Gagosian’s chief working officer Andrew Fabricant leaves gallery

An artwork world energy couple that held senior roles at Gagosian—chief working officer Andrew Fabricant and his spouse Laura Paulson, a director of Gagosian Artwork Advisory—have each left the gallery. Founder Larry Gagosian introduced their departures in an e mail to his workers on Thursday (13 June).

“Andrew Fabricant and Laura Paulson are now not with the gallery,” Gagosian mentioned in a press release supplied to The Artwork Newspaper. “At this second within the gallery’s evolution, we arrived on the level the place I made a decision it was time for us to half methods. We’re grateful for his or her contributions over the previous a number of years and need them effectively. The gallery is lucky to have an excellent depth of expertise and management in place—a powerful operational infrastructure complemented by probably the most gifted and skilled crew of administrators within the trade.” Fabricant and Paulson’s departures had been first reported by Bloomberg.

Fabricant has labored at Gagosian in numerous capacities throughout a half-century, starting in 1983 in Los Angeles. In 1996 he left to work for the Chicago-based supplier Richard Grey, overseeing the gallery’s enlargement to New York. After greater than 20 years at Richard Grey, Fabricant returned to Gagosian in 2018; the next yr he grew to become the gallery’s chief working officer. In 2022 he was named to the gallery’s newly shaped board of administrators.

Paulson, who held the identical chief working officer title at Gagosian Artwork Advisory—a bespoke advisory enterprise she helped launch in 2019 to extra instantly compete with the main public sale homes on the secondary market—was beforehand the worldwide chairman of Twentieth-century artwork at Christie’s. She landed a string of high-profile consignments for the public sale home, together with the Picasso-rich assortment of Victor and Sally Ganz and the gathering of David Pincus, with its bevvy of Summary Expressionist treasures. At Gagosian, her focus shifted to the appraisal aspect of the advisory enterprise, whereas her colleagues centered on brokering transactions.

In his e mail to workers, Gagosian alluded to coming modifications to the advisory enterprise. “I see plenty of potential within the improvement of that enterprise alongside our core gallery operations and might be sharing extra about these plans within the close to future,” he mentioned. At current, the transaction-focused aspect of the advisory enterprise is being led by Bernie Lagrange, Michael Walker and Sophia Penske.

The high-level shakeups at Gagosian’s core gallery enterprise and advisory (technically a separate enterprise, headquartered in the identical premises at 980 Madison Avenue because the gallery’s New York workplaces) come as questions in regards to the gallery’s future loom. With round 20 places all over the world and a roster of greater than 100 artists and artists’ estates, Gagosian is without doubt one of the artwork market’s largest gamers and, by many measures, the most important within the gallery sector.

Even earlier than the gallery’s board of administrators was established in 2022, many within the commerce had been speculating about what would occur to the enterprise when its founder and namesake—who’s now 78 years previous—retires. Even amid such hypothesis, the gallery has continued to develop its footprint, carry new artists onto its roster and add senior workers. Most lately, Brooke Lampley, Sotheby’s international chairman and head of world positive artwork, left the public sale home for a senior director function at Gagosian.

“The gallery has by no means been in a stronger place,” Gagosian wrote in his e mail to workers on Thursday. “Each side of the enterprise operates on the highest attainable degree, and I’ve great confidence in our day-to-day operations and plans for the long run.”

Neither Fabricant nor Paulson had responded to The Artwork Newspaper‘s requests for remark as of press time.