Nielsen Gallery to close for “sabbatical”

Nielsen Gallery, founded by Nina Nielsen in 1963, plans to cease operations at 179 Newbury St. in Boston at the end of June to “begin a sabbatical.”

“We are not considering our decision as retirement or the final chapter in our commitment to art,” Nielsen said in a prepared statement. “We feel it is a perfect time of a sabbatical and hiatus from the daily exhibition pressure. We hope this will give us a chance to gain some perspective on how we might better expand our support for the artists we have shown. We are excited about the form this might take.”

Nielsen's husband John Baker joined her in running the gallery in 1988. They’ve presented the work of artists including Joan Snyder, Gregory Gillespie, Porfirio DiDonna, John Walker, Gregory Amenoff, Duane Slick, Anne Harris, Jon Imber and many others. The gallery has also shown posthumous exhibits of acknowledged masters like Jackson Pollock (a 1985 exhibit of his “Psychoanalytic Drawings”), Jay DeFeo and Martin Ramirez.

After the current exhibits of Jane Smaldone and Sam Messer end on June 6, Nielsen Gallery plans to present a last exhibit “Selected Inventory,” with a potion of the proceeds to benefit Framingham’s Danforth Museum, through June 26. Nielsen and Baker plan to continue to represent DiDonna during their “sabbatical” and maintain the gallery’s website.