[12][9][11] His first exposure to art dealing came as a child through his uncle, the late Carl Solway, who operated a (still active) gallery for avant-garde work for over fifty years in Cincinnati, Ohio.

[13][12] James and Jane Cohan founded their gallery In the fall of 1999 on West 57th Street with a show of late-1970s "photopieces" by the London-based collaborative duo Gilbert and George, followed by exhibitions featuring Robert Smithson and Trenton Doyle Hancock.

[2][7] Directed by David Norr (formerly senior curator at the Wexner Center and MOCA Cleveland),[22][3] the space was inaugurated with an exhibition of Robert Smithson's seldom-seen Pop works created between 1961 through 1964.

In the 2010s, the gallery began representing sculptor Kathy Butterly,[33] conceptual artists Spencer Finch, Michelle Grabner and Katie Paterson,[34][35][36] painters Federico Herrero, Byron Kim, Mernet Larsen, the late Lee Mullican and Scott Olson,[37][38][22][39][40] Josiah McElheny,[41] Vietnamese art collective The Propeller Group,[42] Matthew Ritchie and Ethiopian artist Elias Sime.

[43] In 2017, an exhibit by Omer Fast generated controversy when a coalition of Asian-American groups entered and protested, making claims involving orientalism, gentrification, colonialism and stereotypes of Chinatown aesthetics.