Pace Gallery's $5.4 Million Loss Caps a Week of Arts Moves

By Marcus Bennett

Pace Gallery lost $5.4 million in its latest United Kingdom tax filings. The same filings disclose a $19.2 million debt-for-equity swap with the gallery's US parent company. Together, the numbers describe a commercial gallery under acute financial pressure.

What do Pace's cuts change for artists and staff?

Over the summer, Pace laid off 50 workers and removed 50 artists from its roster in a single action. Multiple employees told Hyperallergic that they learned of the cuts only when the New York Times broke the story in early June. One artist said the gallery demonstrated "a callous breach of trust."

The answer for those artists and workers is plain. Their representation and employment ended, and the news reached them through a newspaper report rather than from the gallery itself. Pace's filings also outline plans made in 2025 to cut costs and reduce full-time positions.

Pace closed its Hong Kong gallery last October after 12 years. It still seeks a smaller London space, and in June put its 8,600-square-foot location on the rental market. The contraction now spans Hong Kong, London and New York, and the summer cuts alone removed 50 jobs and 50 artists from its program.

Who now leads Marian Goodman Gallery?

Nine months after Marian Goodman died at 97, Marian Goodman Gallery appointed Ebony L. Haynes its inaugural senior director and global head of curatorial affairs. Haynes spent six years at David Zwirner, where she founded and led 52 Walker, a space staffed entirely by Black workers.

Under Haynes, 52 Walker showed Arthur Jafa, Cauleen Smith, Pope.L and Gordon Matta-Clark. The gallery also promoted longtime partners Rose Lord and Junette Teng to co-presidents. A photograph by Maria Baranova, courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, shows Lord, Teng and Haynes together.

Haynes ran a space staffed entirely by Black workers inside a major gallery and now holds curatorial authority across another, giving artists and curators a new point of entry at Marian Goodman Gallery.

What else changed this week?

Hyperallergic's weekly roundup recorded appointments, awards and grants across American institutions.

• Estrellita B. Brodsky, Michael Govan and Hank Willis Thomas received the annual Cultural Leadership Awards from the American Federation of Arts.
• Hedwig Fijen stepped down as director of Manifesta after 33 years. Emilia van Lynden and Catherine Nichols, appointed general director and artistic director, will jointly organize the next edition in 2028.
• Ade Omotosho, former assistant curator at the Dallas Museum of Art, became associate curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
• Nolan Jimbo, former assistant curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, became the Arnhold associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
• Ido Radon won the Betty Bowen Award, which includes a solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum in 2028.
• The Sundance Institute Cultural Impact Residency went to documentary filmmakers Sara Chishti and Amin Pakparvar; fiction writer-directors Gabby Beans, Lydia Matata and Rippin Sindher; and fiction film and episodic writers Pedro Eiras and Makisa Francis.
• The Vilcek Foundation awarded $212,000 to 12 nonprofits across the United States, among them the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles and Rhode Island Latino Arts.

A photograph by Margaret Fox, courtesy of the American Federation of Arts, shows artist Hank Willis Thomas, AFA CEO Pauline Forlenza, curator Estrellita B. Brodsky and LACMA CEO Michael Govan.

The pattern is continuity through personnel change. A biennial has a new director, two museums have new curators, and a foundation distributed $212,000 to 12 organizations.

What did the midterms change for Brooklyn?

Brad Lander wore a house costume made by his daughter, Rose, on Halloween. Days later, he secured New York District 10's House seat in the midterm elections on Tuesday.

Queens-based organizer and artist Claire Valdez also won her race, becoming the first Native person to represent the state in Congress. One commenter observed: "you gotta dress for the job you want!"

The result gives Brooklyn's organizers and artists two members of Congress, one of them the state's first Native representative.

Three markers now shape the months ahead. Pace must find a smaller London space. Manifesta's new directors will organize its next edition in 2028, and Ido Radon's Seattle Art Museum solo show falls in the same year.