also attended.

“Salander is a pathologically self-absorbed con man,” said assistant district attorney Kenn Kern, who pressed for the maximum sentence. Salander “lived the dream,” said Kern, citing a birthday party at the Frick, private jet rides and a 60 acres estate in Millbrook, “financed by a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernard…

First Gagosian went old school with a Madison Avenue bookstore–though I keep waiting for The Girl with the Gallery to appear on the shelves.

Now David Zwirner has announced plans for a first annual summer pop-up bookstore held for one week only–August 9-13– at 533 West 19th Street.

The gallery promises special deals on rare and out-of-print books, signed artist catalogs, DVDs and more. Expect to find material from across Zwirner’s blue-chip roster, including black-lister Marlene Dumas, dung-meister Chris Ofili and others.

Martha Cooper "Art vs. Transit," 1982, ed. 9 priced $4,600 at Benrimon Contemporary. Image: Courtesy Benrimon Contemporary

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Twenty-five Chelsea dealers have joined forces to woo art admirers with the first annual Chelsea Art Walk taking place tonight from 5-8 PM.  Gallerists Julie Saul, Barry Friedman, Andrea Meislin and Yancey Richardson are among partakers.

The evening includes extended hours, free pierogies, and a talk by a graffiti artist known as Phetus.

Other attractions include a meet-and-greet with featured curators at P.P.O.W.’s show “Young Curators, New Ideas III” and a site-specific dance performance choreographed by Douglas Dunn.

At Benrimon Contemporary graffiti artist Phetus will give a live demonstration and discuss his comic books series. Photographer Martin Schoeller will sign books at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler.  Sputnik Gallery is touting an art book raffle and plus the aforementioned free Russian pierogies.

Bruce Silverstein Gallery is mounting a BYOB event– Buy Your Own Book. Books, limited edition prints and catalogues will be for sale with discounted prices.

Featured publications include Todd Hido’s “A Road Divided,” and books by contemporary photographers Michael Wolf, Nicolai Howalt and Trine Sondergaard. The items…

Paul Pagk "OGLS #116" 2010. Photo courtesy: Scaramouche, NYC.

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Hipsters, artists and literature fans alike endured the heat last Thursday night, partaking in the opening of Lush Life, a collaborative summer gallery show, based on a popular crime novel.

The exhibits were inspired by Richard Price’s 2008 novel, Lush Life. The best-selling police drama takes place post-9/11 in the Lower East Side.  Independent curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud and artist Franklin Evans organized the project at nine Lower East Side galleries. Each shows corresponds with a book chapter.

Large maps were distributed, listing gallery locations, as well as a legend for fictional settings of events from the book’s plot. Schiller’s Liquor Bar on Rivington Street was deemed Café Berkman, the restaurant where the suspect and the victim of Price’s novel are both employed.

Some of the correlations are obvious, like the bird and feathered creature theme at Invisible-Exports, while others may require a better familiarity with the narrative and a strong imagination. The chapters do not need to be viewed in chronological order.  Event organizers encourage visitors to let spontaneity and convenience rule when choosing a route.

Sue Scott Gallery…

Rendering of new L & M Arts space filled with late De Koonings. Photo: L & M Arts

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views contributor

Bucking the economy and the unpredictability of the L.A. art market, L & M Arts is opening their new outpost this fall in what looks like an impressive venue.

Kulapat Yantrasast, of the architecture firm wHY Architecture, has revamped a 1930s power plant and the added a new brick building, all slotted on a triangular plot of land. A slice of lawn is allocated for sculpture and there is of course ample parking for the Mercedes, Porsches and other wheels preferred by the L.A. art collecting set.

The gallery opens Sept. 25 with a Paul McCarthy show, the artist’s first show in his hometown in ten years.   Sarah Watson, a former Deitch Projects director and staffer at Gagosian Gallery’s Beverly Hills location is the director.

The opening is timed to coincide with the debut of LACMA’s 45,000 square foot Renzo Piano-designed Resnick Pavillon.

Robert Mnuchin and Dominique Levy, who joined forces in 2005, operate L & M from a townhouse on the Upper East Side.

Hirschl & Adler Galleries. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

More real estate drama has arrived on the doorsteps of East 70th Street.

A landmark limestone Upper East Side townhouse, home to Hirschl & Adler Galleries for 33 years, will go on the market. “The building is for sale,” said owner Felicie Balay, in an interview with Art Market Views. “We haven’t discussed price yet, but we will make it fair.”

Balay said she is meeting with her broker, Jed Garfield of  Leslie J. Garfield & Co.  later this week. The 22-foot wide townhouse at 21 East 70th Street, just off Madison Avenue and flanked by art gallery Knoedler & Co. and velour leisure suit purveyor Juicy Couture, will be listed within a week.

Hirschl and Adler’s lease has been extended until the end of October, said Balay.  UPDATE: The gallery will be moving to new quarters in the late fall, according to gallery director Elizabeth Feld.  Hirschl, which sells American and European fine and decorative art, has occupied the building as a tenant since 1977. A rendering of the building is incorporated as part of the gallery’s logo.  Works by Marguerite Zorach, Dorothea Tanning and…