James Cohan is a contemporary art gallery co-founded by James and Jane Cohan in 1999, which operates spaces in the Manhattan, New York neighborhood of Tribeca.Armstrong, Annie. "James Cohan Gallery’s Flagship Chelsea Space Will Move to Tribeca in September 2019," ARTnews, November 30, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Sheets, Hilarie M. "James Cohan Gallery Expands to Lower East Side," The New York Times, July 30, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Selvin, Claire and Tessa Solomon. "ARTnews in Brief," ARTnews, May 10, 2021. Retrieved June 27, 2024. The gallery has been owned and managed by David Norr since 2026.Plus Magazine. "Community of Tribeca: James Cohan," 2026. Retrieved January 21, 2026.Carlie Porterfield (15 July 2026), James Cohan Gallery becomes Norr Cohan as founders step back The Art Newspaper.
Locations James Cohan has had six primary locations in its history: an initial space on West 57th Street in Manhattan (1999–2002);Sayej, Nadja. "James Cohan Celebrates 20 Years As a Gallerist," Forbes, November 13, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2024. a subsequent space at West 26th Street in Chelsea (2002–summer 2019); a second location in Shanghai, China (2008–15);Artforum. "Shanghai Site For James Cohan Gallery," News, June 10, 2008. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Pollack, Barbara. "The Chinese Art Explosion," ARTnews, March 3, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2024. a third satellite space at 291 Grand Street on the Lower East Side (November 2015–19; 2023–2025);Munro, Cait. "James Cohan Gallery’s Lower East Side Outpost Will Cater to Hip Art Patrons," Artnet, July 31, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2024. a new main space relocation to Tribeca at 48 Walker Street (September 2019–present);Heinrich, Will. "TriBeCa, the New Art Stroll," The New York Times, September 18, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Kinsella, Eileen. "Chased Out of Chelsea? Try Tribeca! Why Midsize Art Dealers See a Better Future in Robert De Niro’s Backyard," Artnet, December 18, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2024. and a second Tribeca space at 52 Walker Street (October 2021–present).Fateman, Johanna. "Gauri Gill," The New Yorker, October 22, 2021. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
History James Cohan began his career as an art dealer after moving to New York from Cleveland in the 1980s with his wife Jane.Tribeca Citizen. "New Kid on the Block: James Cohan gallery," October 24, 2019. Retrieved June 27, 2024. He worked for over a decade, becoming the director of the John Weber Gallery and the Paula Cooper Gallery in SoHo, before working for Anthony d'Offay Gallery in London for most of the 1990s.Vincent, Glyn. "Can a Nice Guy Finish First In an Icy Art Market?" Observer, February 10, 2003. Retrieved June 28, 2024. His first exposure to art dealing came as a child through his uncle, the late Carl Solway, who operated a (still active) gallery for avant-garde work for over fifty years in Cincinnati, Ohio.Desmarais, Charles. "Carl Solway, Dealer Who Welcomed the Avant-Garde in Cincinnati, Is Dead at 85," ARTnews, June 26, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
James and Jane Cohan founded their gallery In the fall of 1999 on West 57th Street with a show of late-1970s "photopieces" by the London-based collaborative duo Gilbert and George, followed by exhibitions featuring Robert Smithson and Trenton Doyle Hancock.Frieze. James Cohan. Gallery. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Smith, Roberta. "Trenton Doyle Hancock: The Legend is in Trouble," The New York Times, July 13, 2001. Retrieved June 27, 2024. The gallery moved to West 26th Street in Chelsea in 2002, where it represented a roster that included Chinese-American painter Yun-Fei Ji,Frankel, David. "Yun-Fei Ji at James Cohan Gallery," Artforum, March 2007. p. 315–16. Retrieved June 27, 2024. British sculptor Richard Long, British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare,Hirsch, Faye. "Yinka Shonibare at James Cohan," Art in America, June 2008, cover, p. 189. painter Fred Tomaselli,Cotter, Holland. "'The Heavenly Tree Grows Downward' – Selected Works by Harry Smith, Philip Taaffe and Fred Tomaselli," The New York Times, September 9, 2002. Retrieved June 27, 2024. video artist Bill Viola,Frankel, David. "Bill Viola," Artforum, December 2000. Retrieved June 27, 2024. and Chinese conceptualist Xu Zhen,Cash, Stephanie. "Xu Zhen at James Cohan Gallery," Art in America, March 2008, p. 57. among others.
In 2008, James Cohan opened a second space in Shanghai, China in a 1936 Art Deco villa once occupied by the military in the city's French Concession.Tinari, Philip. "Shanghai Express," Artforum, July 18, 2008. Retrieved June 27, 2024. Directed by Arthur Solway, the gallery sought to introduce American and European contemporary art to Chinese audiences and Chinese artists to the Cohan's New York programming. The Shanghai location operated through 2015. The gallery opened a third, satellite branch in November 2015 in a former fish market at 291 Grand Street on the Lower East Side (now closed). Directed by David Norr (formerly senior curator at the Wexner Center and MOCA Cleveland),Ghorashi, Hannah. "James Cohan Gallery Now Represents Mernet Larsen," ARTnews, November 11, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2024. the space was inaugurated with an exhibition of Robert Smithson's seldom-seen Pop works created between 1961 through 1964.Fateman, Johanna. "Robert Smithson," Artforum, December 4, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2024. Norr became an equity partner in the gallery five years later.
