Forum Gallery

Founded in 1961, Forum Gallery in New York presents American Modernism, Post War and Contemporary Art with a focus on humanism, narrative and figuration.

By appointment through May 18, 2026. Forum Gallery was founded in New York City in 1961 as a gallery of American figurative art. Forum Gallery was founded in New York City in 1961 by Bella Fishko, as a gallery of American figurative art. Among the first artists represented were Raphael Soyer, Chaim Gross, David Levine and Gregory Gillespie. The gallery is a founding member of the Art Dealers Assoc

iation of America. From inception, Forum Gallery’s contemporary exhibition program has been augmented by mounting curated, thematic exhibitions of historic importance, in keeping with the gallery’s focus on humanism. Forum Gallery’s program expanded internationally in the 1980’s, and the gallery soon represented the American artists William Beckman and Robert Cottingham as well as the Norwegian painter Odd Nerdrum. Today, Forum Gallery represents more than thirty American and European artists and estates, including Chilean born masters Claudio Bravo and Guillermo Muñoz Vera, Spanish realist Cesar Galicia, and Austrian artist Xenia Hausner. American artists whose work is now represented by Forum Gallery include Steven Assael, Linden Frederick, Alan Magee, Alyssa Monks, Clio Newton, Brian Rutenberg and Tula Telfair. Forum Gallery regularly exhibits at art fairs throughout the United States. The gallery exhibited at the inaugural edition of The Art Show (ADAA – Park Avenue Armory) and has since participated twenty times. An early exhibitor at the Chicago International Art Exposition at Navy Pier, Forum now exhibits at ExpoChicago annually. In 2000, Forum Gallery mounted an Odd Nerdrum exhibition at the FIAC in Paris, and today the gallery exhibits regularly at fairs in San Francisco, New York, Miami, Houston, Seattle and Chicago. A service business focused on customer satisfaction, Forum Gallery looks forward to every opportunity to assist collectors, experienced and new.

05/28/2026

"Spring Jewels", our first exhibition in the DFN Projects space in the Fuller Building, brings together a selection of compelling and accessibly priced modern and contemporary masterworks by twenty-three artists.

Featured in the exhibition are two works on paper by Robert Cottingham: "Facade: Hotel Lindy", 1984 and "The Spot", 1978. With their dramatic compositions, both paintings reflect Cottingham's fascination with the American urban landscape and the glittering era of neon and hand-painted signs in downtown Los Angeles and Times Square, New York. Part of the artist’s acclaimed "Facades" series, Facade: Hotel Lindy draws inspiration from the shadows and geometric composition of the signage of the hotel, located in downtown Los Angeles. Hotel Lindy was originally built in 1905 in a Victorian style. While the hotel itself is no longer in operation, the building remains and is one of very few from that era left in the neighborhood.

Robert Cottingham is widely recognized for his photo-realistic depictions of signs, storefront marquees, railroad boxcars and letter forms. Cottingham’s imagery routinely derives from his own photography, however, it is the Artist’s practice to expand on the photographic image instead of seeking to replicate it exactly. In the Summer 1998 issue of American Art published by the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, art historian and curator Jacquelyn Days Serwer writes:

"Formal composition and design are critical to the aesthetic impact of the Facades. Cottingham primarily chose fragments of signs or marquees seen from below and skewed at a dramatic angle. Neon letters, storefronts, and decorative awnings that would hardly merit a glance become, in Cottingham's paintings, baroque masterpieces of line, topography, light and shadow. Often exaggerated in scale and rich in detail, they appear simultaneously surreal and abstract. Despite their lowly origins, the subjects acquire an unmistakable dignity and grandeur. These partial glimpses of urban commercialism, enigmatic in their fragmentary form, appear far more intriguing than conventional full views would be."

