Pace Gallery

Pace Gallery is an international contemporary and modern art gallery headquartered in Manhattan, New York. Founded in 1960 by Arne Glimcher in Boston, it relocated to New York in 1963 and has since grown into one of the most significant commercial art enterprises globally, with nine locations worldwide. The gallery is named after Glimcher's father's nickname, "Pacey." Under the leadership of Marc Glimcher, Arne's son, as president and CEO since 2011, Pace has shaped the market for modern and contemporary art through its exhibitions, artist relationships, and publishing program. The gallery's operations span New York, London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Geneva, Seoul, East Hampton, Tokyo, and Palm Beach.

Arne Glimcher established The Pace Gallery in 1960 at age 22 in Boston, running it with his wife Milly and his mother Eva. In 1963, Glimcher partnered with Fred Mueller to open a New York location on East 57th Street, assisted by Ivan Karp, a close friend. Glimcher closed the Boston gallery in 1965 and permanently moved to New York. The gallery relocated to 32 East 57th Street in 1968, where it remained for decades. From 1993 to 2010, Pace operated jointly with Wildenstein & Co. as PaceWildenstein, a merger prompted by the art-market downturn following the 1990 crash; the Glimcher family paid $100 million in 2010 to buy back the Wildensteins' 49 percent share. Marc Glimcher assumed leadership in 2011. In 2019, Pace opened a major Chelsea headquarters designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture. In December 2022, Samanthe Rubell was named President, and a "Round Table" of ten senior directors was formed. In June 2026, Marc Glimcher announced significant cuts to reduce the artist roster to 80, removing approximately 50 artists and 50 staff members, arguing that the mega-gallery model had become unsustainably focused on perpetual growth.

Pace Gallery's program encompasses modern and contemporary art across multiple media, with a particular strength in post-war American art. The gallery has organized over 800 exhibitions since its founding, many of which subsequently traveled to international museums. Its publishing program has produced approximately 450 exhibition catalogs over its first 50 years. Pace has consistently supported a diverse roster of American, European, and Asian artists, reflecting its global expansion strategy. The gallery's activities extend beyond traditional exhibition-making into live programming through Pace Live, a multidisciplinary initiative encompassing music, dance, film, and conversation, established at the Chelsea location with a full-time curatorial director. In 2021, Pace launched Pace Verso, a custom-built NFT platform, beginning with drops from Lucas Samaras's XYZ series. In 2022, the gallery partnered with the NFT platform Art Blocks to cross-access collector bases. Pace also maintained significant operations in prints and editions through Pace Prints, founded in 1968 and sold in 2024, and in photography through its partnership in Pace/MacGill, established in 1983 with Peter MacGill.

While the sources do not specify individual works in Pace's inventory, the gallery's exhibition history indicates its association with major modern and contemporary artists. The 2012 London opening at the Royal Academy of Arts's 6 Burlington Gardens featured a notable juxtaposition of late paintings by Mark Rothko with photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto. The gallery's long-term representation of significant artists and its role in organizing museum-traveling exhibitions underscore its importance in the art market. The 2010 buyback of Wildenstein's share included an inventory of several thousand paintings, indicating substantial holdings at that time.

Pace's current New York headquarters, opened in 2019 in the Chelsea district, was designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture and spans eight stories across notable 70,000 square feet, including 10,000 square feet of outdoor exhibition space. This building replaced the gallery's long-time location at 32 East 57th Street, which had housed both the main gallery and Pace/MacGill until 2019. The gallery's earlier expansion included a 22,000-square-foot Beijing space in the 798 Art District, designed by Richard Gluckman, which operated from 2008 to 2019 as the first major Manhattan gallery presence in that city. In London, Pace occupied the west wing of the Royal Academy's 6 Burlington Gardens from 2012 to 2020 before relocating to 4 Hanover Square in Mayfair in 2021, an 8,600-square-foot space renovated by Jamie Fobert. The Seoul gallery, initially 925 square feet in 2017, moved to an 8,500-square-foot space in Hannam-dong designed by Minsuk Cho. In 2024, Pace opened a permanent gallery in Tokyo's Azabudai Hills. The gallery has also operated temporary spaces, including a 25,000-square-foot Menlo Park location in a former Tesla Motors building in 2014, a Palo Alto gallery from 2016 to 2022, a temporary space in a 12th-century house in Zuoz, Switzerland in 2014, and an 1,700-square-foot East Hampton space from 2020.

Pace Gallery operates as a private commercial gallery with nine locations worldwide: New York (Chelsea headquarters), London (Mayfair), Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Geneva, Seoul, East Hampton, Tokyo, and Palm Beach. The gallery is accessible to the public during exhibition hours, though as a commercial enterprise, it does not function as a public museum. The New York headquarters at 540 West 25th Street serves as the primary location, incorporating Pace Live programming and, since 2019, consolidating operations previously at 32 East 57th Street. The Seoul location includes a café created in partnership with Osulloc in 2022, featuring artwork by Kohei Nawa. In 2026, Pace announced its intention to move away from its Mayfair gallery in London toward a "less corporate" space, though details were not confirmed. The gallery remains under the ownership and direction of the Glimcher family, with Marc Glimcher as president and CEO, and Samanthe Rubell as President since December 2022.