Paula Cooper Gallery

The Paula Cooper Gallery is an art gallery in New York City, founded in 1968 by Paula Cooper. Located in Manhattan, the gallery is primarily known for representing Minimalist and Conceptual artists, helping launch the careers of significant figures in these movements. Its history is deeply intertwined with the development of the New York art world, from its pioneering role in the SoHo neighborhood to its current presence in Chelsea and Palm Beach.

Before establishing her namesake gallery, Paula Cooper ran the Paula Johnson Gallery from 1964 to 1966, where Walter De Maria had his first solo show in New York, and worked for the Park Place Gallery from 1965 to 1967, a cooperative of ten artists including Mark di Suvero and Robert Grosvenor. In October 1968, Cooper opened the first Paula Cooper Gallery at 96 Prince Street with $4,400, deliberately choosing downtown Manhattan over the uptown gallery district. The inaugural exhibition benefited the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, splitting sales proceeds between the artists and the committee. By 1975, the area had become known as SoHo and housed 83 other galleries. In 2007, Cooper donated the extant Park Place records from 1966 to 1967 and the early gallery records from 1968 to 1973 to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Cooper received France's Order of Arts and Letters in 2015 for her contributions to French arts and culture.

The gallery is primarily known for its focus on Minimalist and Conceptual art. In its early years, mutual respect, a sense of community, and a passion for art bonded the gallerist and her artists. The gallery has represented and helped launch the careers of artists such as Carl Andre, Jennifer Bartlett, Lynda Benglis, Mark di Suvero, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Joel Shapiro, Elizabeth Murray, Cady Noland, Rudolf Stingel, and Kelley Walker. In addition to living artists, the gallery also handles the estates of various artists, and has previously represented others over the course of its history.

The gallery's inaugural 1968 exhibition featured Sol LeWitt's first wall drawing alongside works by Carl Andre, Jo Baer, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Robert Ryman, a show now recognized as seminal in the development of rigorous and challenging work. A later signature presentation was Christian Marclay's twenty-four-hour multi-visual exhibit The Clock in February 2011, shortly after the piece won the Golden Lion award at the 54th Venice Biennale. The gallery remained open continuously for the duration of the work, drawing large crowds that included models, art handlers, reporters, and rival dealers.

The gallery's first location was at 96 Prince Street in what became SoHo. In 1995, Cooper purchased a building at 534 West 21st Street, relocating the gallery to Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood in 1996. Architect Richard Gluckman oversaw the initial renovations of the Chelsea space, which critic Michael Kimmelman described as having a main room like a big chapel. In 2013, the gallery opened two pop-up spaces, one in a former auto parts shop at 197 10th Avenue and another on the ground floor of 521 West 21st Street. Due to construction in an adjacent building, the gallery temporarily moved its headquarters to a 9,000-square-foot space at 524 West 26th Street in 2018. For the 2011 exhibition of The Clock, the interior was specially configured with carpeted floors, velvet curtains, and rows of couches to evoke a living room, screening room, and movie theater.

The Paula Cooper Gallery operates in Manhattan, with its primary spaces located in the Chelsea neighborhood. In 2021, the gallery expanded its presence by opening a space in Palm Beach, Florida. The gallery continues its role as a commercial venue representing prominent Minimalist and Conceptual artists, maintaining the program established by its founder over half a century ago.