BQ

Yvonne Quirmbach and Jörn Bötnagel have worked together since 1995. Initially, they organised exhibitions at various venues in Cologne, as well as at the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam and the Kunsthalle Nürnberg.

In October 1998, they founded BQ, an eight-square-meter project space in the south of Cologne. The name is derived from the initials of their surnames. The first exhibitions, featuring artists such as Matti Braun, Dirk Bell, Friedrich Kunath, Bojan Šarčević, and Richard Wright, were financed through income from other jobs.

Alongside the exhibitions, artist books were produced in close collaboration between the participating artists and Yvonne Quirmbach. In addition to her work as a gallerist, she has been active as a graphic designer in the field of contemporary art since 1995.

With the move to larger premises in Cologne’s city centre in April 2002, BQ evolved from a project space into a gallery. For the first time, dedicated office and storage facilities complemented the exhibition spaces, making it possible to establish long-term working relationships with artists. From the outset, BQ focused on emerging artistic positions, many of whom presented their first solo exhibitions at the gallery. BQ has continued to support the development of many of these artists over the years.

Since 2001, BQ has expanded its programme to include historically significant artistic positions. The first exhibition in this series was dedicated to Peter Roehr, followed by presentations of works by Reinhard Voigt (2003) and Ferdinand Kriwet (2004), whose estate is represented by the gallery today. These exhibitions created a dialogue between the gallery’s younger artists and the art history of the Rhineland in the 1960s and 1970s.

In April 2009, BQ relocated from Cologne to Berlin. During the first two years, its office and exhibition activities were housed separately. Exhibitions took place in a series of temporary venues across the city, including locations in Mitte, Kreuzberg, and Charlottenburg. This period allowed the gallery to experience Berlin from different perspectives before establishing permanent premises near the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in March 2011.

Today, after more than 25 years, BQ represents an international program of contemporary artists. The gallery combines its commitment to emerging artistic practices with long-term collaborations with the more established artists it has supported since its earliest years.