Gordon VeneKlasen Launches Namesake Gallery’s First Show Following Michael Werner Split
Gordon VeneKlasen will this week open the first show at his eponymous London space following his departure from Michael Werner Gallery in December last year.
VeneKlasen worked for Michael Werner Gallery alongside its namesake founder for three decades. Ocula understands that artists Florian Krewer, Issy Wood and Sanya Kantarovsky, amongst others, will follow him from the gallery and join the VeneKlasen roster.
Ahead of the first exhibition at his new gallery, VeneKlasen told Ocula: “I am well aware that Michael Werner Gallery, where I have worked for the last 35 years, is all about history. In starting a new gallery, I wanted to begin with a history of my own.”
The show will present works by German artist Sigmar Polke, and will open on Friday in what was previously Michael Werner’s Mayfair space.
VeneKlasen began working with Sigmar Polke in 1990 and, over the years, they developed a close relationship. “I spent a few days a month, for almost two decades, in Polke’s studio in Cologne,” he said.
“I still feel he is one of the most crucial voices in painting of the post-war period, and that his legacy will endure. There is not a young artist I know or work with who does not revere him.”
VeneKlasen arrived to work for Michael Werner in 1990 at the gallery’s New York location. Fifteen years later, he was named partner, founding the gallery’s expansion into London and Los Angeles.
When the pair announced the end of their partnership last year, it was reported that alongside locations in London and New York, VeneKlasen would take over Michael Werner’s former Los Angeles space. However, this gallery has since closed.
Michael Werner now continues to run a Berlin space under his own name, while VeneKlasen made its art fair debut at Art Basel Qatar last month.
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