After working at Pace Gallery in New York City—where he organized his first show of Picasso prints at age 20—and Anthony d’Offay Gallery in London, Matthew Marks struck out on his own, opening a gallery that specialized in drawings in 1991. In 1994, he made the move to the Chelsea art district, opening a space that would soon become one of the top New York galleries, handling work in all media including painting, sculpture, photography, film, drawing, and printmaking. In 2012, the gallery opened two outposts in Los Angeles.

Matthew Marks Gallery has since become an A-list spot for international contemporary artists, including Nan Goldin, Ellsworth Kelly, Brice Marden, Jasper Johns, Fischli and Weiss, and many others.