The art industry faced a reckoning in 2025. From July onward, a cohort of mid- to large-scale galleries contracted, closed, or fundamentally retooled their operations. Tim Blum announced he would “sunset” his eponymous gallery after more than three decades, closing permanent spaces in Los Angeles and Tokyo, shelving a planned Tribeca outpost, and laying off most of his staff. Venus Over Manhattan followed suit, with founder Adam Lindemann winding down the 13-year-old enterprise. In August, Clearing, long hailed as a bellwether for emerging practices, shuttered its New York and Los Angeles locations after 14 years, while Tanya Bonakdar Gallery chose not to renew the lease on its Hollywood outpost, ending a seven-year run in the city. October brought news that Almine Rech would close its London space after more than a decade, placing its UK entity into voluntary liquidation in order to extricate itself from an onerous lease. In late autumn, Sperone Westwater—among New York’s most venerable galleries founded in 1975—announced it would shutter its Bowery space at the end of 2025.