Michael Werner Gallery Expands into Los Angeles and Athens

The eponymous gallery founded in 1969 by Michael Werner, who gave Georg Baselitz his first-ever solo show, is opening a branch in Athens and another nearly 7,000 miles away, in Los Angeles. The gallery, which currently operates outposts in Berlin, New York, and London, plans to inaugurate both locations this spring.

The Athens location will occupy an apartment building at Leoforos Vasileos Georgiou 10, a stone’s throw from the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Zappeion Garden. Led by onetime art advisor Maximos Stergiou, the gallery will mount two shows annually.

Significantly more details were available regarding the Los Angeles space, which will be led by Courtney Treut, who has occupied top-tier roles at Hauser & Wirth, Anton Kern, and Sean Kelly. Located at 415 North Camden Drive in Beverly Hills, just across the street from Gagosian, it will share a building with Mameg. The boutique is owned by Sonia Eram, to whom Michael Werner Gallery co-owner Gordon VeneKlasen was introduced by Hammer Museum director Annie Philbin. VeneKlasen, who for years maintained a part-time residence in LA, told Artnews he had “always had a fantasy” about opening a gallery in California, one that melded with the local scene instead of attempting to dominate it. “We’re not coming to do a satellite with programming straight from our other galleries,” he told the Art Newspaper. “I want to make a program that’s sensitive to the fact that the world is different here.” Designed by local architecture firm Johnston Marklee, the space will feature a garden and courtyard designed by landscape architect Eric Nagelmann and programmed by Los Angeles gallerist Hannah Hoffman, who is said to be planning a poetry series. An exhibition pairing German contemporary artist Markus Lüpertz and nineteenth-century French realist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes will inaugurate the outpost. Related PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN CÉZANNE MURAL DISCOVERED IN ARTIST’S CHILDHOOD HOME QATAR MUSEUMS ANNOUNCE LEADERSHIP CHANGES

LA in recent years has welcomed a steady stream of international galleries. Two more are opening this month: Cape Town’s Southern Guild, which launched today, and Perrotin, which has multiple locations around the globe and will debut its Los Angeles branch on February 28.