Shafrazi converted his rented apartment into a makeshift gallery where he slept on a small loft bed at night. In 1979, he opened his first New York City gallery, and within a few years he had made his reputation handling talents like Donald Baechler and then-hot graffiti artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf and also European artists like Brian Clarke, Enzo Cucchi, Hervé Di Rosa, and Jean-Charles Blais. In 1990, he opened a new 13,000-square-foot gallery at 119 Wooster Street, with an exhibition entitled "American Masters of the 60's" and including Carl Andre, Tom Wesselmann, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, and Andy Warhol.