Today, Gallery 1988 announced that it’s officially closing its doors. And no, it’s not an April Fool’s joke. Created in 2004 by Katie Sutton and Jensen Karp, it touts itself as “the first pop culture-focused art gallery in the world.” One of its biggest moments was that aforementioned Lost art show, but in the years since, they also did official, licensed art shows for Star Wars, Star Trek, Breaking Bad, WWE, Marvel Studios, the Academy Awards, Masters of the Universe, Barbie, and much more. No other art gallery has a resume that comes close.
This is an absolute bummer.
I’ve featured tons of their shows and prints on the site over the years, bought a few, and recently had become a regular buyer of t-shirts from their Patti Lapel sister site — it’s a shame to see things close out like this.
To pull a quote from the original Instagram announcement:
Fuck AI art and PLEASE keep supporting human artists 🙏 The people we worked with can create artwork far superior to anything a computer can spit out.
It’s too damn true. I’m sure there’s a multitude of factors — the economy, the growth of other galleries, etc. — but I wouldn’t be shocked if Those Two Awful Letters had something to do with this.
Gang — support art. Support artists. Support galleries. We need it.