[intro]Artists Go Looking for Representation in a New Way[/intro]

Sarah Douglas looks at the merry-go-round of artists and their dealers during the current recession on ArtInfo.com. She finds the dynamic a little different this time:

In the current climate, according to Lehmann Maupin gallery co-owner Rachel Lehmann, it may be tempting for “an artist who is considered blue-chip and desirable to leave one of the biggest galleries in New York to join a gallery that is not as powerful but will do more work for that artist.” Such a transition may be underway in the case of Tom Friedman, who after severing relations four years ago with Feature, his longtime downtown gallery, to sign with Gagosian, has recently — and without fanfare — left that powerful showroom. Friedman’s London dealer, Stephen Friedman (no relation), confirms the move and says the artist has yet to secure new representation in the United States. Meanwhile, the painter Sue Williams, who in 2006 left her New York dealer 303 Gallery for David Zwirner, has recently also reversed course. Several months ago, Williams quietly returned to 303. […]

Thomas Houseago, a young Los Angeles-based sculptor whose rough-hewn remixes of high modernist sculpture have earned him a place in this year’s Whitney Biennial, has been a prominent beneficiary of the period. After a dramatic winter that saw the artist emerge as one of the most buzzed-about young talents on the West Coast — in part due to his work’s omnipresence at Art Basel Miami Beach — he recently left his L.A. dealer David Kordansky, and is now in discussions to show at L&M Arts’ new Venice Boulevard space when the gallery opens there in September.

Artists and Dealers Prospect in the New Frontier (ArtInfo.com)