Gazelli Art House Opens New York Gallery Bolstering International Presence in London, Baku, and New York

Inaugural New York exhibition Put the Kettle On opens with simultaneous presentation at The Armory Show 2026

Opening Exhibition Preview:
September 22, 2026, 6 — 8 PM (EDT)

Exhibition on view:
September 23 — October 31, 2026

Location:
Gazelli Art House
545 West 25 Street
New York, NY 10001

Agil Abdullayev, Samad Vurgun (Red Hoodie), 2025

Gazelli Art House announces the launch of its New York gallery marking a significant milestone in its international expansion with a presence in the city’s Chelsea arts district that extends its program across London, Baku, and New York. Founded in London in 2010, Gazelli Art House has built an international reputation for presenting pioneering twentieth-century artists alongside leading contemporary practitioners across painting, sculpture, installation, and digital media.

The Gazelli story began 25 years ago with Dr. Zarifa Hamzayeva, mother of Gazelli Art House Founder and CEO Mila Askarova. Hamzayeva founded Gazelli Group in Azerbaijan as a pioneering skincare company centered on natural, local ingredients, then began supporting artists in Baku and Istanbul through Gazelli Art House in 2002–03 before it had a permanent space. The name Gazelli draws from the Arabic and Persian ghazal, a form of Eastern poetry praising love and beauty in a spiritual sense. When Askarova established the London gallery in 2010, she chose to build on both the name and the philosophy her mother had created – that inner wellbeing deserves as much attention as the external.

To lead the New York space, Gazelli Art House has appointed Haley Shaw as Senior Director. Shaw brings more than 15 years of experience at New York galleries with international programs, most recently as Director at Timothy Taylor in Tribeca and earlier at Lehmann Maupin and David Zwirner. Her knowledge of the New York art community and experience within internationally active galleries will anchor Gazelli Art House’s presence in the city while connecting the new space closely to its programs in London and Baku

Askarova said, “New York felt like the natural next step for us. Since founding the gallery, we’ve remained committed to the importance of the physical gallery as a place where artists, ideas and audiences meet. Even as we’ve championed digital art through GAZELL.iO, our ambition has always been to expand - not replace - the traditional gallery model. Opening in New York allows us to connect our programs across London, Baku and New York, creating a truly international platform while reaffirming that, in an increasingly digital world, the experience of encountering art in person remains more important than ever. We are delighted to welcome Haley Shaw as Senior Director of our New York gallery. Her extensive experience in New York with internationally-focused galleries makes her the ideal person to lead the space and help shape our next chapter.”

Occupying more than 10,000 square feet in the heart of Chelsea’s gallery district, the new gallery provides an ambitious platform for exhibitions, commissions and interdisciplinary projects while strengthening relationships with artists, collectors and institutions across North America.

The gallery will open with Put the Kettle On (September 23 – October 31, 2026) a cross-generational group exhibition coinciding with Gazelli Art House’s presentation at The Armory Show 2026. Shaped by curiosity, experimentation and exchange, the exhibition brings together works by Agil Abdullayev, Memo Akten, Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty, Harold Cohen, Brendan Dawes, Jake Elwes, Lilly Fenichel, Jann Haworth, Kalliopi Lemos and Recycle Group, revealing unexpected continuities between historical and contemporary practice.

Drawing its title from a familiar expression of hospitality and gathering, Put the Kettle On reflects the gallery’s belief that meaningful encounters often begin around a shared table. Referencing the rich tea traditions of both London and Baku – the two cities that have shaped Gazelli Art House’s identity – the exhibition welcomes New York audiences with an invitation to exchange ideas, discover new perspectives and forge connections across cultures, artistic practices and generations.

Spanning more than six decades of artistic practice, the exhibition explores the ways images shape our understanding of the world. From Harold Cohen’s investigations into abstraction and the rule-based systems that would later underpin AARON – one of the earliest computer programs designed to produce paintings and drawings autonomously – to Pauline Boty, Derek Boshier, and Jann Haworth’s examinations of mass media and visual culture, the exhibition traces a lineage of artists who have continually challenged the conventions of representation.

A distinct strand within the exhibition revisits the legacy of post-war American abstraction through Lilly Fenichel, whose lyrical, gestural paintings extend the language of Abstract Expressionism while anticipating later developments in color, form and spatial perception. Work by Fenichel will also be presented in the gallery’s simultaneous presentation at The Armory Show. The presentations coincide with Gazelli Art House’s announcement of its representation of the Lilly Fenichel Foundation, ahead of the centenary of the artist’s birth in 2027.

Memo Akten, Brendan Dawes, Jake Elwes and Recycle Group bring contemporary perspectives to the exhibition through their use of artificial intelligence, algorithms and digital networks, expanding traditional ideas of authorship, perception and image-making. Agil Abdullayev and Kalliopi Lemos, meanwhile, explore memory, identity and displacement through distinct approaches to painting and sculpture, demonstrating how established artistic languages continue to evolve through contemporary experience.

Together, these artists demonstrate that innovation is rarely born in isolation. Spanning the post-war period to the present day, Put the Kettle On reveals unexpected affinities between painting and digital media, abstraction and figuration, and analog and computational practice.

At The Armory Show (September 24–27, 2026, Stand 424), Gazelli Art House will present Continuous Abstraction featuring works by Gillian Ayres, Alice Baber, Sandra Blow, Lilly Fenichel, Perle Fine, Grace Hartigan, Helen Pashgian and Joan Truckenbrod.

About the Gallery

With spaces in London, New York and Baku, Gazelli Art House presents a cross-generational program spanning Post-War, modern and contemporary art. Representing an international roster of artists and estates, the gallery brings together historically significant figures alongside contemporary practitioners working across painting, sculpture, photography, installation, performance, moving image and digital media.

Founded by Mila Askarova in 2010, the gallery champions artists whose practices challenge conventions and expand the possibilities of their chosen mediums. Through exhibitions, commissions and institutional collaborations, Gazelli Art House fosters dialogues between historical and contemporary perspectives while maintaining a longstanding commitment to artists from Azerbaijan and the wider Caucasus region, supporting greater international visibility for the region’s artistic and cultural histories.

The foundation for Gazelli Art House was established as part of Askarova’s mother Dr. Zarifa Hamzayeva’s Gazelli Group, the first national perfumery and cosmetics production company in the entire Caucasus region founded in 1999 in Azerbaijan. The company began supporting artists in Baku and Istanbul in 2002-03 through Gazelli Art House before it had a permanent space. The name Gazelli draws from the Arabic and Persian ghazal, a form of Eastern poetry praising love and beauty in a spiritual sense. Today, Gazelli Group is led by Askarova’s sister, Jamila Askarova, continuing the family legacy in Azerbaijan.

In 2015, the gallery launched GAZELL.iO, a platform dedicated to artists working at the intersection of art and technology. Through exhibitions, residencies, commissions and research-led initiatives, GAZELL.iO supports practices engaging with computational systems, generative processes, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and other emerging technologies.

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