{"id":14128,"date":"2025-08-16T12:43:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/16\/olivier-babin-on-clearings-14-year-rise-from-bushwick-to-global-stage\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T12:43:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:43:02","slug":"olivier-babin-on-clearings-14-year-rise-from-bushwick-to-global-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/16\/olivier-babin-on-clearings-14-year-rise-from-bushwick-to-global-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivier Babin On CLEARING\u2019s 14-Year Rise from Bushwick to Global Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A screening of a video by Korakrit Arunanondchai at CLEARING in 2016. JSP ART PHOTOGRAPHY | | Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels, Los Angeles<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was the greatest adventure of my life,\u201d says Olivier Babin<\/a> at one point during our two-hour conversation a week ago. I\u2019d set out to uncover the real story behind CLEARING; it quickly became clear that his was a story defined by a rare alignment of lucky stars. As we spoke, he was painting\u2014something he could finally return to after fourteen years as a gallerist<\/a> during which he\u2019d built an internationally recognized gallery that bridged the U.S. and Europe and championed, early on, some of the most inspiring artists of the past decade.<\/p>\n

\n<\/section>\n

Babin\u2019s roster has ranged from figures embraced by the international institutional circuit\u2014think museums and biennials\u2014such as Marguerite Humeau<\/a>, Korakrit Arunanondchai<\/a>, Huma Bhabha<\/a>, Hugh Hayden<\/a>, Lili Reynaud-Dewar<\/a>, Sara Flores<\/a> and Meriem Bennani<\/a> to market stars now showing with mega-galleries like Harold Ancart<\/a>. But let\u2019s restart his story, this time from Babin\u2019s perspective, to track the ascent of CLEARING, which experienced the kind of swift upward trajectory that would leave most people breathless and without the distance to see the full picture for a long time.<\/p>\n

Babin moved from France to the U.S. to make art, coming neither from money nor from elite cultural circles. \u201cWhen I started the gallery, it was actually the lowest point of my life. At the time, my only goal was just to make it to the next day,\u201d he recalls. His career as an artist had stalled after what he calls the \u201cvery foolish\u201d decision to leave his gallery in France. \u201cThe gallery is really the only job I\u2019ve ever had in my life. I\u2019d had a few small jobs, but nothing serious.\u201d The transition felt pure. He had tried to make it as an artist, but shifting the focus away from himself to support and champion other people\u2019s work was, he says, incredibly liberating: \u201cI realized it was about the sauce\u2014it didn\u2019t have to be my sauce, just the sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Olivier\"Olivier
Olivier Babin. Courtesy CLEARING Gallery<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He had just found a studio in Bushwick and, encouraged by Ancart, began organizing shows there. \u201cHe was my best friend; we spent all our time together, constantly looking at and discussing each other\u2019s work,\u201d Babin tells me. The first was a striking presentation of Ancart\u2019s works paired with paintings by Jacob Kassay<\/a>. Kassay already had exposure in New York, with a beautiful show two years earlier at 11 Rivington, and around that time, he\u2019d also shown at L&M Arts\u2014the short-lived joint venture between Dominique L\u00e9vy and Robert Mnuchin. Collectors came, even to deep Bushwick, and they sold one of Kassay\u2019s paintings to Miami mega-collector Rosa de la Cru<\/a>z. They even sold Ancart\u2019s work, which was still years away from commanding five-figure prices at Gagosian. At the time, he was making wall installations, including one composed of black dust and charcoal powder cascading down in the corner of the gallery.<\/p>\n

The debut exhibition, \u201cBADLANDS<\/a>,\u201d was named after the 1973 Terrence Malick film of the same title starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. From the start, the titles of CLEARING shows would remain poetic epigrams, part of a cryptic lyrical script that would read, over time, like chapters or episodes in a long-running series.<\/p>\n

