About

Jack Shainman Gallery has been dedicated from its inception to championing artists who have achieved mastery of their creative disciplines and are among the most compelling and influential contributors to culture today. Over the past four decades the gallery has earned a reputation for introducing international artists to American audiences and developing young and mid-career artists, who have gone on to gain worldwide acclaim. 

The gallery has presented the first New York exhibitions of artists Nick Cave, Hayv Kahraman, Kerry James Marshall, Meleko Mokgosi, Richard Mosse, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Hank Willis Thomas, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, among many others. Today, Jack Shainman Gallery is celebrated for its multicultural roster of emerging and established artists and estates who engage in the social and cultural issues
of their time.



The gallery was founded in 1984 in Washington, D.C. by Jack Shainman and Claude Simard (1956-2014). Soon after opening, the Gallery relocated to New York City, first in the East Village before moving to Soho and finally, in 1997, to its current location at 513 West 20th Street in Chelsea. In 2013, the Gallery opened two additional exhibition spaces, one in Chelsea at 524 West 24th Street, which operated until 2022, and a second in a converted 30,000 square foot building in Kinderhook, NY known as The School, which continues today. The gallery's newest flagship location in Tribeca at 46 Lafayette Street will open in 2025.

Jack Shainman Gallery artists have taken part in the most important exhibitions worldwide. Five gallery artists have represented their countries in national pavilions in the Venice Biennale, and many others have been included in the curated group exhibition there. Two gallery artists have received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, which was awarded to Malick Sidibe in 2007 and El Anatsui in 2015. Gallery artists are also routinely included in biennials and triennials such as Documenta, Prospect New Orleans, Paris Triennial, Manifesta, New Museum Triennial, Carnegie International, Moscow Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Havana Biennale, Johannesburg Biennale and Whitney Biennial.

They have also been the recipients of prestigious awards, such as two MacArthur Foundation Genius Grants, six Joan Mitchell Foundation Grants, a Praemium Imperiale Prize, a Wolfgang Hahn Prize, a PEW Foundation Grant, the Prix Pictet, a Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Grant, a Fulbright Scholarship, four John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships, five Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Awards, a Carnegie Prize, and a US Department of State’s Medal of Arts.

In addition to being featured in countless publications, monographs and films, gallery artists are included in renowned public collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; British Museum, London; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and Museum of Modern Art, Vienna.

Claude Simard (1956-2014)