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\n\tThe Box in Los Angeles announced this weekend that it would close after 19 years in business.<\/p>\n
\n\tIts final show was a two-venue collaboration with Parker Gallery for the late California artist Wally Hedrick, which ran through April 4. The gallery said they would mark the closure with a fashion show for Johanna Went, done in collaboration with artist and playwright Asher Hartman on June 6.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhile this decision has been brewing for some time, it has landed with urgency, shaped by a set of circumstances that made continuing impossible,\u201d gallery founder Mara McCarthy wrote in a statement sent to its email listserv and posted on Instagram. \u201cIt feels right to end this way, with\u00a0the\u00a0kind of work we always existed to support: radical, enlightening, and not easily contained by\u00a0the\u00a0commercial marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLocated at 805 Traction Avenue in downtown LA, The Box opened in June 2007 with a multichannel video installation by Spandau Parks. In her statement, McCarthy described the impetus behind creating The Box as a collaboration with her father, the iconic LA-based artist Paul McCarthy. Though active since the 1970s, Paul did not reach wider acclaim until the 1990s with his inclusion in the landmark 1992 exhibition \u201cHelter Skelter\u201d at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\n\tCalling it an \u201cartist-formed space\u201d since its beginning, Mara said The Box \u201cwas shaped as a response to his market success, which arrived late in his career,\u201d with the aim of uplifting the work of Paul\u2019s peers, like Barbara T. Smith and Simone Forti, who had not yet achieved success. \u201cThe\u00a0Box\u00a0formed to help fill this void,\u201d Mara wrote.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe gallery would dedicate its third exhibition to Smith, presenting two monumental works by the artist made in the mid-1960s and early \u201970s. Subsequent exhibitions would be for Forti, Hedrick, Paul McCarthy, John Altoon, Naotaka Hiro Stan Vanderbeek, Judith Bernstein, and Leigh Ledare. Through this exhibition program, which shed a light on a generation of LA artists, The Box quickly established itself as a venturesome gallery and one of the most important in the city.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhile our program has often resembled what a nonprofit art space might embrace, we made a deliberate choice to engage\u00a0the\u00a0marketplace as a for-profit gallery, with\u00a0the\u00a0capacity to actively shape a presence for experimental artists whose work had otherwise gone unrecognized,\u201d Mara wrote in her statement. \u201cThe\u00a0truth is that our program has been sustained in large part by\u00a0the\u00a0generous support of McCarthy Studios, and by my mother and father\u2019s steadfast vision to seed\u00a0the\u00a0type of arts community and economy\u00a0they hoped to see bloom. But\u00a0the\u00a0market has not always readily embraced\u00a0the\u00a0work we champion.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tShe attributed the decision to close in part to the changing economics around support for her father\u2019s work, as well as the fact that every member of her family lost their homes in the Eaton fire that ravaged Altadena and other parts of the San Gabriel Vallery in January 2025.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Box is the latest in a wave of gallery closures that have affected several commercial enterprises around the world, but particularly in Los Angeles. Earlier this week, Marian Goodman Gallery announced it would close its LA space, while last year, Tanya Bonakdar announced it would close its LA outpost. LA Louver, which had been in business for 50 years, closed its doors in September, shifting to private dealing, while the summer also saw dealer Tim Blum close his LA gallery after 30 years.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Instagram, the post had garnered nearly 2,000 likes and over 300 comments by Saturday morning. Clara Kim, the chief curator of MOCA LA, wrote, \u201cSending much love and respect, Mara. Thanks to you, Robert and The Box for an incredible run of thoughtful, provocative shows, championing artists and art scenes from the past and present. We have all been better for it. What a major loss for LA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tStuart Comer, chief curator of media and performance at New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art, added, \u201cMara, you moved the needle in ways very few can, have, or will again. Sending so much love to you and your family. \u2764\ufe0f\u2764\ufe0f\u2764\ufe0f\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn her statement, Mara McCarthy added, \u201cAs a woman, a curator, and someone who long ago understood\u00a0the\u00a0power of art to alter\u00a0the\u00a0course of a life, I will not stop being present in this world, and I will not stop advocating for\u00a0the\u00a0artists I believe in. It has been among my deepest joys to exhibit and foster\u00a0their work. Over\u00a0the\u00a0years I have come to understand that supporting artists takes many forms, and exhibitions are only one of\u00a0them. What many artists need most is conversation, presence, and genuine engagement, and that will not stop for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/the-box.jpg?w=1024″] The Box in Los Angeles announced this weekend that it would close after 19 years in business. Its final show was a two-venue collaboration with Parker Gallery for the late California artist Wally Hedrick, which ran through April 4. The gallery said they would mark the closure with a fashion show for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1903851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1903851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1903851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1903851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1903851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}