On February 17, 2011, they launched SEASONS 1: WINTER \/ SPRING \/ SUMMER, staged across an artist\u2019s studio in Bushwick, a diplomatic partnership in Manhattan and a pop-up in Venice. Although Babin could sense the pace and scale building quickly, it was still a very different art world from the one he would leave behind when the adventure concluded this June with the final episode of SEASONS 21: TONIGHT AT NOON. The full list of \u201cseasons\u201d and \u201cepisodes\u201d is archived on the gallery\u2019s website<\/a>, which has always maintained its uniquely rudimentary layout that made it feel like a never-ending script of this \u201cwild ride.\u201d Perfect probably for a Netflix series now.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, everything Babin was doing was anchored in the community and in personal relationships with the artists. That was just New York at the time, he recalls: \u201cThere was this incredibly strong sense of community. And the gallery landscape back then was very different\u2014Gavin Brown was still the coolest thing on earth, Michele Maccarone\u2019s gallery was still open and the whole scene felt different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gallery\u2019s name came to him serendipitously. One morning, Babin had woken up with the word \u2018clearing\u2019 in his head. \u201cIt felt immediate\u2014boundless\u2014and it came with this mental image of a giant sequoia in an old grove,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThere was something romantic about that landscape. I\u2019ve always loved sequoias, and the name felt aspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sunlit\"Sunlit
Harold Ancart and Jacob Kassay\u2019s \u201cBADLANDS\u201d in CLEARING\u2019s first Bushwick space in 2011. Courtesy CLEARING Gallery<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just a few months later, Babin was invited to curate a show with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York at the Payne Whitney House; it coincided with The Armory Show, and brought him greater visibility and connections. Titled \u201cTRANCHES DE SAVOIR<\/a>\u201d\u2014a French phrase meaning \u201cslices of knowledge,\u201d it featured a mix of French, Belgian and European artists. (The title was inspired by a collection of poems by Henri Michaux, the Belgian-French writer and visual artist celebrated for his intricate ink drawings and known as a major proponent of psychedelics.) \u201cA lot of people were in town for it, and a lot of Europeans, too. The Armory Show was hugely popular back then,\u201d says Babin. \u201cI\u2019d been in the country for two years, and Harold for about the same, but we definitely didn\u2019t have a Rolodex of collectors\u2019 names. Still, we met a few people, got some interest, and it really became about the energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things began to align, and within the span of a year, events moved so quickly Babin admits it\u2019s hard to recall the exact order of events. \u201cIt felt like there was no way to not take it seriously,\u201d he says. \u201cActually, I don\u2019t know if we ever truly thought of it as \u2018serious,\u2019 but from the very beginning it was an adventure\u2014one we immediately believed in, and somehow managed to get other people to believe in too.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, a collector offered Babin a space in Venice, allowing them to stage a show timed with the Venice Biennale\u2019s preview\u2014back when it still opened in June just before Basel. The show paired works by Ancart with sculptures by Esther Kl\u00e4s and only came together because of what Babin calls \u201canother miracle.\u201d \u201cIt was not exactly a gallery space\u2014it used to be a call center, with electrical outlets everywhere, and it later became the Emily Harvey Foundation\u2014but it was beautifully located, about forty seconds from the Rialto Bridge, right across from the fish market,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

Ancart had been in Brussels with Kl\u00e4s to produce the works, and they drove down to Venice. Babin traveled separately with an Italian friend from the art world; \u201cyou always say you need to bring an Italian with you in Italy, and in Venice that\u2019s even more true.\u201d But when they met at the space, Ancart realized he had lost the keys. Panic. \u201cI\u2019m going to find the keys,\u201d Babin said, knowing it sounded completely absurd. Ancart told him, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you bring back a joint so we can chill?\u201d and Babin agreed. He launched into a desperate, seemingly impossible search back at Tronchetto, where the van had been parked, and fate intervened. \u201cBy the time I got back, I\u2019d over-promised and over-delivered\u2014keys in one pocket, joint in the other,\u201d Babin says.<\/p>\n

