Venerated London dealer Stephen Friedman Gallery has closed its remaining space in London and ceased operations after 30 years, effective immediately. The gallery has long been known for championing and developing the careers of artists including Kehinde Wiley, Yinka Shonibare, and David Shrigley, among other talents. The news comes just months after the gallery announced the closure of its New York space late last year, a move that was presented as a consolidation strategy to centralize operations in London. It also recently appointed several new senior directors, and announced representation of artists Alexandre Diop and Ana Cláudia Almeida this past fall.
In a statement shared with Artsy, the gallery said: “Stephen Friedman Gallery commenced the administration process on 2 February 2026 to allow for an orderly review of its financial position. FRP Advisory have been appointed as the administrator. All matters are now subject to the administrator’s consideration. The gallery is now closed to the public and is not presenting at Art Basel Qatar this week.” The gallery had planned a solo presentation of work by Huguette Caland at Art Basel Qatar, but a last-minute floor plan change shows the booth is now presented by the Huguette Caland Estate, and is being manned by Lisson Gallery staff, as was reported by The Art Newspaper.
Stephen Friedman Gallery’s New York outpost opened in Tribeca in November 2023, and was positioned as a way for the gallery’s existing artists to show their work in New York. A month earlier, in October 2023, the gallery further expanded its presence in London by moving into a larger space on Cork Street that would allow for both more exhibition and administrative space. Filings on Companies House, the U.K.’s publicly-available corporate registry, from 2025 show that the gallery lost £1.7 million (approximately $2.31 million) in 2023 due to construction costs of the two new galleries. This was “compounded by a strong downturn in the industry’s economic market.” It is believed that the costs associated with the renovation of these two spaces and expanded operations contributed significantly towards the recent liquidation of the business.
Canadian-born Stephen Friedman opened his eponymous gallery in London’s Mayfair neighborhood on Old Burlington Street in 1995 after moving to the city in his early twenties to study at Sotheby’s. Over the course of its three-decade-run, the gallery’s program championed a range of emerging voices alongside blue-chip talents, spanning from Brazil and Latin America to Europe, the U.S., and beyond. Included in their current roster are artists Deborah Roberts, Caroline Walker, Holly Hendry, Denzil Forrester, and Jiro Takamatsu, among others.
