Like starting any business, opening a gallery can be daunting. For gallery owners, weathering the storms of financial crises, the ups and downs of the art market, and the rapid changes in the economic landscape since COVID-19 requires intuition, flexibility, and above all, a steadfast dedication to the mission.
While no two roads to starting a gallery are the same, Skoto Aghahowa, Cristin Tierney, and Tarrah Von Lintel each opened their respective galleries at moments of economic turmoil–Skoto Gallery and Von Lintel Gallery in the recession of the early 1990s, and Cristin Tierney after the recession in 2008. In the first-ever round-table Gallery Chat, Aghahowa, Tierney, and Von Lintel compare notes on the changes to the gallery landscape throughout the years, their advice to young dealers on navigating moments of crisis, and their paths through the art world.