Forum Gallery introduced Robert Cottingham’s landmark, "An American Alphabet", at his first exhibition with the gallery in 1996 and presented five more solo exhibitions for the Artist. Works by Robert Cottingham are in the collections of every major museum in America and have been included in exhibitions of American art, realism, hyper-realism, photorealism, railroad imagery and printmaking at museums worldwide. A retrospective of Robert Cottingham’s print work was organized and exhibited by the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC in 1998.

"Spring Jewels" is on view through Friday, June 26th.

To preview "Spring Jewels", you are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room here:
https://viewingroom.forumgallery.com/viewing-room/spring-jewels

Images:
Robert Cottingham, "Facade: Hotel Lindy", 1984, acrylic on paper, 14 x 11 1/4 inches
Facade of the former Hotel Lindy in downtown Los Angeles, 419 1/2 W. 8th Street
Robert Cottingham, "The Spot", 1978, acrylic on paper, 25 x 18 inches
"Spring Jewels", Forum Gallery, New York, NY

05/21/2026

Wishing you a peaceful time of remembrance this Memorial Day...

In observance of the holiday, Forum Gallery will close at 3pm on Friday, May 22nd, reopening to the public on Tuesday, May 26th at 10am.

Featured work:
JOHN STORRS (1885-1956)
“Woman and Soldier,” 1940-51
terracotta with applied paint
7 3/8 h x 5 w x 4 7/8 d inches
inscribed by the artist on base "STORRS"
inscribed and dated on underside "Chantecaille - 1940-51"

There are three known terracotta casts of this work. One is unpainted and two (this being one of the two) are polychromed. Each polychromed treatment is unique.

“Spring Jewels” is on view through Friday, June 26th. You are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room, linked in bio.

05/18/2026

Opening tomorrow, May 19th: Forum Gallery presents "Spring Jewels", the first exhibition at our temporary location on the 11th Floor of the Fuller Building, 41 E. 57th Street, New York.

"Spring Jewels" brings together a selection of compelling and accessibly priced modern and contemporary masterworks by twenty-one artists. Included in the exhibition are early Twentieth Century works by Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964), Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938), David Burliuk (1882-1967), and Max Weber (1881-1961). Mid-century figurative works by sculptor, Chaim Gross (1902-1991), and painters Gregory Gillespie (1936-2000) and Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) reflect each artist’s distinct approaches to their subjects, linked by the quintessential humanism of their art.

Robert Cottingham and Davis Cone are well known for their unique subjects and Photorealist ex*****on. "Spring Jewels" will present two examples of Cottingham’s dynamic paintings of commercial building neon signs, alongside a brand new, exceptional small jewel of a painting by Cone featuring the “El Rey” Art Deco movie theater in Los Angeles.

Also freshly sprung from the studio is a delightful watercolor by Frederick Brosen featuring Central Park in Spring, and Brian Rutenberg’s new landscape abstraction emanating a blaze of saturated pastel color. Recent small-scale evocations of land and nature by William Beckman, Nathaniel Aric Galka, Linden Frederick, and Alan Magee will be highlighted, alongside graceful paintings by Rance Jones and Clio Newton that instantly transport us into the lives of the women depicted.

The drama of Guillermo Muñoz Vera’s depiction of a Sixteenth-Century exploration ship battling for survival in stormy seas defies the painting’s modest scale, while Cybèle Young’s meticulously crafted Japanese paper construction captivates our curiosity with its whimsy.

Undoubtedly a highlight of "Spring Jewels" is the inclusion of the stunning still-life impressions of Claudio Bravo (1936-2011) and G. Daniel Massad. Masters of their medium, Bravo’s oil paintings and Massad’s works in pastel are instantly recognizable for their use of color and light to create drama and theater in their distinctive compositions.

To preview Spring Jewels, you are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room here: https://viewingroom.forumgallery.com/viewing-room/spring-jewels

05/08/2026

Forum Gallery is pleased to announce "Spring Jewels", the first exhibition at our temporary location on the 11th Floor of the Fuller Building, 41 E. 57th Street, New York. The exhibition will open on Tuesday, May 19th, continuing through Friday, June 26th.

