After greater than a quarter-century on the helm of the New York gallery they based, James and Jane Cohan are passing the torch to senior director David Norr as a part of a deliberate management transition that may also see a brand new title for the gallery: Norr Cohan.
James Cohan Gallery introduced on Wednesday that Norr has assumed sole possession and management. Jane Cohan has retired from her position on the gallery, whereas James Cohan will proceed to work with artists and collectors on a smaller scale. Reflecting the change in possession, the gallery will now function beneath the brand new title. Based in 1999, the gallery has helped form the careers of artists together with Fred Tomaselli, Yinka Shonibare, Robert Smithson and Kennedy Yanko.
“It’s the privilege of a lifetime to construct upon what Jim and Jane created, and I really feel an infinite sense of gratitude to have spent 11 years studying from the perfect within the enterprise,” Norr mentioned in an announcement. “Our mission stays unchanged: to champion artists with the identical care, rigour and ambition which have outlined the gallery since its founding, whereas persevering with to develop and evolve in ways in which finest assist their practices.”
Norr joined the gallery in 2015, after serving as a curator on the Wexner Middle for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and the Museum of Modern Artwork Cleveland. In line with the gallery, that institutional background formed his emphasis on museum advocacy for artists, an method shared by the Cohans. James and Jane Cohan even have ties to Ohio, having lived in Cleveland earlier than relocating to New York within the Eighties.
The possession transition has been years within the making. Norr was named a gallery associate in 2018 and have become a co-owner in 2021, earlier than assuming sole possession this 12 months.
“I’ve spent 45 years within the artwork world, together with 17 at different galleries earlier than opening my very own. I’ve witnessed firsthand how tough it’s to create a gallery that lives on past its founder,” James Cohan mentioned in an announcement. “Jane and I’ve all the time believed that our first accountability is to our artists, and it has all the time been necessary to construct a house for them that may thrive past my tenure.”
