Photo: H. Marianetti
James Cohan is pleased to announce David Norr as an owner of the gallery. Norr, who served as James Cohan’s Senior Director from 2015 to 2018 and was named a Partner in 2018, joins founders James and Jane Cohan in steering the gallery, which operates two spaces in Manhattan: 48 Walker Street in Tribeca and 291 Grand Street on the Lower East Side.
Norr brought over two decades of curatorial and artworld experience to James Cohan when he joined in 2015, having previously served as Senior Curator of Exhibitions at the Wexner Center of the Arts and Chief Curator at MOCA Cleveland. During this time, Norr curated exhibitions featuring the work of Katharina Grosse, Haegue Yang, Jacqueline Humphries, David Altmejd, William Villalongo, Janet Cardiff, and George Buress Miller, in addition to major surveys with James Cohan artists Trenton Doyle Hancock and Michelle Grabner.
Norr will ensure the gallery’s future by progressing the vision of its founders and focusing on the next generation of artists, building even greater diversity and international scope into the gallery’s program. The announcement comes after six years of remarkable growth at James Cohan spearheaded by Norr; the gallery has announced new additions to its artist roster, including Firelei Báez, Mernet Larsen, Teresa Margolles, Josiah McElheny, Eamon Ore-Giron, Grace Weaver, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, and most recently Naudline Pierre.
“David has developed close, meaningful relationships with world-class artists and institutions throughout his career, and over the past six years he has brought dynamic growth to our program. I couldn’t think of a more talented partner to have as we move into our third decade,” says James Cohan.
“We feel so fortunate to have David as a partner and close friend. Bringing David into an ownership role in the gallery is a way to ensure that the gallery carries on beyond us,” says Jane Cohan.
James Cohan opened the gallery on West 57th Street in 1999, representing a diverse group of contemporary artists like Fred Tomaselli, Bill Viola, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Yinka Shonibare, CBE. “After working as director at three major contemporary art galleries in New York and London, I opened the gallery with the goal to represent artists of my generation. I was dedicated to introducing international artistic voices into the late ‘90s global conversations about cross-cultural exchange,” says James Cohan. In 2002, the gallery moved downtown to West 26th Street in Chelsea before opening a second space in 2015 in the Lower East Side to accommodate its growing artist roster. The gallery moved its primary location from Chelsea to Tribeca in 2019.
“Jim and Jane have always put artists at the center of the gallery,” Norr says. “Our partnership developed out of this shared value. I am deeply honored to contribute to the significant legacy the gallery has built.”