Small and mid-size galleries may be facing unprecedented pressures, but don’t tell that to these young dealers. From Paris to Prishtina, these plucky young gallerists are making bricks and mortar work for them by engaging in new kinds of collaboration, setting up shop in unorthodox locations, and using their spaces as platforms for local artists who have not previously gotten much international attention.

Below, meet 10 dealers in hubs both old and new who are helping to transform the art scenes around them.

Jean-Claude Freymond-Guth inside his subterranean gallery in Basel. Photo by Nils Fisc, courtesy the gallery.

In June 2016, artist-turned-collector-turned-dealer Jean-Claude Freymond-Guth relocated his gallery from Zurich to Basel just in time for Art Basel—and into a location a stone’s throw away from the fair, too. The move meant a transfusion of fresh blood for the local gallery scene. With the exception of one week a year, the city on the Rhine is not exactly known as a hotspot for young, contemporary art.

“Basel has a unique tradition in building collections and philanthropy,” Freymond-Guth explains, “but is also home to some of Switzerland’s most dynamic institutions, such as the Kunsthalle with curator Elena Filipovic, or the art school headed by Chus Martinez.”

One year on, the gallerist, whose exciting roster is filled with video and installation artists, does not regret the move. “The proximity to the fair and the incredible space made the opportunities complete,” he says, referring to the subterranean, 800-square-meter concrete space refurbished by the Herzog & de Meuron. “Oh, and Basel is just absolutely beautiful to live in,” he adds.

Axel Dibie and Alix Dionot-Morani, courtesy of Crèvecoeur, Paris.

Paris’s trendy Galerie Crèvecoeur was founded in 2009 by Axel Dibie and Alix Dionot-Morani after they met studying politics and art history at the prestigious Sciences Po^[1]. Eager for Crèvecoeur to break into the circuit, the upstart duo settled into a gallery space in the historic Belleville neighborhood, a hive of emerging galleries with a diverse cast of inhabitants. The young gallerists now support a program of French and international artists in the naturally lit 160-square-meter space on Rue des Cascades.