Since it's origins in 1980 as a small Los Angeles gallery specializing in modern and contemporary art, Gagosian Gallery has evolved into a global art octopus devouring the contemporary art world. Gagosian rivals many public institutions in terms of breadth and reach and maintains multiple distinct exhibition spaces in multiple cities and countries. Gagosian Madison Avenue opened in New York in 1989 and has expanded to occupy three floors of the building. The versatile gallery complex on West 24th Street in New York, which opened in 1999, was joined by a spectacular gallery on West 21st Street, both designed by Richard Gluckman. In 2013, a specialist bookshop and adjoining gallery opened at 976 Madison Avenue. A storefront gallery, Park & 75, opened in the spring of 2014.

Over the last three decades, Gagosian Gallery has presented an unparalleled program of exhibitions by legendary figures such as Richard Artschwager, Francis Bacon, Max Beckmann, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, John Chamberlain, Willem de Kooning, Walter De Maria, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Mike Kelley, Roy Lichtenstein, Kazimir Malevich, Piero Manzoni, Claude Monet, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Egon Schiele, David Smith, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and Franz West. Such programming attracts remarkable crowds: "Picasso: Mosqueteros" (Gagosian New York, 2009) drew 100,000 visitors, while "Picasso: The Mediterranean Years (1945–1962)" (Gagosian London, 2010) received more than 60,000 visitors. Major exhibitions in New York in 2012 included a retrospective of the work of Lucio Fontana, and the monumental photographic murals and related photographs of Richard Avedon. In 2013 a major survey of more than 50 paintings by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat attracted 85,000 visitors to the West 24th Street gallery.

Together with its distinguished historical program, Gagosian presents a roster of ambitious exhibitions by the world’s most acclaimed living artists, including Georg Baselitz, Cecily Brown, John Currin, Urs Fischer, Mark Grotjahn, Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Sally Mann, Brice Marden, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Saville, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Rudolf Stingel, Mark Tansey, Tatiana Trouvé, Rachel Whiteread, and Christopher Wool. The exhibitions are accompanied by beautifully designed scholarly catalogues and monographs. Gagosian also publishes catalogues raisonnés on several key artists, as well as a vibrant quarterly magazine for its global constituency.