Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is a contemporary art gallery founded in 1994 by Tanya Bonakdar in New York City, later expanding to Los Angeles. The gallery represents and exhibits a roster of established and emerging artists working across painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance, and participates in major art fairs and museum collaborations. Over decades the gallery has contributed to exhibitions at institutions and engaged with collectors, curators, critics, and biennials worldwide.

History

The gallery was founded in 1994 in Manhattan during a period of institutional expansion that included Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and New Museum. Early activity intersected with collectors and curators from Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and Stedelijk Museum as well as art world figures associated with Art Basel, Frieze Art Fair, TEFAF, Armory Show, and FIAC. The gallery’s trajectory paralleled developments involving dealers and gallerists tied to Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Pace Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, and Gladstone Gallery. Collaborations and institutional loans have connected the gallery to programs at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Hammer Museum, Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

Artists and Exhibitions

The gallery has represented artists whose practices resonate with exhibitions at Sol LeWitt Foundation, Cindy Sherman Foundation, Marina Abramović Institute, Claes Oldenburg Foundation, and collections of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Artists showing with the gallery have been included in major surveys such as Venice Biennale, Documenta, Sydney Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, and São Paulo Art Biennial, and have been reviewed in outlets affiliated with The New York Times, The Guardian, Artforum, ArtReview, and Frieze Magazine. Exhibited artists have histories connected to schools like Yale University School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Royal College of Art, and California Institute of the Arts, and to residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Light Work.

Programming and Projects

Programming has included solo shows, group exhibitions, curated projects, and editions linked to foundations and museums such as Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Pollock-Krasner Foundation. The gallery’s fair participation spans Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Basel, Frieze New York, TEFAF New York, and Independent Art Fair, and its projects have intersected with public commissions associated with Public Art Fund, Percent for Art, Times Square Arts, and municipal programs of Los Angeles County Museum of Art and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Critical dialogues have engaged curators and critics from MOMA PS1, Dia Art Foundation, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Hayward Gallery, and Serpentine Galleries.

Gallery Spaces and Locations

The gallery opened in Manhattan and later expanded to a location in Los Angeles, joining a constellation of galleries in neighborhoods historically associated with Chelsea, Manhattan, SoHo, Manhattan, NoHo, Manhattan, and gallery districts near Downtown Los Angeles and Melrose Avenue. The spaces have hosted installations using architectural collaborations reminiscent of projects at Walker Art Center, Kunsthalle Zürich, Palais de Tokyo, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, and Fondation Louis Vuitton. Spatial programming has engaged fabricators and conservators who have worked with institutions like Whitney Biennial organizers, National Gallery of Art, Tate Britain, Art Institute of Chicago, and Getty Research Institute.

Reception and Influence

Critical reception has connected the gallery’s exhibitions with scholarship and criticism from contributors to The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel, and with market analysis by entities such as Artnet, Artprice, Artmarket, and Sotheby's. The gallery’s influence is evident in institutional acquisitions at museums including Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, SFMOMA, and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and in participation of represented artists in awards like the Turner Prize, Hugo Boss Prize, Praemium Imperiale, MacArthur Fellowship, and National Medal of Arts. The gallery has contributed to the careers of artists who have subsequently exhibited at Palais Garnier, Royal Academy of Arts, Fondazione Prada, Kunstmuseum Basel, and Museum Ludwig.

Category:Art galleries in New York City Category:Art galleries in Los Angeles