Gavin Brown is a British artist and art dealer. He is the owner of the gallery,

Gavin Brown's enterprise Gavin Brown's enterprise was an art gallery with venues in New York City and Rome owned by Gavin Brown between 1994 and 2020. In 2020, it merged with Gladstone Gallery. History Broome Street The gallery was established by Gavin Brown in 1994 on ...

in New York City and co-founder of non-profit gallery ''356 Mission'' in Los Angeles. The ''356 Mission'' art space closed in 2019, due to the lease ending.

Early life

Brown grew up in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

in south London. His mother was a social worker; his father an architect, who abandoned the family when Brown was 11.Diane Solway (July 16, 2013)
The Enterprising Mr. Brown
'' W''. He attended

Newcastle Polytechnic , mottoeng = A lifetime of learning , established = 1877 - Rutherford College of Technology1969 - Newcastle Polytechnic1992 - gained university status , type = Public , budget = � ...

– where his classmates included

Matthew Higgs Matthew Higgs (born 1964) is an English artist, curator, writer and publisher. His contribution to UK contemporary art has included the creation of ''Imprint 93'', a series of artists’ editions featuring the work of artists such as Martin Creed ...

– and later at

Chelsea College of Arts Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

. At Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London. Brown worked as an assistant in the back room alongside

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

before moving to New York in 1988 to continue his studies at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program.

Career

Brown began organizing exhibitions in the early 1990s – including one for

303 Gallery 303 Gallery is an art gallery in Manhattan, New York. It was established in 1984 by owner and director Lisa Spellman, described by art critic Jerry Saltz as "one of the greatest New York gallerists of our time". The gallery hosts contemporary work ...

in 1991 as well as pop-ups in at the

Hotel Chelsea The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of ...

, his apartment on the Upper West Side and in a cubicle he rented in a Midtown office building – and opened his first gallery in Soho in 1994. In December 1993, he had a solo show of his own work at

David Zwirner Gallery David Zwirner Gallery is an American contemporary art gallery owned by David Zwirner. It has four gallery spaces in New York City and one each in London, Hong Kong, and Paris. History The Zwirner Gallery opened in 1993 on the ground floor of ...

in Soho. In the early 2000s, Brown ran a gallery in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

called ''Roma Roma Roma'' with fellow dealers Franco Noero and Toby Webster, who have galleries in Turin, Italy, and Glasgow, Scotland, respectively.Andrew Russeth (March 19, 2015)
Gavin Brown Will Open a Space in Rome
''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...

''. In 2012 he took a lease in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

for ''356 Mission'', a gallery that is operated as an

artist-run space An artist-run space or artist-run centre (Canada) is a gallery or other facility operated or directed by artists, frequently circumventing the structures of public art centers, museums, or commercial galleries and allowing for a more experimental ...

by painter

Laura Owens Laura Owens (born 1970) is an American painter, gallery owner and educator. She emerged in the late 1990s from the Los Angeles art scene. She is known for large-scale paintings that combine a variety of art historical references and painterly te ...

. In 2014, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' named him in their "Movers and makers: the most powerful people in the art world". In July 2020, Brown announced that he will close his gallery and partner with Barbara Gladstone.

Controversy

Brown and painter

have been accused of being involved with gentrification of a predominantly working-class, Hispanic neighbourhood with their non-profit gallery ''356 Mission'' in the neighbourhood of

Boyle Heights Boyle is an English, Irish and Scottish surname of Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon or Norman origin. In the northwest of Ireland it is one of the most common family names. Notable people with the surname include: Disambiguation *Adam Boyle (disambiguation), ...

, on the east side of

. Activists of various anti-gentrification groups have protested their galleries and exhibitions in both Los Angeles and New York City. The ''356 Mission'' art space closed in 2019, due to the lease ending.

Personal life

Since 2011, Brown has been residing in Harlem where he moved with his wife, artist Hope Atherton, and their child. From a previous marriage with Scottish fashion designer, Lucy Barnes, Brown has three children.Elizabeth Hayt (June 4, 2000)
Fame and Disdain on Far West 15th St.
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gavin Living people British art dealers Alumni of Northumbria University Year of birth missing (living people) People from Croydon