City Gallery (Manhattan) facts for kids

City Gallery was an art gallery in New York City that is now demolished.

The artists Red Grooms and Jay Milder founded the City Gallery in Grooms' second-floor Flatiron Loft on 26th Street and Sixth Avenue in 1958. When Phoenix refused to show Claes Oldenburg, Grooms and Milder dropped out of Phoenix and City Gallery presented Oldenberg's first New York City exhibition, as well as that of Jim Dine. Other artists who showed at City Gallery include Stephen Durkee, Mimi Gross, Bob Thompson, Lester Johnson, and Alex Katz. Grooms recalls, "We were reacting to Tenth Street. In '58 and '59, Tenth Street was sort of like SoHo is now, and it was getting all the lively attention of everyone downtown....We were just kids in our twenties..and had a flair for attracting people to our openings."