He thought that was exactly what a gallery should be: a very sophisticated concierge service. They opened a beautiful show and met important collectors, including Don and Mera Rubell<\/a>; it felt like something significant was beginning. Babin describes it as an ascending narrative arc that kept them moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really had nothing, and therefore absolutely nothing to lose. Everything was one way only,\u201d he says. After selling a few works from the first show, he had about $7,000\u2014more money than he\u2019d ever had in his life. Overhead was on a completely different scale: rent for the space was $15,000 per year\u2014an amount that today, especially in New York, wouldn\u2019t cover a single month.<\/p>\n

\"Minimalist\"Minimalist
\u201cRISE, ROSE, RISEN,\u201d an exhibition of works by Harold Ancart and Esther Kl\u00e4s, in 2011. Courtesy of CLEARING<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That summer, at a barbecue, Babin met Heather Hubbs<\/a>, who had just founded NADA. She invited him to take part in the Miami edition of the fair, marking CLEARING\u2019s first fair and providing another chance to grow the gallery\u2019s collector base. For the booth, Ancart created one of his dust installations on the wall, layering over it a set of burned photographs with soot still clinging to the surface. \u201cThey were beautiful in this haunting way: tropical seascapes and palm trees, turquoise water, scenes of paradise, but scorched, like hell in paradise. We made sales, met a lot of people and had a lot of fun,\u201d recalls Babin.<\/p>\n

In Miami, they also received a piece of valuable advice: get into Liste in Basel as soon as possible, as it was then considered a key fair for emerging galleries. But that advice came with a warning that the fair was highly Eurocentric, and being an American gallery didn\u2019t necessarily offer an advantage. Harold was from Belgium, so the path forward seemed simple: open in Brussels\u2026 or at least print Brussels on the letterhead and pretend.<\/p>\n

More stars aligned, and exactly one year after CLEARING\u2019s first show in Bushwick, the gallery opened a Brussels location in a beautiful multistory neo-eclectic brick townhouse in the 1190 Forest (Vorst) district. \u201cI remember picking the date because I wanted the second gallery to open exactly a year after the first,\u201d Babin says, admitting that he was offered the space rent-free for a month, but he wanted to commit from the start. It was ambitious, but the formula worked\u2014at the time, there were very few galleries bridging the U.S. and Europe to present emerging artists of that generation.<\/p>\n

\"Five\"Five
\u201cLACKAWANNA,\u201d featuring work by Sebastian Black and Kyle Thurman and Ryan Foerster and Ben Schumacher in conversation in 2012. Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The inaugural show in Brussels, \u201cLACKAWANNA<\/a>,\u201d staged dialogues between Sebastian Black<\/a> and Kyle Thurman<\/a> and between Ryan Foerster<\/a> and Ben Schumacher<\/a>. Black had just shown in the Brooklyn space, and they had also brought his work to Miami earlier in December, where, in addition to mounting a booth at NADA, they hosted a group show with Journal Gallery, \u201cROYAL RUMBLE AT WAFFLE HOUSE<\/a>.\u201d \u201cFrom the start, we were doubling up\u2014our booth or show was always followed by a second presentation somewhere else,\u201d Babin explains, considering the pace of their early growth. Almost overnight, the gallery became international. \u201cSuddenly we had a strong U.S. DNA and a strong European DNA\u2014an American identity in Europe and European identity in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Babin still wasn\u2019t a guy in a suit; it would take several years before he bought his first. \u201cI was just this crazy French guy in Brussels. And, of course, a lot happened on a personal level: I was drunk at the first opening, sober at the second, and I\u2019ve been sober ever since. I had to realize that things were getting serious.\u201d I\u2019m curious. Does he miss those years? There\u2019s a natural progression to things, he says. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I miss them, but I think about them fondly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Babin would never lose the artist\u2019s mix of na\u00efvet\u00e9 and vision\u2014the qualities that kept him from looking too closely at the books for a long time. He\u2019s quick to admit his attitude toward risk was cavalier. \u201cWe scaled up pretty fast because that\u2019s what it\u2019s about,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t sell car parts or fertilizer or shoes. We sell language, we sell vision. And before we sell it\u2014if we even do\u2014we look at it, think about it, talk about it, and present it in the best way possible. That was pure magic. It was an adventure, a trip, the purest part of my life, and there was no money, but we still made it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A\"A
Korakrit Arunanondchai\u2019s \u00a0\u201cPAINTING WITH HISTORY IN A ROOM FILLED WITH MEN WITH FUNNY NAMES\u201d in 2013. Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And it did work\u2014even when he decided to host his first gallery dinner during The Armory Show and struck what he thought was a \u201cdeal\u201d at Lucien that came to eight times his monthly rent. By the end of the night, the bill had tripled. \u201cGrowing up middle class, the idea of spending what felt like eight months\u2019 rent on a single dinner was insane. But in the end, we decided to go for it,\u201d Babin recalls. \u201cI almost passed out. My vision went blurry, but I forced myself to smile and hand over my card\u2014that\u2019s the key, you have to smile and hand it over while praying it goes through.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the moment he realized that if you\u2019re going to compete with the megas, you have to be willing to spend like the megas. It was a gamble, but it worked. CLEARING\u2019s name was cemented, and parties in unconventional venues became a major driver of the gallery\u2019s popularity in the years that followed.<\/p>\n

