While many commercial art galleries across the nation have been downsizing or shutting down entirely, rising art dealer Sebastian Gladstone is bucking the trend by expanding his operations. The ambitious dealer is launching a significant Los Angeles expansion with a new gallery space that opened on September 13, marking his commitment to a bicoastal program.
The new Hollywood location spans 3,200 square feet and sits strategically across Orange Drive from the renowned Jeffrey Deitch gallery, just two blocks from Regen Projects on Santa Monica Boulevard. This represents a substantial upgrade from Gladstone's previous Los Angeles location, which closed its final exhibition on May 24. Gladstone, who grew up in LA's Mid-City neighborhood and has no relation to the late prominent dealer Barbara Gladstone, credits his success at this year's wildfire-affected Frieze Los Angeles as a key factor in his decision to double down on his hometown market.
"We had an amazing fair, placed a work with LACMA [Los Angeles County Museum of Art] from the booth, got a lot of press," Gladstone explained to The Art Newspaper. "People really showed up. The identity of the gallery is so tied to LA that to not commit to the city would be a mistake."
The Hollywood venue, designed by Perennial Studio, marks Gladstone's fourth Los Angeles location since he launched the gallery from his living room in 2020. Initially operating under the name "Stanleys" - a tribute to sculptor Stanley Edmondson, who was featured in the venture's first exhibition - the gallery kept that name until 2022. He then moved from a dedicated Chinatown space to the emerging Melrose Hill district on Western Avenue, where he operated until closing about three months ago.
After testing New York waters with a pop-up in September 2024, Gladstone established a permanent Tribeca outpost this past January. The benefits and limitations of the New York location both influenced his decision to strengthen his Los Angeles presence. The larger LA space allows him to offer more exhibition room while maintaining greater freedom to work with artists who already have New York representation, facilitating valuable cultural exchanges between the East and West coasts.
The new gallery's inaugural exhibition features the work of late abstract painter Herman Cherry (1909-1992), who became a fixture of New York's downtown post-war art scene after formative experiences in 1930s Los Angeles. Cherry's estate represents the first that Gladstone has added to his program. The show focuses on Cherry's paintings from the early to mid-1960s, when he diverged from New York School contemporaries like Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline to embrace a more lyrical flatness and crisp palette influenced by European Modernism.
Gladstone's business acumen is evident in the Cherry exhibition's commercial success. He sold all but one work from the checklist within two weeks this spring, with prices ranging from $35,000 to $80,000. The remaining piece is being reserved for an institutional acquisition, demonstrating his strategic approach to building long-term relationships with museums.
This counterprogramming strategy has proven profitable for Gladstone even as the broader art trade faces ongoing challenges. He explains that Cherry's work embodies the gallery's mission to champion artworks that can compete on quality with those offered by larger galleries, but at more accessible prices made possible by smaller-scale operations and a focus on building lasting artistic legacies.
"I've never really participated in trend-chasing or trend-forecasting," Gladstone said. "In the end, it's worked really well for us, because the consistency comes across in this moment where a lot of galleries have lost their identity." By August 1 of this year, his gallery had already exceeded its entire 2024 business volume. He has also streamlined operations by cutting his annual fair participation in half, from four events to just two in 2025: Frieze Los Angeles and Art Basel in Miami Beach.
Industry professionals have taken notice of Gladstone's success. Alex Glauber, president of the US-based Association of Professional Art Advisors, praised his approach: "There are a lot of young gallerists with a great eye but few that also have a strong business instinct - Sebastian has both. He has prioritized quality over quantity at a time when a lot of gallerists have arguably compromised their standards for the sake of unsustainable growth."
Gladstone argues that Los Angeles's art market strength has been unfairly questioned following two recent setbacks: January's devastating wildfires and this summer's announcement that locally-based dealer Tim Blum would close his international gallery due to structural problems in the gallery economy. Despite these challenges, Gladstone maintains that the city still hosts world-class institutions, artists, and collectors, suggesting that established players may not recognize the ongoing generational shift in the market.
Looking forward, Gladstone believes the responsibility lies with current market participants to forge a new path. "What Blum missed in his exit interviews is that the responsibility is really on all of us to find the path forward," he said. "Not just to say the system doesn't work, but for all of us to be the change we want to see."
