Mirabelle Marden and Melissa Bent via Artnet

Rivington Arms, the young, trend setting gallery that opened in a retail space on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side in 2001, before moving to its current space off the Bowery, is closing in January.  The partners, Mirabelle Marden, 29, and Melissa Bent, 31, are fixtures not just in art but also in fashion (they have been featured in Uniqlo ads throughout the city, in Vogue and the New York Times Style section) and in the New York social scene.  The duo cited causes for the breakup that were unrelated to the economy: “It had to do with where each of us wanted to take the gallery.  We are not ending because we are getting crushed out.”

Rivington Arms to Close [ArtInfo]
Rivington Arms to Close [ArtForum]
Rivington Arms to Close as Partners Differ on Gallery’s Future [Bloomberg]
Rivington Arms

The two Sarah Lawrence College alumni were definitive in the careers of young artists such as Dan Colen and Dash Snow who, in addition to also receiving a good deal of press, have been featured in such shows as the Whitney Biennial.  Mirabelle Marden’s father is abstract painter Brice Marden, who often attended Rivington Arms openings.  It is rumoured that she may be focusing on producing art herself going forward.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 6:35 am and is filed under Art News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.