Boston gallery shake-up

From my report in this week’s Boston Phoenix:

Three of Boston's most important galleries are about to make major changes, and rumors are rampant that several others may soon move or close —signaling a major upheaval in the city's art scene.

The ALLSTON SKIRT GALLERY at 450 Harrison Avenue in the South End, which just had two of its artists named among the four finalists for the Institute of Contemporary Art's 2008 Foster Prize, will close after its April 4 through May 17 show. "It wasn't financial," says Randi Hopkins (a frequent Phoenix contributor), who owns and operates the gallery with Beth Kantrowitz. "Our lease is up [in November]. It's been nine years working together. Our two visions want to go in different ways."

BERNARD TOALE, whose gallery anchors the front corner of the building at 450 Harrison Avenue and has run a gallery in town since 1992, is hashing out a new lease that would have him divide his space over the summer. Plans are for gallery director, Joseph Carroll, to take over much of the space and open an independent gallery there in September. Carroll's new venue would continue to feature several of Toale's major local artists — including Laura McPhee, Ambreen Butt and Abelardo Morell, who've all shown at the Museum in Fine Arts in recent years. Toale plans to run an art consulting business out of a corner of the space.

HOWARD YEZERSKI, who has run a Boston gallery for nearly 20 years, is working out a lease to move...

Read the rest here.