Tim Blum of BLUM Gallery is closing his Tokyo and Los Angeles spaces following their summer exhibitions and has shelved plans for a new location in Tribeca, New York. The 31-year-old powerhouse gallery has laid off most of its staff and will cease brick-and-mortar operations.

Blum’s announcement comes amid a prolonged downturn in the art market. In an interview with ARTnews, he clarified that the decision was not market-driven but rooted in longstanding frustrations with the increasingly “arduous” and “aggravating” system—“more fairs, more locations, more shows, more artists—growth as a kind of default setting… It didn’t feel sustainable.”

Seeking not just a slower rhythm but more genuine engagement with art, Blum cited Art Basel as a confirmation of his need to pursue something different. Despite selling 85 percent of his booth in advance, Blum said he had not a single meaningful conversation during the fair.

Blum co-founded Blum & Poe with Jeff Poe in 1994. The gallery played a key role in advancing the careers of postwar and contemporary Japanese and Korean artists, including Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, Nobuo Sekine, and Yun Hyongkeun, and was instrumental in shaping the Los Angeles art scene for the past 31 years. In 2023, Poe left the long-time partnership, and Blum rebranded the gallery under his name. BLUM represents more than 60 artists, including Mark Grotjahn, Henry Taylor, Caroll Dunham, and Lynda Benglis.

One thing Blum is clear about is that he will not become adviser or launch a consultancy. “I don’t want finance and logistics to be the foregrounded notion in my headspace every day,” he said to ARTnews. After decades immersed in “the world of big money and big business,” he is seeking a slower, more reflective way of engaging with art.

Together with his wife, Blum has been developing a long-simmering project centered on “slower engagement,” with an emphasis on healing, intentionality, and consciousness. “It’s about building a bridge between different modalities,” he said, “[about] real-life transitions with art.”

In an interview with The Art Newspaper, Blum remarked: “We are in the midst of a paradigmatic shift, and to not acknowledge this is to peddle an outdated narrative.”

Stella Wu is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.