Forty Years in New York

On a crisp Friday evening in New York, November 14, 1980, Helene Winer and Janelle Reiring open Metro Pictures at 169 Mercer Street with a group exhibition of a dozen artists, including Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, James Welling, Robert Longo, and Richard Prince. On December 6, Jack Goldstein shows his ultra-vivid air-brushed paintings, and Sherman her “Rear Screen Projection” photographs.

John Miller enters in 1984, as well as a Dutchman, René Daniëls—and there’s a group show on October 20 with a bunch of Germans (Werner Büttner, Martin Kippenberger, the Oehlens). Frank Gehry displays plastic-laminate lamps resembling fish and snakes, which he conceived after throwing the material on the ground and deciding that he liked how the shards looked. 

Kippenberger’s first one-person effort outside Europe opens May 25, 1985, and closes June 15, the same day that a man attacks Rembrandt’s Danaë (1636) with sulfuric acid and a knife at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. (Conservation is completed in 1997.) A year later, Robinson shows his “spin paintings.” Seven years after that, Damien Hirst attempts the medium.

The New York Times reports on March 14, 1993, that Radio Hula, “an exotic store in SoHo” at 169 Mercer, “is thriving on the sale of everything Hawaiian . . . Entering the store, with its yellow and brown decor and sweet aroma, is like walking into a field of pineapples.” On September 18, huge banners by Gary Simmons are hung: “ROOTS,” “ORIGINAL MAN.” In 1993, Offshore Gallery hangs up its shingle in East Hampton and will go on to do shows with Prince, David Salle, Ross Bleckner, and others. Operating until 1995, it’s run by Winer, Reiring, Rachel Lehmann, and David Maupin, a director at Metro at the time.

1994: Shaw’s “Dreams That Money Can Buy” and Tony Oursler’s first display of deranged, foreboding video sculptures at the gallery. After working at Metro and operating a gallery out of his apartment, Friedrich Petzel opens a SoHo storefront. 1995: Ronald Jones’s bonsai sculptures and the acquisition of a full set of Sherman’s 69 “Untitled Film Stills” by the Museum of Modern Art, which shows them in 1997.

In a May 13, 1996 New York story about galleries relocating to Chelsea, David Zwirner is skeptical. “First of all, you should be able to take a train, and you should be able to get a decent meal,” he argues. Near the end of the year, which has seen ghostly wall drawings by Gary Simmons and menacing new portraits by Sherman, Metro leaves the stores of SoHo behind for 519 West 24th Street. The artists are ready for a change, Winer tells the Times. “I’m not sorry for the gallery, but for me, personally, I enjoy that kind of action. You know, I just like to go shop.” 150 Greene become a Blue Fish clothing store, then Moss.

Andreas Slominski offers a variety of animal traps (some very charming) in September of 1999, and on October 23, Carroll Dunham paints his way deeper into the psychological jungle. American Psycho is released on April 14, 2000, with Christian Bale starring as the investment banker and serial killer Patrick Bateman; “Men in the City” pieces adorn the walls of his apartment. On April 22, a survey by Daniëls goes up at the gallery.

September 11, 2001. September 15, Gary Simmons. A wishing well swirls in chalk on one wall. October 27, Olaf Breuning. 2002, T.J. Wilcox. 2003, Catherine Sullivan’s Five Economies, Isaac Julien’s Baltimore, and this message on a February 15 invitation for a Lawler show: “NO DRINKS FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT SUPPORT THE ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION.” Indelible clowns fill Sherman’s 2004 outing. In 2005, two years after his death, Goldstein’s burningly cold early ‘80s paintings are surveyed. Gianni Motti organizes a séance with a psychic on March 30, 2006, to conjure the spirit of John Lennon, who never arrives. Next: Julien’s Looking for Langston.

Paulina Olowska and Sterling Ruby appear in 2007, and Shaw closes out the year with “Dr. Goldfoot and His Bikini Bombs,” but he soon decides it’s too restrained. During the winter break, he adds more works; the show runs for two months. Robinson’s sly ‘80s paintings are revisited in April 2008, and Miller gilds his typically fecal-colored forms for December.

2013, Sara VanDerBeek and Claire Fontaine. 2014, Lawler’s “No Drones” and Trevor Paglen’s “Code Names of the Surveillance State.” Daniëls’s return to the gallery and the christening of 83 Pitt Street downtown, which hosts performances, shows, film screenings, and sundry other activities by Nora Schultz, David Levine, Voila Yeşiltaç over three years. 2015, Gary Simmons’s “Fight Night” and Camille Henrot’s delirious self-help telephones. 2016, a freshly renovated gallery and Bas Jan Ader. 2017, Lawler at MoMA. WHY PICTURES NOW. The first album from the Chainsmokers, started by Metro staffer Alex Pall, goes platinum. 2018, Oliver Laric’s premiere, Andreas Slominskyyy’s portable toilet sculptures, and Cui Jie coming aboard. 2019, some 40,000 bullets comprise Longo’s latest Death Star of gun violence, Judith Hopf lays charismatic bricks, and Alexandre Singh transforms the space into a lovingly handmade theater.

The estate of Bender and Latifa Echakhch join Metro in 2020. The gallery closes on March 14 because of the coronavirus lockdown, but Gary Simmons’s latest show is hung and officially opens five days later. It can only be viewed online. Beginning April 3, a digital film festival of Metro artists runs on more than a dozen weekends. Simmons’s exhibition reopens to the public July 7, and Sherman’s latest photos are unveiled September 26. To ensure social distancing, only ten people can enter at a time. On November 14, the gallery turns 40.

- Andrew Russeth worked at Metro Pictures, 2010 to 2011