Bentley Gallery, a leading contemporary art gallery in the Southwest since 1990, has announced plans to relocate to its downtown Phoenix warehouse space.
The gallery will be located at 215 East Grant Street in the historic Bentley Projects complex. This space will accommodate Bentley’s current staff and enable expansion for the gallery’s future growth. Bentley Gallery plans to relocate at the end of October 2012.
“Art gallery traffic across the country has decreased significantly and galleries can no longer rely on walk-in clients to drive sales,” said Bentley Calverley, owner and director of Bentley Gallery and Bentley Projects. “With the changing global art market and our client’s rapid increase in technological sophistication, we needed to refocus our evolving business. It made sense to take advantage of our existing Phoenix location. Phoenix has been conscious of the contribution art makes to the city and has been supportive of the local art scene, and CityScape and ASU have greatly enhanced the downtown environment.”
Calverley added, “And because our artists are making larger scale work, we need bigger walls and higher ceilings to showcase it in the best way possible.”
Bentley Gallery represents important artists from the United States and Europe, whose work includes painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video, and site-specific installation. The gallery also deals in Asian and African antiquities and secondary market works from the late 19th century and the Modern era.
“We are excited about Bentley Gallery’s decision to relocate to Phoenix,” said Phoenix Mayor, Greg Stanton. “With this move, the gallery will be positioned to take advantage of the many opportunities available from doing business in Phoenix, while working alongside innovators in our city. Bentley Gallery will greatly enhance Phoenix’s cultural landscape.”
Bentley Gallery will launch the move to Phoenix with a November exhibition by Japanese-American sculptor, Jun Kaneko. Arizonans are familiar with Kaneko’s large-scale ceramic “dango” sculptures permanently on display at Sky Harbor Airport’s Terminal 3, and his ceramic tile wall in front of the Phoenix Art Museum.
