Commercial galleries are an old business, plus a unique one within the New York City economy, something between a storefront plus a salon, the anchor of both a largely unregulated marketplace plus of creative expression itself. The earliest examples of galleries in New York, from the first half of the 19th century, predate every major museum plus auction house in the metropolitan area, not to mention Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building plus Grand Central Terminal. This would seem to suggest there is something indelible about galleries in the landscape of this city and, by extension, any truly world city that values culture. That New York has the largest network of galleries in the world is a fact that many observers of the art business simply take for granted: Why does New York have so many galleries? Because it’s the center of the art world. Why is New York the center of the art world? Because it has so many galleries.
The sale of art is generally assumed to be a secretive affair at best, plus at worst a distillation of inequality at its most glaring — an industry run by plus for an elite with more money than they could ever possibly hope to spend in one lifetime. This is at least partly true, but it isn’t the whole story. While a handful of galleries have ballooned to the size of major corporations, many art dealers are, in effect, small business owners, doing their best to navigate rising rents plus changing priorities. And however opaque plus off-putting the gallery business may seem to someone walking in off the street cold, these places are also among the last pockets of the city other than public parks plus plazas where anyone can do just that, enjoying entry free of charge.