Following the move by other major galleries Blum is opening a Tribeca space. Blum is known for being a central destination for the West Coast art scene and this move to the East Coast comes with the suggestion of competition. But the question is whether the implicit sense of competition this move brings is about Left vs Right coast supremacy or about solidifying an American primacy at a time when several global cities are vying for the title of Art Capital.
Press notes:
BLUM is pleased to announce the inauguration of the gallery’s new Tribeca location, opening September 10, 2025. Designed by Architecture Research Office (ARO), the renovated two-floor, 6,200-square-foot space marks a significant new chapter for the gallery’s global program, joining its existing locations in Los Angeles and Tokyo. BLUM New York will be overseen by Managing Partner Matt Bangser.
Located in the heart of Tribeca, the new gallery will allow BLUM to expand its commitment to mounting museum-caliber exhibitions while supporting a diverse and international roster of artists. The renovation honors the character of the historic building—restoring original iron columns, white oak floors, and skylights—and integrates advanced lighting and environmental systems to meet the technical demands of contemporary art. This marks ARO’s first transformation of a commercial gallery space, following acclaimed projects such as the Dia Art Foundation’s New York City location, the restoration of Donald Judd’s 101 Spring Street, and the renewal and expansion of the Rothko Chapel and its campus in Houston.
The Tribeca gallery will launch with Written with a Splash of Blood, an inter-generational and cross-disciplinary survey of Japanese art from the 1960s to today. Curated by Mika Yoshitake, art historian and BLUM’s recently appointed Senior Curatorial Director, the exhibition builds on the gallery’s longstanding engagement with postwar and contemporary Japanese movements. Reflecting on pivotal groups such as Gutai, Mono-ha, and Superflat, Written with a Splash of Blood also introduces new voices whose work grapples with identity, creative destruction, and reinvention. The exhibition’s title is drawn from Yukio Mishima’s novel Runaway Horses, invoking themes of self-actualization and transformation.
“This new space represents a major milestone for the gallery and for me personally,” said Tim Blum, Founder of BLUM. “Opening in Tribeca continues our longstanding engagement with Japanese art but also signals the expansion of a truly global program—artists whose work demands to be seen with depth, rigor, and international context. We are thrilled to join the Tribeca community at such a dynamic moment in New York’s cultural life.”
In the lead-up to the Tribeca opening, several major institutional exhibitions will highlight the work of BLUM artists, including Sonia Gomes at Storm King Art Center, New York (opening May), Alexander Tovborg at ARoS, Aarhus, Denmark (opening May), Yoshitomo Nara at Hayward Gallery, London (opening June), Kishio Suga at Dia:Beacon, New York (opening July), Solange Pessoa at the Aspen Art Museum (opening July), Kenjiro Okazaki at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (closing July 21), and Yukinori Yanagi at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan (closing July 27).
The opening reception for the gallery and exhibition will be held on site on Wednesday, September 10, 5–8pm. Additional public programs organized around the show will be announced in September.
ABOUT BLUM
BLUM represents more than sixty artists and estates from twenty countries worldwide, nurturing a diverse roster of artists at all stages of their practices with a range of global perspectives. Originally opened as Blum & Poe in Santa Monica in 1994, the gallery has been a pioneer in its early commitment to Los Angeles as an international arts capital.
The gallery has been acclaimed for its groundbreaking work in championing artists of Japanese and Korean postwar and contemporary movements, such as Dansaekhwa, Mono-ha, and Superflat, and for organizing museum-caliber solo presentations and historical survey exhibitions across its spaces in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and New York. Often partnering with celebrated curators and scholars such as Cecilia Alemani, Alison M. Gingeras, Sofia Gotti, Joan Kee, and Mika Yoshitake, the gallery has produced large-scale projects critically examining historical movements and work including the Japanese Mono-ha school (2012); the Korean Dansaekhwa monochrome painters (2014); the European postwar movement CoBrA (2015); Japanese art of the 1980s and 1990s (2019); a rereading of Brazilian Modernism (2019); a revisionist take on the 1959 MoMA exhibition, New Images of Man (2020); and a survey of portraiture through a democratic and humanist lens (2023).
BLUM’s wide-reaching program includes exhibitions, lectures, performance series, screenings, video series, and an annual art book fair at its base in Los Angeles. BLUM Books, the gallery’s publishing division, democratically circulates its program through original scholarship and accessible media ranging from academic monographs, audio series, magazines, to artists’ books.
Across the three global locations, BLUM prioritizes environmental and community stewardship in all operations. In 2015, it was certified as an Arts:Earth Partnership (AEP) green art gallery in Los Angeles and consequently became one of the first green certified galleries in the United States. The gallery is also a member of the Gallery Climate Coalition, which works to facilitate a more sustainable commercial art world and reduce the industry’s collective carbon footprint. BLUM is committed to fostering inclusive and equitable communities both in its physical and online spaces and believes that everybody should have equal access to creating and engaging with contemporary art.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
