NEW YORK, NY.- Long time gallerists Stefan Stux and Stephen Haller are joining forces and combining their efforts in a gleaming new gallery space in the NY Gallery Building at 24 West 57th Street New York City. Powerhouse Veterans Stux Gallery, Stephen Haller Merge and Move to Midtown headlined the New York Observer. The new gallery will be known as STUX + HALLER.

Friends for more than 25 years Stephen Haller and Stefan Stux have cooperated on various projects together. It seemed natural to combine these two long-time galleries when Stefan Stux and his partner Andrea Schnabl invited Haller and his partner/wife Cynthia Griffin to form an association in Stux' just-built gallery on 57th Street.

Both galleries suffered severe damage as a result of Hurricane Sandy in their respective Chelsea locations. Both rebuilt but were then hit with the new realities of the real estate market in Chelsea. Realtor to the art world Susan B Anthony writes: "There are many changes taking place in the art world...Chelsea is in a major state of flux... Sounds like what happened to Soho!...and galleries are forced to move."

The building housing Haller's newly rebuilt space was about to be demolished. "The Wrecking Ball is Coming for Chelsea Building Housing Tony Shafrazi, Lehmann Maupin, and Stephen Haller" blared a headline in the Observer.

When Stefan Stux originally moved his gallery to New York from Boston 28 years ago he contemplated the 57th Street area, so for him this is a fulfillment of an original impulse.

The 24 West 57th Street building was described in TimeOut NY: "This well-known space in the heart of midtown offers a host of world-renowned names." And STUX + HALLER will add their names to it. Marian Goodman Gallery has just expanded to two floors in the building, Gary Nader Fine Art of Miami has just opened a New York satellite there, and Peter Blum, Marc Jancou, and Leila Heller have recently opened galleries in the neighborhood.

The STUX + HALLER move seems to presage a shift in the focus of the NY art world. The New York Gallery Building is within walking distance of MoMA where a number of gallery artists are in the permanent collection. And the NYTimes has even trumpeted the opening of Ralph Lauren's new Polo Restaurant in the neighborhood as a harbinger of a resurgence in the social scene of the 57th street area.

Center of the art world in years past the East 57th street mid-town area is the place where Haller started his career nearly 50 years ago before moving his gallery to Soho in the 1980's and then to Chelsea in 2002. Now back in midtown Haller says: "I've come full circle." And like the New York art world this circle of friends is enjoying reinventing themselves. Their first combined group exhibition will open January 2015.