METRO PICTURES is a New York City art gallery founded in 1980 by Janelle Reiring, previously of Castelli Gallery, and Helene Winer, previously of Artist's Space. It was located in SoHo until 1995 when it was among the first wave of galleries to move to Chelsea.
Metro's opening exhibition in 1980 included Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherry Levine, James Welling, and Richard Prince. Subsequently, the one person exhibitions that followed at the gallery were these artists' first major exhibitions in New York. These artists were also each prominently included in the 2009 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, "The Pictures Generation".
During the early and mid 1980's, Mike Kelley, Louise Lawler, Martin Kippenberger, John Miller, Tony Oursler and Jim Shaw joined the gallery. Newer generations of artists have continued to expand the context of the gallery by presenting comparably provocative conceptual material in unforeseen formats that address current conditions, methods of thought, and means of generating art ideas. These artists include Olaf Breuning, André Butzer, Andy Hope 1930, Gary Simmons, Andrea Slominski, Isaac Julien, and most recently, Claire Fontaine, David Malkjovic, Paulina Olowska, Trevor Paglen, Catherine Sullivan, Sara VanDerBeek, Tris Vonna-Michell, B. Wurtz, Camille Henrot, and Nina Beier.