Jack Hanley Gallery

Tribeca

New York City

Art & Culture

From Grateful Dead Roadie to Rockin' the Art World

About Jack Hanley Gallery

& why it made the Carpe City list

Jack Hanley started his first Trans-Avant Garde Gallery in Austin, Texas, in 1987. Per Hanely: “I had a neon sign that just said art.”
In 1990, Hanley moved his gallery to San Francisco and officially named it “Jack Hanley Gallery.” His impressive list of artists continued until 1996 when he took a brief two-year hiatus to focus on his love of music.
The gallery reopened in 1999 in the “Mission District” of San Francisco. Hanley nurtured dialogue between local artists that became synonymous with the Mission District, ultimately forming what has become known as “The San Francisco Mission School of Art.”
In 2008, Jack Hanley relocated to his hometown of New York, closing his San Francisco and Los Angeles locations.
The gallery moved to the heart of Manhattan’s up-and-coming Lower East Side in 2012 and, in 2021, relocated to a landmark building on 177 Duane Street in Tribeca. (That same year, the gallery opened an outpost in East Hampton.)
Beyond its immediate artistic program, the gallery has regularly organized projects, published numerous artist books, and printed limited edition posters.
Remaining focused on contemporary art, Hanley is renowned for continually discovering emerging artists. For 30 years now, he has stuck with his role of incubating talent who would later hit it big. “That’s pretty much all I do,” said the gallerist. “I get some satisfaction out of helping artists get a start.” Hanley jokingly added that he wished he had stashed a few more works by those who “hit it really big” under his bed!