"Spring Jewels" brings together a selection of compelling and accessibly priced modern and contemporary masterworks by twenty-one artists. Included in the exhibition are early Twentieth Century works by Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964), Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938), David Burliuk (1882-1967), and Max Weber (1881-1961). Mid-century figurative works by sculptor, Chaim Gross (1902-1991), and painters Gregory Gillespie (1936-2000) and Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) reflect each artist’s distinct approaches to their subjects, linked by the quintessential humanism of their art.

Robert Cottingham and Davis Cone are well known for their unique subjects and Photorealist ex*****on. "Spring Jewels" will present two examples of Cottingham’s dynamic paintings of commercial building neon signs, alongside a brand new, exceptional small jewel of a painting by Cone featuring the “El Rey” Art Deco movie theater in Los Angeles.

Also freshly sprung from the studio is a delightful watercolor by Frederick Brosen featuring Central Park in Spring, and Brian Rutenberg’s new landscape abstraction emanating a blaze of saturated jewel-toned color. Recent small-scale evocations of land and nature by William Beckman, Nathaniel Aric Galka, Linden Frederick, and Alan Magee will be highlighted, alongside graceful paintings by Rance Jones and Clio Newton that instantly transport us into the lives of the women depicted.

The drama of Guillermo Muñoz Vera’s depiction of a Sixteenth-Century exploration ship battling for survival in stormy seas defies the painting’s modest scale, while Cybèle Young’s meticulously crafted Japanese paper construction captivates our curiosity with its whimsy.

Undoubtedly a highlight of "Spring Jewels" is the inclusion of the stunning still-life impressions of Claudio Bravo (1936-2011) and G. Daniel Massad. Masters of their medium, Bravo’s oil paintings and Massad’s works in pastel are instantly recognizable for their use of color and light to create drama and theater in their distinctive compositions.

To preview "Spring Jewels", you are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room here: https://viewingroom.forumgallery.com/viewing-room/spring-jewels

05/05/2026

FORUM GALLERY IS MOVING! Beginning May 19, 2026, we will be pleased to welcome you to our temporary home on the 11th Floor of the iconic Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street. We have made arrangements with DFN Projects to reside and exhibit through September 11, 2026. At the Fuller Building, we are joining long-term colleagues, including Hirschl & Adler Galleries and Adelson Galleries, who were with us at the Crown Building some years ago.

Our first exhibition at 41 East 57th St will be "Spring Jewels", an exhibition of modern and contemporary masterworks from Forum Gallery, opening May 19, 2026. The exhibition will include works by Alexander Archipenko, Oscar Bluemner, Claudio Bravo, Davis Cone, Linden Frederick, Gregory Gillespie, Chaim Gross, Alan Magee, G. Daniel Massad, Clio Newton, Brian Rutenberg, Max Weber and more. We have curated this show with a focus on offering works that are both compelling in quality and irresistibly priced.

Bob and Cheryl Fishko, Nicola Lorenz and Marjorie Van Cura look forward to greeting you at the Fuller Building soon. In the meantime, we can be contacted, as always, by calling 212-355-4545 or by writing to us by email.

04/15/2026

Meet the Artist, Saturday, April 18th, from 2-4 PM! Forum Gallery congratulates American watercolorist Rance Jones (b. 1965) on his current exhibition on view at the gallery and now in its final week. We encourage you to see this marvelous show before we move to our temporary home on the 11th floor of the Fuller Building, 41 E 57th Street.

"Rance Jones: Watercolors" features paintings from Jones’ recent trips to Cuba, Israel, and Palestine, taking us on a deep and immersive dive into the human condition. Jones’ scenes of daily life are immediate, moving, nuanced and complex. They offer us a view into the essence of lives, economic hardship, and the timeless resilience of the spirit, each executed with the remarkable technique that distinguishes the art of Rance Jones.

