Jay Milder, a Figurative Expressionist painter and co-founder of City Gallery in New York, has died at age 92 from a stroke. Milder, who moved from Omaha to New York after high school, was a bold artist and cooperative gallerist who championed informal, improvisational works. He co-founded City Gallery with Red Grooms in 1958, hosting early New York shows for now-revered artists including Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine. His series "Subway Runners" (1960–64) debuted at Martha Jackson Gallery in 1964 and was revisited in a 2022 solo exhibition at Eric Firestone Gallery, which represented him since 2022. His works are held in major institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the New Museum.
Milder's death marks the loss of a key figure in the second-generation New York School Figurative Expressionist movement. His City Gallery was a pioneering artist-run space that helped launch the careers of major American artists and embodied the anti-establishment, experimental spirit of New York's downtown art scene in the late 1950s and '60s. His career also illustrates the enduring influence of Jewish mysticism on his work, as well as the importance of cooperative galleries in shaping art history. His passing closes a chapter on a generation of artists who redefined urban expressionism.