The Box in Los Angeles announced this weekend that it would close after 19 years in business.
Its final show was a two-venue collaboration with Parker Gallery for the late California artist Wally Hedrick, which ran through April 4. The gallery said they would mark the closure with a fashion show for Johanna Went, done in collaboration with artist and playwright Asher Hartman on June 6.
“While this decision has been brewing for some time, it has landed with urgency, shaped by a set of circumstances that made continuing impossible,” gallery founder Mara McCarthy wrote in a statement sent to its email listserv and posted on Instagram. “It feels right to end this way, with the kind of work we always existed to support: radical, enlightening, and not easily contained by the commercial marketplace.”
Located at 805 Traction Avenue in downtown LA, The Box opened in June 2007 with a multichannel video installation by Spandau Parks. In her statement, McCarthy described the impetus behind creating The Box as a collaboration with her father, the iconic LA-based artist Paul McCarthy. Though active since the 1970s, Paul did not reach wider acclaim until the 1990s with his inclusion in the landmark 1992 exhibition “Helter Skelter” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.
Calling it an “artist-formed space” since its beginning, Mara said The Box “was shaped as a response to his market success, which arrived late in his career,” with the aim of uplifting the work of Paul’s peers, like Barbara T. Smith and Simone Forti, who had not yet achieved success. “The Box formed to help fill this void,” Mara wrote.
The gallery would dedicate its third exhibition to Smith, presenting two monumental works by the artist made in the mid-1960s and early ’70s. Subsequent exhibitions would be for Forti, Hedrick, Paul McCarthy, John Altoon, Naotaka Hiro Stan Vanderbeek, Judith Bernstein, and Leigh Ledare. Through this exhibition program, which shed a light on a generation of LA artists, The Box quickly established itself as a venturesome gallery and one of the most important in the city.
“While our program has often resembled what a nonprofit art space might embrace, we made a deliberate choice to engage the marketplace as a for-profit gallery, with the capacity to actively shape a presence for experimental artists whose work had otherwise gone unrecognized,” Mara wrote in her statement. “The truth is that our program has been sustained in large part by the generous support of McCarthy Studios, and by my mother and father’s steadfast vision to seed the type of arts community and economy they hoped to see bloom. But the market has not always readily embraced the work we champion.”
She attributed the decision to close in part to the changing economics around support for her father’s work, as well as the fact that every member of her family lost their homes in the Eaton fire that ravaged Altadena and other parts of the San Gabriel Vallery in January 2025.
The Box is the latest in a wave of gallery closures that have affected several commercial enterprises around the world, but particularly in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, Marian Goodman Gallery announced it would close its LA space, while last year, Tanya Bonakdar announced it would close its LA outpost. LA Louver, which had been in business for 50 years, closed its doors in September, shifting to private dealing, while the summer also saw dealer Tim Blum close his LA gallery after 30 years.
On Instagram, the post had garnered nearly 2,000 likes and over 300 comments by Saturday morning. Clara Kim, the chief curator of MOCA LA, wrote, “Sending much love and respect, Mara. Thanks to you, Robert and The Box for an incredible run of thoughtful, provocative shows, championing artists and art scenes from the past and present. We have all been better for it. What a major loss for LA.”
Stuart Comer, chief curator of media and performance at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, added, “Mara, you moved the needle in ways very few can, have, or will again. Sending so much love to you and your family. ❤️❤️❤️”
In her statement, Mara McCarthy added, “As a woman, a curator, and someone who long ago understood the power of art to alter the course of a life, I will not stop being present in this world, and I will not stop advocating for the artists I believe in. It has been among my deepest joys to exhibit and foster their work. Over the years I have come to understand that supporting artists takes many forms, and exhibitions are only one of them. What many artists need most is conversation, presence, and genuine engagement, and that will not stop for me.”
