Mark Strauss Gallery announced Tuesday that Tribeca-based Swivel Gallery founder Graham Wilson has joined the gallery as a partner and senior director.
As part of the move, Swivel will close its Tribeca space and its artists will move to Straus, which has offices in Tribeca and the Lower East Side. The latter, located at 299 Grand Street, will host a group show of Swivel artists curated by Wilson, scheduled to open March 19.
“The art world is evolving rapidly, costs are rising, and the need for collaboration to reshape gallery operations in New York City continues to grow,” the gallery said in a press statement. “With our four-story Lower East Side gallery, Tribeca space, and talented team, partnering with Graham allows us to consolidate our programs, strengthen support for artists, and create more opportunities for creative growth.”
Related articles
with art newsWilson similarly described the move as providing Swivel artists with more gallery infrastructure to better support their efforts as their careers develop.
“The key is having the right amount of staff and resources and having those resources available even in a down market,” Wilson said. Strauss has “some high-level artists, and we’re bringing in a new generation of artists who are at that level. It’s a good mix (for the gallery) and it’s a good mix for the artists.”
Spin artists like Amy Bravo and Kiah Celeste, who will appear in group shows at the AKG Art Museum in Buffalo and the Studio Museum in Harlem respectively this year, have gained attention in recent years. Strauss’s works include Viennese actionist Hermann Nitsch, sculptor Rona Pondick, and avant-garde painters Sandro Chia and Renée Stout, among others.
Wilson added that he expects consolidation among like-minded galleries to become more common as collectors and audiences seek “less saturation.” In fact, last September, dealers Bridget Donahue and Hannah Hoffman announced that they would combine their eponymous galleries into one business. Just last week, Lisbon’s Galerie Madragoa and Warsaw’s Galeria Dawid Radziszewski announced they would open a joint gallery, Consonni Radziszewski, in Milan.
While Wilson is no stranger to collaboration—Swivel regularly works with galleries in Mexico City and elsewhere—he said he’s looking forward to no longer being “the only voice in the room.”
“As an emerging gallerist, it’s difficult because you get little feedback on what you’re doing,” he says. “The only feedback you get is congratulations. Having a think tank will be very beneficial.”
Wilson, a former artist, launched Swivel in 2021 in Bed-Stuy. In 2023, the gallery moved to a 5,000-square-foot warehouse in Bushwick, taking over the space of the now-defunct Clearing Gallery. Then in late 2024, the gallery moved to a 2,000-square-foot space in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood. Swivel has been a regular on the show circuit, doing up to 10 shows a year, regularly exhibiting at Untitled, NADA and the Armory Show.