Months later, Babin decided it was time to scale up to a bigger New York space and landed on the legendary 396 Johnson Avenue location\u2014a venue capable of hosting museum-quality shows on a massive scale, giving artists the space to fully realize their visions. \u201cWe found the space literally by spotting it on the street one day while driving a U-Haul in Bushwick, which had become my second home,\u201d he says. \u201cThe rent was almost ten times less than that one night. We figured it was a great long-term move, so we took it. We did the build-out ourselves\u2014no permits, working at night.\u201d Almost four years after opening his first Bushwick gallery, Babin inaugurated the new space with Koenraad Dedobbeleer<\/a>\u2019s whimsical, witty sculpture show \u201cA USELESS LABOUR, APOLITICAL AND OF LITTLE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE<\/a>,\u201d which ran through November 9, 2014. \u201cPeople were just amazed, saying, \u2018Oh my God, what a space for a gallery,\u2019\u201d Babin remembers.<\/p>\n

\"A\"A
Koenraad Dedobbeleer\u2019s \u201cA USELESS LABOUR, APOLITICAL AND OF LITTLE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE.\u201d Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marking the start of SEASONS 8: FAST ACTION, the opening of the new Brooklyn space was defined by the same relentless momentum he\u2019d felt from day one\u2014a continuous acceleration with no pauses and little concern for the numbers. CLEARING would stay there for the next nine years. \u201cNine years is a lot of shows,\u201d Babin reflects, recalling a stretch in Bushwick defined by amazing exhibitions, advancing their artists\u2019 institutional careers, sponsoring institutional shows and publications and finding inventive ways to fundraise. \u201cOne of our rules has always been that everything we were doing was important,\u201d he explains. \u201cI always believed one should run a gallery like the MoMA. Otherwise, why have a gallery at all? We were always operating with that mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n

That approach continued through April 2023, when Babin moved CLEARING to a three-floor space at 260 Bowery in Manhattan. He admits he never connected with the building, but the move felt necessary as his artists grew in acclaim and the bigger galleries started to poach them. The title of the inaugural Bowery show, \u201cMAIDEN JOURNEY<\/a>,\u201d seemed to capture both the ceremonial and exploratory spirit that had always driven CLEARING\u2014a first step into unknown territory charged with anticipation, discovery and vulnerability, a true rite of passage.<\/p>\n

But Manhattan proved impossibly expensive, so for the first time, he was forced to compromise. Bushwick had been different. There was a certain magic to it, Babin says. \u201cLooking back, I realize that being in Bushwick\u2014being isolated\u2014was actually a huge advantage. We were like an island, and that isolation allowed a real culture to form because we were entirely on our own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Contemporary\"Contemporary
Lili Reynaud-Dewar\u2019s \u201cI SING THE BODY ELECTRIC\u201d in 2016. JSP Art Photography | Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2020, CLEARING opened a Los Angeles outpost in Beverly Hills, before relocating to East Hollywood. Back in 2017, the Brussels gallery had moved into a far larger former industrial space, giving it the capacity to stage the same kind of ambitious, museum-scale exhibitions the gallery was mounting in New York. \u201cWhen it was good, it was really good\u2014everything about it was great. It was fun, and it was rewarding,\u201d Babin recalls. Eventually, however, the winds shifted, and collectors were no longer as supportive.<\/p>\n

