New York City has a staggering 600 galleries, and growing, a number that is unparalleled in human history within one metropolis.  I like to call New York the “Hollywood of Contemporary Art,” as this is where artists and gallery owners from all over the planet eventually want to show their work.  And it’s not just the quantity of New York galleries that are extraordinary, but the quality, as evidenced by such NYC gallery giants as Gagosian, Pace, Matthew Marks, Barbara Gladstone, and dozens more.  But specifically where does New York stand among the world’s other gallery metropolises?

To begin to give some perspective, Beijing currently ranks second in the world in number of galleries – currently at over 200 – but these galleries are almost entirely local, overwhelmingly showing Chinese artists, and therefore Beijing galleries are not yet international players.  And they won’t be for decades to come, so long as the country’s draconian censorship policies remain in place.  No Asian city is regarded as an international gallery center, save Tokyo, whose galleries are relatively modest in scope.

Following the unification of Germany, Berlin – with its 200 galleries – overtook London as Europe’s largest gallery center.  As yet, Berlin’s galleries are generally small in size, and feature a high number of young, less established artists.  But as more blue-chip galleries establish there, look for Berlin to assume an ever-larger share of the contemporary art market.  London, with its 125 galleries, is second only to New York in its representation of international artists.  The West End houses London’s wealthiest, most established galleries, while the East End galleries show more cutting edge art.

Paris is world-renowned for its museums, but less so for its galleries these days.  Of course, Paris was the world’s center for contemporary art throughout the 19^th Century and into the first half of the 20^th Century, only to lose its title to New York after both the devastation of World War II and the burgeoning New York art scene of the 1950s, typified by abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock.

Much is being made of the economic rise of oil-producing Middle Eastern regions such as United Arab Emirates.  While some of their cities are building monumental cultural centers that will include museums, the few galleries they are establishing are for now inconsequential.  As in China, the censorship policies in Muslim-based countries will hinder the establishment of a significant Middle Eastern gallery scene for generations to come.  Tel Aviv, with its almost complete lack of art censorship, comes closest to a Middle Eastern gallery presence.

In the U.S., it is Los Angeles and Chicago that place second and third in reputation of galleries.  L.A., in particular, has lately showed robust growth in the number and stature of its galleries, and California art has been steadily building an international reputation for its light-infused work.   Santa Fe does house a couple of hundred galleries, but the art that they show – almost entirely local Southwestern artists – is numbingly uniform and almost all living room-bound, very little of it museum- or collector-quality.

In the entire southern hemisphere, only Australia – specifically Sydney – has any gallery concentration of note.  As with so much of the global economic scene, the northern hemisphere completely rules the art world.

Recession or no, New York’s galleries are bustling, as are galleries world-wide.  The art scene is too dynamic for New York to retain its gallery dominance forever.  But, barring a New Orleans-style catastrophe or a complete financial meltdown, New York galleries should retain their leadership role for at least another generation or two.  Lucky us.

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D.
Founder and Director
New York Gallery Tours