Founded in 1989 by Michael Rosenfeld and formerly located in the New York Gallery Building on West 57th Street, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC specializes in twentieth-century American art. In 1992, halley k harrisburg joined the gallery, and since then, she and Michael Rosenfeld have worked together to advance and expand the canon of American art. The Gallery’s core mission is two-fold: to promote important movements within the history of art in the United States while also increasing the visibility of under-recognized American artists. As art historians with multi-faceted interests, Michael Rosenfeld and halley k harrisburg have developed a diverse and challenging exhibition program that consistently presents museum-quality historical and contemporary artworks with a fresh sensibility. In 2000, the Gallery was accepted into the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA).
To date, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery has mounted over 130 exhibitions, seventy of which have been solo shows for such artists as Romare Bearden, Beauford Delaney, Jay DeFeo, William H. Johnson, Blanche Lazzell, Norman Lewis, Charles Shaw, Pavel Tchelitchew, Alma Thomas, and Charles White. Thematic group exhibitions of early American abstraction, realism, surrealism, abstract expressionism, and social realism also continue to offer new perspectives on American modernism. Many Gallery exhibitions have traveled to distinguished institutions throughout the United States, including the Columbus Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Greenville County Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Norton Museum of Art, and the Tubman African American Museum. Crucially, the Gallery’s exhibitions have played a significant role in highlighting the achievements of artists who had historically been marginalized in the mainstream art world due to both active and passive discrimination on the basis of race and gender.
Over the past nineteen years, halley k harrisburg has published more than ninety exhibition catalogs with scholarly contributions by leading art historians, artists, and critics including, Hilton Als, Debra Bricker Balken, Isabelle Dervaux, Leslie King-Hammond, Sam Hunter, Joseph Jacobs, Susan C. Larsen, Gail Levin, Whitfield Lovell, Robert Morgan, Francis V. O'Connor, Carter Ratcliff, Arlene Raven, Barry Schwabsky, Martica Sawin, James Siena, Lowery Stokes Sims, Elisabeth Sussman, Stephen Westfall, and John Yau. Gallery publications have been recognized for their excellence; in 2002, Martha Madigan: Vernal Equinox won Independent Publisher’s Award (IPPY) for Outstanding Book of the Year. Since 2001, the Gallery’s website, www.michaelrosenfeldart.com, has also served as a valuable educational tool, facilitating access to images of artworks, biographies of artists, and critical analyses through the site’s bi-monthly “In Focus” feature. To further increase accessibility, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery has participated in internationally attended art fairs including the Art Show (ADAA), New York; Art Basel Miami Beach, Florida; the Armory Show Modern, New York; Art20, New York; and Works on Paper, New York.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery is honored to represent three distinguished mid-career artists—Nancy Grossman, Martha Madigan and Betye Saar—as well as the estates and families of Benny Andrews, John Biggers, Federico Castellon, Seymour Lipton, Boris Margo, Irving Norman, Alfonso Ossorio, Theodore Roszak, Charles Seliger, Louis Stone, Bob Thompson, and Charmion von Wiegand.
Committed to its founding vision, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery looks forward to expanding its contributions to the field of twentieth and twenty-first century American art with exhibitions and publications that continue to offer new insight and scholarship.
About the Building
In 2011, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC purchased the ground floor commercial condominium space of 100 Eleventh Avenue (at 19th Street), the iconic residential tower designed by Pritzker Award winning architect Jean Nouvel.
“Our move to Chelsea is motivated in part by expanding needs, including a more flexible exhibition space to accommodate large-scale works that make up a significant portion of twentieth century art,” said gallery founder and co-owner Michael Rosenfeld. “Equally appealing is the dynamic eclecticism of the Chelsea arts community.”
“It is our desire to reach and educate a more diverse audience. We are excited to be one of a few galleries to present consistently historic twentieth century American art. We have great confidence in the Chelsea neighborhood; we wanted to make a long-term investment into the community. Given the success of recent redevelopment projects like the High Line Park and the promise of future projects, including the Whitney Museum of American Art's move to the Meat Packing District, we are excited to be in the heart of the art world.”
In Chelsea, the gallery’s mission will not change; Michael Rosenfeld Gallery looks forward to maintaining its commitment to twentieth century American painting, sculpture, and works on paper. The gallery will continue to exhibit contemporary artists Nancy Grossman and Betye Saar and represent exclusively the estates (or families of) Benny Andrews, John Biggers, Federico Castellon, Seymour Lipton, Boris Margo, Irving Norman, Alfonso Ossorio, Theodore Roszak, Charles Seliger, Louis Stone, Bob Thompson, and Charmion von Wiegand.
To design the 6500-square-foot space, Rosenfeld enlisted the services of preeminent architect Richard Gluckman of Gluckman Mayner, designer of a wide range of institutional, commercial, and residential projects throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including over forty commercial art galleries. Construction of the space was managed by Gorton & Partners, LLC, renovation project managers for sixteen years in the New York Metropolitan area.
