Mark Grotjahn and the summer group shows in Los Angeles and East Hampton

From the AD HOC NEWS Art Desk » Auction & Market Desk - The editors cover exhibitions, auctions, collections, prizes and artistic positions. Published: August 25, 2026 · Last checked: August 25, 2026, 4:39 PM

Mark Grotjahn anchors the summer program on both coasts of the United States with works in high-visibility group shows. The overview by MutualArt notes his participation in the Los Angeles exhibition Tom’s Stretch at David Kordansky Gallery and in Builders at Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton. Against this backdrop his market data between August 2025 and July 2026 underscore a consolidated position in the upper tiers of contemporary painting.

Group shows in Los Angeles and East Hampton

The data service MutualArt lists Tom’s Stretch at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles as running from July 10 to August 22, 2026, with Mark Grotjahn among more than seventy participating artists. In parallel, the group exhibition Builders at Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton is recorded from July 25 to October 31, 2026, again with Grotjahn represented among contemporary positions.

David Kordansky Gallery positions Tom’s Stretch as a broad survey of current practices in painting and sculpture, bringing together established names and emerging artists in a dense hanging. Halsey McKay Gallery’s Builders focuses more explicitly on structural approaches to composition and material, which situates Grotjahn’s rigorously constructed geometries alongside other artists working with architectural or diagrammatic vocabularies.

Market metrics over twelve months

The MutualArt market overview for Mark Grotjahn reports that fifteen lots were sold between August 2025 and July 2026, with a combined turnover of around 5,000,000 dollars. Several key oil paintings and works on paper sit in the mid and upper seven-figure range in this period, indicating sustained demand at the top end of his oeuvre.

Among the highlighted results is the painting Untitled (Dropping Off and Falling Away Red and T Face 43.22), which carried an estimate of approximately 1,600,000 to 2,400,000 dollars and was realized at just under 2,200,000 dollars, a solid performance in the middle of the range. The broader dataset shows a balanced pattern of results, with some works exceeding mid-estimates and others landing closer to the midpoint, rather than sharp spikes or crashes.

The work core and practice

Mark Grotjahn has become closely identified with several major work groups, notably the Butterfly paintings with radiating perspectival lines and the heavily impastoed Face series. These bodies of work engage Renaissance perspective, early twentieth-century geometric abstraction and expressive color fields, often compressed onto relatively modest formats with intense surface work.

In the works grouped under the Face heading, Grotjahn pushes the brushwork towards dense, mask-like structures, with features emerging from overlapping strokes and scraped paint. The Butterfly pieces, by contrast, explore the tension between frontal symmetry and slight irregularities in line and color, which gives them an optical vibration that reads differently up close than at distance.

Where the artist stands now

Mark Grotjahn currently maintains an active studio practice in the United States with continuous presence in group exhibitions such as Tom’s Stretch in Los Angeles and Builders in East Hampton, without a newly announced solo show date inside the immediate 30-day window.

This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.