Tim Blum has announced the renaming of Blum & Poe to BLUM as well as plans to open a new and larger New York location in 2024.
As the gallery looks ahead to its 30th anniversary next year, its renaming and launch of a new space together mark the beginning of the next chapter and celebrate its continued evolution.
In addition to the Los Angeles and Tokyo locations, a two-floor 6,200-square foot Tribeca gallery at 9 White Street will enable BLUM to continue to mount expansive exhibitions, showcasing its robust global programming. To celebrate the gallery’s 30th anniversary, BLUM will inaugurate the Tribeca space in spring 2024 with an inter-generational and cross-disciplinary survey of Japanese art from the 1960s to today, co-curated by Tim Blum and Mika Yoshitake. This endeavor reflects on Blum’s first trip to Japan 40 years ago, which catalyzed the gallery’s groundbreaking work with Japanese and international artists including foundational exhibitions of artists Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami and the acclaimed 2012 survey Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha.
This milestone exhibition will feature work by key artists from Gutai, Mono-ha, and Superflat movements through today, traversing the decades from the immediate aftermath of postwar Japan, onward. The project is co-curated with postwar Japanese art historian Mika Yoshitake, curator of notable exhibitions including Lee Ufan: Marking Infinity, curatorial liaison, Guggenheim, New York, NY (2011); AICA-USA award winning exhibition Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA (2012); Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA (2019); Yoshitomo Nara, LACMA, CA (2021–22); and YAYOI KUSAMA: 1945-NOW, curated with Doryun Chong, M+, Hong Kong and Guggenheim, Bilbao (2022-23); and among others.
It’s a major moment in the gallery’s history, in my personal history, my family’s, and our collective future. This coming chapter will unveil new relationships with artists, new initiatives in publishing, and a beautiful new space in Tribeca which will enable us to build upon the legacy of ambitious shows that we have been staging in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and New York for years. I feel emboldened by the amazing global team we have built, and the outstanding group of artists, some of whom we have worked with for 30 years.
Tim Blum
About BLUM
Representing more than 60 artists and estates from 16 countries worldwide, BLUM’s hands-on approach nurtures a diverse roster of artists at all stages of their practices with a range of global perspectives. The gallery has been a pioneer in its early commitment to Los Angeles as an international arts capital and is recognized for collaborating in launching the careers of artists such as Mark Grotjahn, Friedrich Kunath, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, Anna Park, Umar Rashid, and Henry Taylor. The gallery has also been acclaimed for its groundbreaking work in championing artists of Korean and Japanese postwar and contemporary movements, such as Dansaekhwa, Mono-ha, and Superflat. Across its spaces in Los Angeles (opened 1994), Tokyo (opened 2014), and New York (opened 2014), the gallery has organized museum-caliber solo presentations and historical survey exhibitions, often partnering with renowned curators and scholars, and presenting retrospectives of late artists such as American painter Robert Colescott and multidisciplinary artist Thornton Dial.
