Galerie Bärbel Grässlin

Galerie Bärbel Grässlin was founded in Frankfurt/Main in 1985. Since 2007 the gallery has been located on Schäfergasse at the premises of a former glass wholesale firm, which Frankfurt architect Klaus Dreissigacker converted to a generous gallery space. Among other things, the gallery program focuses on German positions of the 1980s and 1990s with an international reputation, such as Werner Büttner, Günther Förg, Georg Herold, Hubert Kiecol, Martin Kippenberger, Meuser, Reinhard Mucha and Markus Oehlen.

These artists, whose work can primarily be classified as painting, sculpture and photography have been represented by the gallery since the start of their careers. Exhibitions with Dan Flavin and Imi Knoebel have expanded the gallery’s profile with conceptual/minimalist positions since the late 1980s. Austrian artists such as Herbert Brandl, Franz West and Heimo Zobernig also firmly belong to the gallery’s roster. The gallery’s connection to the local art scene, in particular the Städelschule, has meant that over the years, artists such as Michael Beutler, Stefan Müller, Tobias Rehberger and Thomas Werner were taken up by the gallery.

Since the early years of this millennium, artists such as Andreas Breunig, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Secundino Hernández, Jana Schröder and Andreas Slominski have been supplementing the gallery program with sculptural/conceptual positions. With her international program, Galerie Bärbel Grässlin has been pivotal in invigorating the Frankfurt art scene. The decision for the location was a gamble: In the mid-1980s the banking capital was a “white spot on the art map” a status that did not change until the end of the decade, when the head of cultural affairs at the time, Hilmar Hoffmann, nominated key art scene players to important posts in the cultural realm: In 1988, Kasper König was appointed head of the Städelschule, and in turn installed internationally renowned artists as professors at the school and founded the Portikus exhibition hall, while in 1989, Jean-Christophe Ammann came to the Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) as founding director.

Thanks to these farsighted decisions, Frankfurt developed into an attractive location for the fine arts, which today enjoys an international reputation. The restaffing of the museums with Philipp Demandt and Susanne Pfeffer, as well as of the Städelschule with Yasmil Raymond due to generational change has contributed to a continuation of this positive trend.

Galerie Bärbel Grässlin’s program is featured at the following art fairs: ARCO Madrid, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Cologne, Paris+

In 2016, FILIALE, a second gallery alongside the classic Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, was opened by Bärbel Grässlin and Klaus Webelholz with the intention to provide a forum for young artists coming directly from the academy. Since its inauguration with the exhibition “Ridotto al Massimo” by sculptor Martin Kähler, the small glass pavilion in the backyard of Stiftstraße 9 with its unusual architecture often provided plenty of scope for exploring unusual wall surfaces, angles and views.

After the period of interim use for this location was over in 2018, FILIALE moved into its new home at Stiftstraße 14, where the new space was inaugurated with an exhibition by Alicia Viebrock.

Since its opening, the FILIALE program has been continuously expanded to include painterly, sculptural and conceptual-installative artistic positions and exhibited works by Stephanie Deuter, Bradley Emerson, Julian Heuser, Max Huckle, Martin Kähler, Manuel M. Romero, Rachel von Morgenstern, Laura Schawelka, Robin Stretz, Carolin Trunk, Julian Turner, Sebastian Volz and Alicia Viebrock.

Artfair participations: Art Cologne, ARCO Madrid, Vienna Contemporary and ABC Berlin

www.galerie-graesslin.de

Member since 2024