"Rance Jones: Watercolors of Cuba" is available at Forum Gallery for purchase. The price of the book is $65. This large-scale, hardcover monograph documents 94 watercolors over 156 pages. The book includes a foreword by Robert Fishko, Forum Gallery, and essays by Nathalie M. Sánchez, Art Historian, Curator, Journalist, and Andrew Walker, Executive Director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art at the time of writing.

"Rance Jones: Watercolors" is on view at Forum Gallery through April 18, 2026.

You are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room here:

https://viewingroom.forumgallery.com/viewing-room/rance-jones-watercolors

04/09/2026

Continuing at Forum Gallery is “Rance Jones: Watercolors”, a solo exhibition for American watercolorist Rance Jones (b. 1965). The exhibition features 27 compelling works from Jones’ travels around Cuba and the Middle East. The masterful watercolors on view convey an immediate and distinct sense of place. Each color, texture and pattern highlighted in the Artist’s chosen scene situates the subject within their community and their culture.

“A common thread in much of my work is the interaction or intertwining of the subject and the surrounding environment. Both occur because both exist. […] Not surprisingly, out of that coexistence we form rituals. Rituals that tie us to one another and to our surroundings. Rituals that celebrate our simplest acts of existence.” _Rance Jones

"Rance Jones: Watercolors" is on view at Forum Gallery through April 18, 2026.

For a preview of the exhibition, you are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room here: https://viewingroom.forumgallery.com/viewing-room/rance-jones-watercolors :thumbnails;tab-1:slideshow

Images:
"Emanation", 2024, 23 x 28 inches
"Intricate Imbalance", 2024, 34 x 30 inches
"Nearing", 2025, 25 x 21 inches
"Sem Girl", 2023, 25 x 22 inches
"Wall #2", 2023, 28 x 37 inches
"Rance Jones: Watercolors" at Forum Gallery, New York, March 5-April 18, 2026

04/02/2026

Forum Gallery’s third solo exhibition for American watercolorist Rance Jones (b. 1965) continues, featuring 27 luminous portraits that celebrate the beauty of everyday life. In an essay for the new monograph “Rance Jones: Watercolors of Cuba", Andrew Walker, Executive Director Emeritus of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, reflects on the artist’s ability to render the unseen emotional and psychological depth of those he portrays.

“Like other historically notable artists who directed their creativity towards often unfamiliar human encounters – photographer Richard Avedon’s “In the West” (1985) or painter Theodore Wores’ (1859-1939) journeys to Japan and Hawaii – Rance’s vision cuts below the specific of one person or place. Whether painting the vibrancy of daily life in Cuba or Israel or Palestine, Rance reaches for something more significant and more elusive. In each watercolor, he paints not just the landscape or the architecture, but stories of the individuals who inhabit those spaces. And those stories touch something familiar, universal, even; they seize on the essence of a shared human experience and foster empathy through his brushstrokes.”

“Rance Jones: Watercolors” is on view at Forum Gallery through April 18, 2026.

For a preview of the exhibition, you are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room here: https://viewingroom.forumgallery.com/viewing-room/rance-jones-watercolors

Images:
“Shisha”, 2025, 25 x 21 inches
“Steep Road”, 2025, 25 x 21 3/4 inches
“Jaffa Gate”, 2023, 24 x 21 inches
“Akko”, 2023, 25 x 22 inches
“Wall”, 2023, 25 x 22 inches
“Rance Jones: Watercolors” at Forum Gallery, New York, March 5-April 18, 2026

Forum Gallery

03/26/2026

Continuing at Forum Gallery is “Rance Jones: Watercolors”, a solo exhibition for American watercolorist Rance Jones (b. 1965).