For Babin, running a gallery was never about the money. \u201cIt helps to have money. We didn\u2019t really have any, but it didn\u2019t stop us,\u201d he says. \u201cMoney alone doesn\u2019t do that.\u201d What made CLEARING work was the artistic vision, he says. \u201cBefore it was a business, it was an adventure. We let it grow at its own pace. That\u2019s the thing about growth\u2014you either have something else alongside it to feed on, or you\u2019re very patient and resist taking from what\u2019s still developing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through it all, Babin\u2019s focus never strayed; it was always about amplifying the visions of his artists. \u201cI don\u2019t even remember when I actually started paying myself. In those early months, all the money went straight back into the gallery,\u201d he recalls. Forced to be frugal, he always put the gallery first. \u201cI sacrificed myself for the gallery. We wanted it to grow, like the 2,000-year-old sequoia in our logo. But in a way, I was already getting paid just by doing it\u2014it was so awesome to be running the gallery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Minimalist\"Minimalist
Pol Taburet\u2019s \u201cOPERA II\u201d in 2021. Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Babin lived in a rent-controlled Bushwick apartment for 12 years. \u201cMaybe some of my artists would have preferred I had a nice apartment with art on the walls and could host dinners at my place,\u201d he reflects. \u201cBut the trade-off was this guarantee: if there was no money for them, there was no money for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most of CLEARING\u2019s artists\u2014especially those who have been with the gallery since the start\u2014Babin was more of a friend than a dealer. \u201cWith all of them, there\u2019s always been real friendship,\u201d he says, noting that if you look at photos of Leo Castelli\u2019s gallery, \u201cthat\u2019s it: a dealer and his artists, joined at the hip, at the brain, at the heart. They loved each other, fought with each other, spent time together, drinking, smoking, comparing notes and showing up for one another. That\u2019s what it was for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The posts from staff and artists that followed the announcement of CLEARING\u2019s closure made it clear that this was not just another gallery shutting its doors, but the loss of a community and the sunsetting of an entire model\u2014one that can\u2019t survive the pressures of today\u2019s art market.<\/p>\n

\"A\"A
\u201cMAIDEN VOYAGE\u201d in 2023. JSP ART PHOTOGRAPHY | | Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels, Los Angeles |<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Babin started with nothing financially, and now, he says, he\u2019s back where he started. Along the way, though, he managed to create other forms of value\u2014cultural, social, human\u2014that are more precious and far harder to build in a lifetime. It\u2019s those forms of capital, he believes, that make this journey we\u2019re on meaningful.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll have time to reflect on all this during the ayahuasca retreat he\u2019s heading to next month, where he hopes to find deeper meaning. In the meantime, he\u2019s back to making art\u2014and rediscovering the satisfaction of working with his own hands. Yet he\u2019s quick to stress that he wouldn\u2019t now call himself an artist. \u201cThat\u2019s not the point. For me, making things with my voice, with my hands, is soothing, grounding, humbling. It\u2019s a good way of\u2026 well, I\u2019m not even sure if I know or ever learned what \u2018relaxing\u2019 means, but this comes close.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paintings of baby and dog names Babin mentioned in a recent interview with Artnet News<\/a> are gifts. \u201cI much prefer giving things to trying to sell them. I\u2019m convinced that most things will come to me if I keep an open hand, an open mind, and an open heart. Maybe I\u2019ll receive something in return, maybe I won\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cStill, right now, I feel better than I have in many, many years. Parts of me that had dried out, maybe even died, are growing back. That connection\u2014it\u2019s coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A\"A
Marguerite Humeau\u2019s \u201cENERGY FLOWS\u201d in 2022. JSP ART PHOTOGRAPHY | Courtesy the artist and C L E A R I N G, New York, Brussels |<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\u2018It<\/p><\/div>\n