Now, however, a growing number of gallerists and curators are, like Biljani, taking the opposite approach, exhibiting in the very places where daily life dominates: their own homes. In Manhattan’s Financial District, the dealer Michael Bargo, 41, sells rare furniture out of his one-bedroom apartment. In Los Angeles’s Frogtown, the collector Jonathan Pessin, 54, has converted his residence into a veritable bazaar of vintage design objects. And on New York’s Lower East Side, the pro skater turned artist and gallerist Tony Cox, 49, runs Club Rhubarb — a tiny, deliberately hard-to-find contemporary art gallery — out of his sixth-floor abode. But now, whether driven by skyrocketing rents, a collective urge to experiment or a longing to encourage active participation with the art, the concept is taking hold.

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Persons: Michael Bargo, Frogtown, Jonathan Pessin, gallerist Tony Cox, Florence Lopez, —, Charlotte Gainsbourg Organizations: Manhattan’s Financial Locations: York’s, Paris