Featured in the exhibition is “Pink Kitchen” (25” x 21”). One’s first response to this luminous watercolor is a gasp of disbelief at the technical accomplishment. The sheen of the plastic tablecloth and the volume of its draped corners, the modeling of each pink kitchen tile and of the figure, and the light reflected in the linoleum floor exemplify Rance Jones’ mastery of his medium. But soon we also discover Jones’ sensitive observation of the domestic dynamics in which he has entered. About “Pink Kitchen”, Jones writes:

“Traditionally we associate the color pink with femininity. In this painting, pink is a clue that this space, this kitchen, is the domain and headquarters for the lady of the house, May. Her husband, Manuel, is a frequent visitor here, but only under strict guidelines. As viewers, we are merely passing from one room in the house to the next as we catch a glimpse of Manuel pressing his hands against the ceramic tile counter, deep in thought, perhaps reconsidering his next move. Like Arthur Miller’s character W***y Loman bathed in pink stage lights, Manuel’s masculine persona seems at odds with the soft rose color reflecting from the walls around him. In this narrative there’s a contradiction that arises from the pairing of these two elements. There’s a tension in the painting that seeks resolution. But that is the beauty and mystery of Cuba. Beauty is not perfection. It is an alluring configuration of contrasting and sometimes contradictory qualities or forces that defy conformity. True beauty often captivates and confuses, all the while, making it difficult to divert our gaze.”

A newly published monograph, “Rance Jones: Watercolors of Cuba” accompanies the exhibition and is available to purchase at Forum Gallery. The large-scale, hardcover volume, with 156 pages, documents 94 watercolors by Rance Jones, a selection of which are on view in the exhibition. The price of “Rance Jones: Watercolors of Cuba” is $65.00.

“Rance Jones: Watercolors” is on view at Forum Gallery through April 18, 2026. For a preview of the exhibition, you are invited to visit our Online Viewing Room: https://viewingroom.forumgallery.com/viewing-room/rance-jones-watercolors

Images:
“Pink Kitchen”, 2022, watercolor on paper, 25 x 21 inches
“Rance Jones: Watercolors” at Forum Gallery, New York, March 5-April 18, 2026
“Rance Jones: Watercolors of Cuba” book interior

03/23/2026

Gallery News: After ten years at 475 Park Avenue, our lease is coming to an end, and our current exhibition, "Rance Jones: Watercolors" will be our last at this location, continuing through April 18th. We urge you to see this remarkable work!

We are very excited to be moving to a temporary home on the 11th Floor of the iconic Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street, where we have made arrangements with DFN Projects to reside and exhibit through September 11, 2026. At the Fuller Building, we are joining long-term colleagues, including Hirschl & Adler Galleries and Adelson Galleries, who were with us at the Crown Building some years ago.

Our first exhibition at 41 East 57th St will be "Spring Jewels", an exhibition of modern and contemporary masterworks from Forum Gallery, opening May 19, 2026. The exhibition will include works by Alexander Archipenko, Oscar Bluemner, Claudio Bravo, Davis Cone, Linden Frederick, Gregory Gillespie, Chaim Gross, Alan Magee, Clio Newton, Brian Rutenberg, Max Weber and more. We have curated this show with a focus on offering works that are both compelling in quality and irresistibly priced.

In September, we are thrilled to present the work of Raphael Soyer (1899- 1987) at the Independent 20th Century art fair, held this year for the first time at the historic Breuer Building on Madison Avenue at 75th Street, September 24 to 27, 2026. This will be a “can’t miss” event, so mark your calendars!

In the interim, we are looking forward to continuous service to the art community, and to making lasting plans for the future. We encourage you to visit us at 475 Park Avenue for "Rance Jones: Watercolors", through April 18th, and Bob and Cheryl Fishko, Nicola Lorenz and Marjorie Van Cura will be sharing updates as we move along.

Images:
Fuller Building, 41 E 57th Street, New York
Raphael Soyer with "Avenue of the Americas" (1969-70)

Address

475 Park Avenue
New York, NY
10022

Telephone

+12123554545

Website

http://forumgallery.com/

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