METRO PICTURES is a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 art gallery

Art gallery

An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...

 founded in 1980 by Janelle Reiring, previously of Castelli Gallery, and Helene Winer, previously of Artist's Space. It was located in SoHo

SoHo

SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...

 until 1995 when it was among the first wave of galleries to move to Chelsea

Chelsea, Manhattan

Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...

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Metro's opening exhibition in 1980 included Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...

, Robert Longo

Robert Longo

Robert Longo is an American painter and sculptor. Longo became famous in the 1980s for his "Men in the Cities" series, which depicted sharply dressed businessmen writhing in contorted emotion.-Early life and education:...

, Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein

Jack Goldstein

Jack Goldstein was a Canadian born, California-based performance and conceptual artist turned painter in the 1980s art boom.-Early life and education:...

, Sherry Levine, James Welling, and Richard Prince

Richard Prince

Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...

. Subsequently, the one person exhibitions that followed at the gallery were these artists' first major exhibitions in New York. These artists were also each prominently included in the 2009 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

 exhibition, "The Pictures Generation".

During the early and mid-1980s, Mike Kelley

Mike Kelley

Mike Kelley is a contemporary American artist. Kelley's work involves found objects, textile banners, drawings, assemblage, collage, performance and video. He often works collaboratively and has done projects with artists Paul McCarthy, Tony Oursler and John Miller...

, Louise Lawler

Louise Lawler

Louise Lawler is a U.S. artist and photographer. From the late 1970s onwards, Lawler's work has focused on the presentation and marketing of artwork. Much of this work consists of photographs of other peoples' artwork and the context in which it is viewed...

, Martin Kippenberger

Martin Kippenberger

Martin Kippenberger was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona....

, John Miller

John Miller

-Politics:* John Miller , Governor of North Dakota, 1889–1891* John Miller , Governor of Missouri, 1826–1832; U.S. Representative from Missouri, 1837–1843...

, Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler is a multimedia and installation artist.- Tapes, Installations: 1977-1989:Tony Oursler is known for his fractured-narrative handmade video tapes including The Loner, 1980 and EVOL 1984. These works involve elaborate sound tracks, painted sets, stop-action animation and optical special...

 and Jim Shaw

Jim Shaw

Jim Shaw is the name of:* Jim Shaw , artist and musician* Jim Shaw * Jim Shaw , Canadian businessman* Jim Shaw * Jim Shaw * Jim Shaw , mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota...

 joined the gallery. Newer generations of artists have continued to expand the context of the gallery by presenting comparably provocative conceptual material in unforeseen formats that address current conditions, methods of thought, and means of generating art ideas. These artists include Andreas Slominski, Gary Simmons

Gary Simmons (artist)

-Work and Exhibitions:Using icons and stereotypes of American popular culture, Gary Simmons creates works that address personal and collective experiences of race and class...

, Olaf Breuning

Olaf Breuning

- Works :*Home 1/Home 2 --30 minute video starring Brian Kerstetter. Home 1 is presented as a double-projection, where the main character can no longer distinguish the difference between reality and fiction. He wanders around a hotel room telling stories about himself and other people to the...

, Andreas Hofer

Andreas Hofer

Andreas Hofer was a Tirolean innkeeper and patriot. He was the leader of a rebellion against Napoleon's forces....

, Andre Butzer, and most recently David Malkjovic and Stephen Rhodes

Stephen Rhodes

Stephen Rhodes is a former weekday daytime presenter on BBC Three Counties Radio. He originally hosted the Consumer Programme from 10am until 1.30pm, but moved to the breakfast show from 6 to 9am...

.http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_gpjr45

Gallery director Allison Card is a member of the New Art Dealers Alliance

New Art Dealers Alliance

The New Art Dealers Alliance is a not-for-profit arts organization founded in 2002 that supports collaboration and the exchange of information between its members. Membership extends to invited galleries, curators and gallery directors...

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