Clearing gallery, founded by Oliver Babin in 2011, will close its Manhattan and Los Angeles locations due to unsustainable financial conditions. Babin cited rising overhead costs, including rent, shipping, and art fair expenses, alongside plummeting revenue as primary challenges. Moving to a more expensive rent in 2023 coincided with a downturn in the art market, marking a significant miscalculation. Babin acknowledges the gallery's lack of a clear recovery path over the past two years and defines the end of the gallery as a painful but necessary decision.
"We kept hope - probably in a sort of irrational way - that we could turn the corner. Turns out, there's no corner," Babin says.
"We've been crushed by the overheads, which is pretty classic. Rent, shipping, fairs - all these things continue to increase and revenue plummets," Babin says.
"A proper CFO would have decided to pull the plug six months, 12 months, 18 months or 24 months ago," Babin indicates regarding the financial struggles.
"Taking on a more expensive rent just as the art market began to slow down was a bad gamble, and could be seen as 'the first nail being driven into the coffin."
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