About
piper | poet is a New York gallery for post-war and contemporary art, located at 458 West Broadway in SoHo. The gallery works with important secondary-market material — with a particular and long-standing focus on Keith Haring and the subway drawings — and works with important mid-career and emerging artists.
piper | poet was founded by Donald Wood-Smith, an attorney, gallerist, collector, dealer and art historian who has managed sales eclipsing nearly $1 billion and who is recognized as an authority on Haring's subway works. That expertise is not theoretical. It is grounded in the physical handling of scores of drawings, in transactions with private collectors and institutions, and in curatorial projects that have framed the subway works as equal in importance to Haring's studio canvases.
The gallery's programme pairs focused, historically grounded exhibitions of post-war material with new work by the artists it works with, presented so that each can be looked at properly. Exhibitions are supported by original research: provenance, exhibition history, condition, and documentation.
Private advisory, consignment, and secondary-market transactions are conducted through Privé, on the second floor. Inquiries are held in confidence at prive@piperpoet.com.
piper | poet mounts a small number of exhibitions each year, each organized around a single artist, a single body of work, or a defined moment. The gallery favours depth over volume: fewer works, fully researched, hung so that each can be seen. Exhibitions are documented with original texts and, where the material warrants it, a printed catalogue.
Acquisition. We source post-war and contemporary material for private collectors and institutions, working from a defined brief rather than from whatever happens to be available. Where a work is not on the market, we approach it privately.
Private sales and consignment. We sell works from private collections, estates and foundations discreetly and on a considered timetable, either on consignment or on our own account, and we sequence sales so that a collection is not put under pressure.
Valuation, provenance and authentication. We prepare valuations for sale, insurance and estate purposes, and undertake provenance and attribution research. On Haring's subway drawings, documentation on scholarly and evidentiary grounds is a core function of the practice.
Collection planning. We advise on the shape of a collection over time: what to hold, what to place, how to document, insure, lend and pass it on. For estates and foundations we approach this as stewardship rather than supply.
Privé operates by introduction. Inquiries are held in confidence, and no work, price, or client is discussed outside the transaction.