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In 2020, after over 20 years in business, James and Jane Cohan started thinking about the future of their gallery, and made a decision: they wanted it to have a future beyond them. This week, those plans come to fruition as James Cohan Gallery takes on a new identity as Norr Cohan, with gallery partner David Norr assuming sole ownership and leadership. Jane Cohan is retiring, while James will remain involved, though in a reduced capacity.
“We’ve created something,” James Cohan told ARTnews over Zoom. “There’s a community there, and it’s thriving. How do we maintain that and continue on? It was very freeing and really energizing [to make that decision]. It gave me an opportunity to do other projects that I probably wouldn’t have done. And it gave David great latitude.”
The Cohans opened the gallery in 1999. James had spent 17 years working for two esteemed galleries—Anthony D’Offay, in London and Paula Cooper in New York—before striking out on his own, with his wife as partner. Over the years, the gallery has cultivated long-lasting relationships with artists like Fred Tomaselli and Yinka Shonibare and taken on new ones like Tuan Andrew Nguyen. It also moved twice, from 57th Street to Chelsea, and then from Chelsea to Tribeca.
In 2015, they hired David Norr, formerly a curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, to be senior director at the gallery. Cohan met Norr in the early 2000s, just after Norr received his MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Philadelphia’s Temple University. The two connected over the importance they placed on museums. “I grew up in the art world with this idea from Paula Cooper and from D’Offay, that museums are super important, and are your key customers,” Cohan said. “They are the feeders to the world.”
While Norr’s institutional experience was an immediate boon to the gallery, his curatorial experience was another advantage. “When you’re a sole proprietor, and I say that with me and Jane as you know a single entity, it gets lonely. Having someone who’s come from the curatorial world was really meaningful and has proven to be incredibly successful. It was one of the better decisions I’ve made in my professional career.”
Norr told ARTnews that the transition to a gallery felt organic. “My focus [at museums] was always thinking about artists first, and thinking about the perspective of the studio outward, and this transitioned into the gallery space,” Norr explained. “At a gallery, you have the opportunity to think about an artist’s career in decades. Jim is a remarkable strategist and actualizer of that purpose of the gallery.”
In 2018, the Cohans made Norr a partner and, in 2020, they formalized the arrangement with a focus on the gallery’s longevity. In 2021, Norr was made co-owner. The gallery now represents 40 artists; in an interview, Norr stressed its diversity: 20 men and 19 women artists. The goal, he said, is to protect those artists’ legacies and maintain the gallery’s core values, emphasizing community and long-term sustainability.
The artists ARTnews spoke with are fully on board with the shift. Yinka Shonibare has been with the gallery since 2004. He praised the work that Norr did with him on his project for the Nigerian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2024; titled “Nigeria Imaginary,” the exhibition was one of the highlights of that year’s edition.
“I did a monumental piece [for the Venice Biennale] that was acquired by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. David played a major role in that acquisition. I have full confidence in him,” Shonibare said. “That’s what I’ve always liked about the gallery. The long-term planning. They have very strong relationships with institutions, and David does as well.”
Tomaselli, who has been with the gallery for 25 years, shared that he knew Norr before he was hired. “I first met David at a graphic art studio in Tampa, so we go way back. He’s brought a lot of great energy into the gallery. If there’s anybody who’s going to transition the gallery, I can’t think of a better person.”
Nguyen joined the gallery as a member of the collective Propeller Group in 2016 before doing his first solo with the gallery in 2020. In an email, he described the Cohans as creators of “a space that nurtures artists and their practices” and said that Norr’s strength lies in his ability to approach artists and their practices from the vantage points of an artist, a curator, and as a gallerist. That empathy, he continued, is why “this transition feels less like a change in direction and more like the continuation of a relationship built on understanding, generosity, and shared belief.”
“We have excellent artists,” Norr said, “and it’s just been a wonderful exercise to think about growth and also to think about positionality, to think about the importance of the scale of our gallery, and to be precise about that, which is also part of our success.” He said future plans include the renovation of both gallery spaces in New York.
Cohan and Norr emphasized the importance, longevity, and growth of the entire staff. “It’s super thrilling to the intern who became the front desk person, who became my assistant, who became a serious salesperson and artist liaison,” said Cohan. “That is as gratifying as it gets.”
“There’s a generative community around us,” said Norr. “And community is a very key part of what has made the gallery successful. It starts with artists, but it definitely continues with our team, who are a huge part of our success.”
Even as he looks to the future, Tomaselli said seeing the Cohans taking a step back has been “bittersweet,” he said. “They’re like family to me. I just feel really lucky to have them in my life.”