In September 2019, James Cohan Gallery relocated its main location from Chelsea to Tribeca, in a new 9,000-square-foot, two-level space at 50 Walker Street. It was inaugurated with an exhibition of Josiah McElheny's work, largely focused on glass, reflection optics and the nocturnal.Scott, Andrea. "Josiah McElheny," The New Yorker, September 23, 2019.Volk, Gregory. "The Cosmic Vessels of an Adventurous Glass Artist," Hyperallergic. October 12, 2019. Retrieved June 28, 2024. The gallery opened an additional Tribeca space in October 2021 at 52 Walker Street.
In 2024, James Cohan Gallery joined with five other Manhattan art galleries—Bortolami, Kaufmann Repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps and Kurimanzutto—in the collaborative purchase of a 78,000-square-foot abandoned school and its surrounding land in Columbia County, N.Y., outside Hudson; the site was inaugurated as a new collective art space called "The Campus" in June 2024.van Straaten, Laura. "An Abandoned School Becomes a Canvas for Art Galleries," The New York Times, May 8, 2024. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Goussakian, Elena. "Six galleries turning a school in upstate New York into a collective art space," The Art Newspaper, May 10, 2024. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
In 2026, Jane Cohan retired from her role at the gallery, while James Cohan announced to continue to work with artists and collectors on a smaller scale. David Norr assumed sole ownership and leadership.Carlie Porterfield (15 July 2026), James Cohan Gallery becomes Norr Cohan as founders step back The Art Newspaper.
Artists In 2003, Observer described the gallery's programming approach as eclectic, with "a flair for presenting off-beat, curiously titled theme exhibitions that combine serious, established avant-garde artists of the past with attention-getting newer artists." Noting the mix of artists on the gallery's roster in 2018, ARTnews wrote that it suggested "a policy of inclusivity."Burke, Harry. "Issues and Commentary: Here to Stay," ARTnews, March 1, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
While in its Chelsea location in the 2000s, the gallery showed work by Yun-Fei Ji, video artist Hiraki Sawa,Johnson, Ken. "Hiraki Sawa," The New York Times, May 26, 2006. Retrieved June 27, 2024. Yinka Shonibare, the collaborative duo Simon Evans,Landers, Sean. "Meeting of Minds: Simon Evans puts five questions to Sean Landers," Art + Auction, February 2009. Japanese animation artist Tabaimo,Miki, Akiko. "Tabaimo," Tema Celeste, May/June 2003, p. 50–55. marquetry artist Alison Elizabeth Taylor,Armetta, Amoreen. "Alison Elizabeth Taylor," Artforum, June 9, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2024. Fred Tomaselli, Bill Viola and Xu Zhen, among others.
In the 2010s, the gallery began representing sculptor Kathy Butterly,Greenberger, Alex. "James Cohan Gallery Now Represents Kathy Butterly and Grace Weaver," ARTnews, November 29, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2024. conceptual artists Spencer Finch, Michelle Grabner and Katie Paterson,Sheets, Hilarie M. "Spencer Finch’s Art Makes Light Speak Volumes," ARTnews, June 18, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Pollack, Barbara. "Meet the Artist Who’s Co-Curating the Whitney Biennial," ARTnews, March 3, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Miller, M.H.. "Margaret Atwood Joins Katie Paterson’s Public Art Project, ‘Future Library’," ARTnews, September 5, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2024. painters Federico Herrero, Byron Kim, Mernet Larsen, the late Lee Mullican and Scott Olson,Sayej, Nadja. "Federico Herrero's Paintings Are Poems In Space," Forbes, February 18, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Hudson, Suzanne. "Byron Kim," Artforum, January 31, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Greenberger, Alex. "James Cohan Gallery Now Represents the Estate of Lee Mullican," ARTnews, December 13, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Leydier, Richard. "Scott Olson: Harmonida Mundi," Artpress, September 2017. Josiah McElheny,Greenberger, Alex. "James Cohan Gallery Now Represents Josiah McElheny," ARTnews, February 26, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2024. Vietnamese art collective The Propeller Group,Ghorashi, Hannah. "The Propeller Group Goes To James Cohan Gallery," ARTnews, April 22, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2024. Matthew Ritchie and Ethiopian artist Elias Sime.Cotter, Holland. "Elias Sime Recycles Discarded Objects Into Abstract Works," The New York Times, October 2, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2024. In 2017, an exhibit by then-gallery artist Omer Fast generated controversy when a coalition of Asian-American groups entered and protested the installation, making claims that the work was orientalist, gentrifying, colonizing and that it traded in stereotypes of Chinatown aesthetics.Sayej, Nadja. "New York's Chinatown Hits Back at Omer Fast's 'Poverty Porn' Art Exhibition," The Guardian, October 20, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2024.Fuchs, Chris. "Chinatown Activists Criticize Art Installation Called 'Racist,' 'Poverty Porn'," NBC News, October 19, 2017. Retrieved June 27, 2024. In a statement, Fast wrote that in re-creating the appearance of the building before the gallery moved in, he sought to heighten "the tension between appearance and essence" of the immigrant experience, which he related to his own as an Israel-born naturalized American.