After more than three decades in business, the gallerist Tim Blum is shutting down the physical spaces of his eponymous galleries in Los Angeles and Tokyo and transitioning to a “more flexible model.” The spaces will close after their summer exhibitions, and the plans for a New York space, previously slated for this fall, are undetermined.
In an interview with ArtNews, Blum said the decision was less about the current art market and more “about the system.” Blum described the gallery’s participation at Art Basel last month as a “thunderclap—confirmation of everything I’ve been feeling for years,” referring to a growing dissatisfaction with the expanding infrastructure of contemporary gallery life, including constant art fairs, openings, and administrative obligations.
Originally founded as Blum & Poe in Santa Monica in 1994 with co-founder Jeff Poe, the gallery played a crucial role in introducing Japanese and Korean postwar art to a wider American audience. The gallery helped to grow the careers of high-profile artists such as Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami, and in 2014, it opened a branch in Tokyo. In 2023, the gallery rebranded as BLUM after Poe announced that he would step down from the gallery.
In a statement, Blum outlined the gallery’s next steps. “We’ll begin a new chapter: transitioning away from the traditional gallery format toward a more flexible model,” he said. “Without a permanent public space or formal artist roster, this structure will allow us to engage with artists and ideas in new ways, through collaborations, special projects, and longer-term visions still in development.”
The gallery is currently showing three solo exhibitions by Tomoo Gokita, Sarah Rosalen, and Wilhelm Sasnal in Los Angeles, each of which will close on August 16th. In Tokyo, the gallery’s group exhibition, “Surface and Signal,” will close on August 2nd.
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