Southern Guild, a gallery founded in Cape Town, South Africa, is closing its Los Angeles location, which opened in February 2024, and will open a new 4,000-square-foot space in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood in March 2026. The gallery is making its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach this week, featuring works by artists including Zizipho Poswa, Marcus Leslie Singleton, Zanele Muholi, Chloe Chiasson, and Ambrose Rhapsody Murray. Director Andréa Delph, who led the LA outpost, will relocate to New York to head the new space.
The move reflects Southern Guild's strategic shift from the West Coast to New York, a major global art hub, as it seeks to deepen its role as a platform for African and diasporic voices. The closure in Los Angeles comes amid a wave of gallery closures in the city, including Blum, LA Louver, and the West Coast outposts of Tanya Bonakdar and Sean Kelly, highlighting ongoing challenges in the LA commercial gallery scene. The expansion to Tribeca signals the gallery's commitment to building a long-term, reciprocal cultural presence in the U.S.