The show of photographs by Michael Eastman currently on view at Barry Friedman Ltd, a major Chelsea gallery that has long represented artists working in glass as well as other materials, will be the last exhibition for this important venue for art. After close to a half-century of art dealing, gallery principal Barry Friedman will be retiring, though he will remain a partner in the adjacent gallery Friedman Benda also located at 515 West 26th Street , which will continue on as a major venue for contemporary art. The art dealer announced the end of his 48-year run as an active dealer during The Salon: Art + Design fair last week.
"Barry has decided to retire from Barry Friedman Ltd, but he will still be a partner in Friedman Benda Gallery," says gallery director Carole Hochman. "Barry will write a book on the many works that have gone through his hands as a dealer of 48 years, travel the world and spend more time with his family. ... The gallery is actively working to place the artists we represent at good galleries."
Though dealing in art and antiques for nearly 50 years, Friedman developed an interest in glass artwork after his discovery of Michael Glancy’s work in 1996 at an exhibition in Switzerland. Though the Studio Glass movement was already well underway, Friedman set himself apart from other dealers for his embrace of glass as part of what he has called “contemporary decorative art.” At his uptown gallery, and more recently in Chelsea, he has championed work in glass by such artists as Glancy, Giles Bettison, Yoichi Ohira (pictured above), and Laura de Santillana. In 2009, he organized the exhibition "Venice: 3 Visions in Glass," featuring the work of Cristiano Bianchin, Yoichi Ohira, and Laura de Santillana, which would go on to be exhibited at museums in Kansas City, Florida, and Paris, with a lavish coffeetable book Friedman produced as exhibition catalog. He also organized the exhibition "Emergence: Early American Studio Glass & Its Influences: 1964-1989."