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It all started with these rooms at Choriner Straße 3 in September 2004. We renovated the former horse stables ourselves, from plastering the brick walls to laying the floor. When the first interested visitors from the Grunewald district arrived, many remarked that they had never been so far east before. Even though we were in Berlin-Mitte and the Wall had fallen 15 years earlier.
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This photo was taken in 2007. We had recently moved to Charlottenburg, and to celebrate Art Forum—the Berlin art fair still around in those days—we threw a party with our friends and neighbours Manuela Alexejew and Carlos Brandl that spanned both apartments. This picture shows me (Tina) chatting with Jonas Storsve, a curator at Centre Pompidou. We’ve been friends with Jonas since the early days of the gallery.
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We made our debut at Art Basel 2008 with a statement by Gregor Hildebrandt. The photo shows Gregor, Tina and his long-time assistant and collaborator Johannes (centre) gluing together a curtain made of videotape strips. The floor was made from cassette tapes cast in acrylic resin, and there was a massively heavy picture made from a granite slab. The whole stand was conceived as an installation, and we offered it as such, never expecting anyone to buy it. But it worked.
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In 2008 we also moved the gallery to Tempelhofer Ufer, into a former factory where ladies’ skirts were once made. Determined to open in time for Gallery Weekend in May, we quickly renovated the space with the help of our friends Ansgar Schmidt and Henning Ziepke from the architecture firm s1 architektur. As a young dog, Jasper used to lie next to the desk, but never for more than about 20 minutes.
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Hicham Berrada has been part of the gallery’s programme since 2015. His installations are expansive, performative and, as seen here, sometimes olfactory. The scent of jasmine, combined with the film installation, transported visitors to another world, bringing together science, chemistry and art in a way that could be experienced through the senses. Hicham will open a comprehensive solo exhibition at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen at the end of September.
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With René Block and Olaf Metzel at his opening at the Neues Museum in Nürnberg in 2015. René had shown Olaf as early as 1984 in the Berlin galleries of the daad, where he was director at the time. I (Jan) first met Olaf in 1997 during Skulptur Projekte Münster, where I worked as a long-term intern for Kasper König while studying art history.
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Karl Haendel, who studied under John Baldessari in Los Angeles and whose hyper-realistic drawings interrogate the visual realities of the present, was one of the first American artists in our programme. We showed his lavish and visually and spatially striking exhibition in 2016. The theatrical reconfiguration of the gallery spaces required, among other things, the purchase of hundreds of kilos of green lentils, brown beans and yellow couscous.
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In 2017, Nevin Aladag was simultaneously represented at the Venice Biennale and at documenta 14, when Adam Szymczyk was the director. The photo shows the installation of musical furniture that she made and performed in Athens. These pieces of musical furniture have since become some of Nevin’s most important works; they’ve been shown in several international exhibitions and are now part of various museum collections.
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Our current gallery is located at Knesebeckstraße 95 in Charlottenburg. The building was constructed by the Post Office in the 1930s and was originally used as a parcel acceptance point. During the renovation, we made a concerted effort to preserve the history of the place and many of the original details, such as the original tiled floor. We’re bored with the sterile space of the White Cube; we’re much more interested in engaging with distinctive architecture. After many years in courtyard spaces, we’re now, for the first time, right on the street. The large window means that our exhibitions can be viewed outside opening hours, with the lights switched off by a timer at 11pm.
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What is a gallery without its collectors? We’ve had a great supporter in Martin Margulies; the Miami collector bought works from our programme early on, including a huge installation by Olaf Metzel that fills an entire sports hall. Marty, as everyone calls him, is a collector of the old school, an unfortunately rare breed these days: well-read, curious, independent. He is always eager to engage in dialogue and exchange with younger artists. Here he is in conversation with Mary Ramsden.
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A dinner from two years ago, representative of the many meals shared with our artists. In the photo you can see Nevin Aladag, Karl Haendel and David Renggli; the others probably went out for a smoke.
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For many years, our gallery year has ended in December with Art Basel in Miami. During the day we spend most of our time in air-conditioned exhibition halls, but there are always brief moments on the beach in the mornings and evenings, like this one with Gregor Hildebrandt.
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Our gallery at the Feenteich in Hamburg was an almost magical place for dialogues, exhibitions and parties. For two years we had the opportunity to use this beautiful waterfront building and make many new friends.
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Finishing up a night with Mary Ramsden, Britta Thie and Jenny Brosinski.
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Coming from a theatre background, I (Tina) have always been fascinated by artists who can »hold« a space. Sophie von Hellermann’s ability to create entire worlds of stories on walls and ceilings is truly impressive, especially when you consider both the lightness and precision of her brushwork. Coincidentally, Sophie is also showing a new mural at the Brücke Museum in Grunewald at the same time as Berlin Art Week.
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Alya Sebti (director of ifa-Galerie in Berlin and co-curator of the 2025 São Paulo Biennial) is not only a wonderful curator, but also a friend. I value our discussions about artistic practices. Art fairs can often be »tense moments« in the art world, but I had a fantastic time with her and our artist Phoebe Boswell at Art Basel 2023.
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As an art student in New York, John McAllister worked as a night watchman at the Metropolitan Museum, where he spent every night studying the Post-Impressionist landscapes of Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse. In Los Angeles, John developed his own unique style of landscape painting in psychedelic colours. Today he lives in a small town in Massachusetts and works in a studio deep in the woods. In preparation for his exhibition in Berlin, we once walked with John through the Grunewald, where the Indian summer unfortunately wasn’t as vibrant as it was in the eastern US.
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This photo shows me (Tina) with the recently deceased curator and gallerist Caryl Ivrisse Crochemar from Martinique at Marion Verboom’s exhibition. Our friendship spanned over 20 years and was marked by honest, direct discussions about art and society, shared moments in different places around the world, as well as warmth and laughter.
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A willingness to get »hands-on« is a basic prerequisite of gallery work, as demonstrated here by the installation of our recent exhibition with Gerold Miller, which involved the whole team.
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One of my (Tina’s) favourite moments is chatting on the move, in this case with artist Jan-Ole Schiemann just before his exhibition opening at the gallery.
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We opened our first international branch in Venice in April of this year, in the former studio of Italian fashion designer Roberta di Camerino. It’s our most beautiful gallery space yet.
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We opened our first international branch in Venice in April of this year, in the former studio of Italian fashion designer Roberta di Camerino. It’s our most beautiful gallery space yet.