San Francisco gallery Altman Siegel to close

The influential San Francisco gallery Altman Siegel will close its doors in November due to the slowing art market, its founder Claudia Altman-Siegel has announced, marking the third Bay Area closure since July.

Altman-Siegel, 52, penned a letter on her gallery’s site last week that said she would close her doors to the public on November 22, after the end of its final exhibition of new work by Shinpei Kusanagi. She has since pulled the gallery out of this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach.

“It is with both pride and sadness that I announce that Altman Siegel will close its doors to the public on November 22, 2025,” Altman-Siegel said.

“As it has become too difficult for a gallery this size to scale in this climate, I have made the incredibly tough decision to close rather than diminish either the space or the commitment to exhibit conceptually uncompromising work.”

Altman-Siegel arrived in the Bay Area in 2007 after leaving New York City, where she had worked as a senior director at the blue-chip Luhring Augustine gallery.

She told The San Francisco Standard in a recent interview that she never intended on settling in the city but was burned out on the busyness and loneliness of the Big Apple.

“When I got here, there were interesting artists, good museums, and a lot of really good collectors. And in San Francisco, there were very few galleries, so opening my own just seemed doable,” Altman-Siegel said.

She would eventually open her doors in 2009 and was praised by the news outlet for championing “high-concept art across more than 200 exhibitions and international art fairs” with her gallery. Her gallery is best known for pairing local artists with internationally recognized figures, elevating the Bay Area art scene.

Altman-Siegel now also serves on the board of directors for the Art Dealers Association of America and many of the artists she has represented have achieved significant institutional recognition through major museum shows and biennials.

When asked by The San Francisco Standard about what prompted the closure, Altman-Siegel said the market has slowed down, not just in San Francisco, but internationally. She struggled with how to make the gallery sustainable financially and even opened a pop-up space in Presidio Heights for six months to boost sales.

“We tried doing all of these different art fairs. We tried to show new artists. I was working hard to think outside the box and keep things going, and then the summer was very slow sales-wise,” she said.

She eventually reached the conclusion that she would either need to become a “much more aggressive dealer” or to treat her gallery like “fast fashion,” focusing on commerciality.

“Bigger galleries can afford to play the long game and wait the market out,” she said. “In terms of financial issues, it’s not that I’m declaring bankruptcy, but I don’t have a big enough cushion to wait it out.”

In her letter, Altman-Siegel praised her small staff, former workers, and the many freelancers and interns who “dedicated their time and energy” to her gallery.

Altman-Siegel said she intends to stay in the Bay Area and move on to something else art-related.