Johann König (born 22 July 1981) is a German art dealer, and the founder of König Galerie.

Early life and education

König was born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

in 1981 to , an illustrator and actress, and to

Kasper König Rudolf Hans "Kasper" König (; 21 November 1943 – 9 August 2024) was a German museum director and curator. He curated exhibitions of works by Claes Oldenburg and Andy Warhol in the 1960s, initiated the ''Skulptur Projekte Münster'' in the 1970 ...

, an art professor, curator, and former director of

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lic ...

. In his youth König was already very influenced by the artists his father worked with – among others:

Dan Graham Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator in the writer-artist tradition. In addition to his visual works, he published a large array of critical and speculative writing that spanned ...

On Kawara was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in SoHo, New York City, from 1965 until his death. He took part in many solo and group Art exhibition, exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976. Early life Kawara was born in Kariya, Japan on ...

M.C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; ; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints, many of which were Mathematics and art, inspired by mathematics. Despite wide popular int ...

Richard Artschwager Richard Ernst Artschwager (December 26, 1923 – February 9, 2013) was an American painter, illustrator and sculptor. His work has associations with Pop Art, Conceptual art and Minimalism. Early life and art Artschwager was born in Washington, D. ...

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( ; ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and Aesthetics, art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism and sociology. With Heinrich Böll, , Caroline Tisdall, Rober ...

, and

Jörg Immendorff Jörg Immendorff (14 June 1945 – 28 May 2007) was a German painter, sculptor, stage designer and art professor. He was a member of the art movement ''Neue Wilde''. Early life and education Immendorff was born in Bleckede, Lower Saxony, nea ...

. After a childhood accident at the age of eleven, Johann became partially blind.

König Galerie

The gallery's focus is on museum exhibitions. König was repeatedly listed in

ArtReview ''ArtReview'' is an international contemporary art magazine based in London, founded in 1948. Its sister publication, ''ArtReview Asia'', was established in 2013. History Launched as a fortnightly broadsheet in February 1949 by a retired country ...

's "Power 100" list. In 2011, he won FIAC's ''Prix Lafayette'' together with

Helen Marten Helen Elizabeth Marten (born 1985 in Macclesfield) is an English artist based in London who works in sculpture, video, and installation art. Marten studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford (2005–2008) a ...

for the solo exhibition "Take a stick and make it sharp", on the grounds that it was considered to be "the best exhibition project presented by an emerging gallery". The gallery participates in international art fairs such as

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...

Frieze Art Fair Frieze Art Fair is an annual contemporary art, contemporary art festival, art fair first held in 2003 in London's Regent's Park. Developed by the founders of the contemporary art magazine ''Frieze (magazine), Frieze'', the fair has since expan ...

, and

Art Cologne Art Cologne is an art exhibition, art fair held annually in Cologne, Germany and was established in 1967 as ''Kölner Kunstmarkt''. It is regarded as the world's oldest art fair of its kind. The fair runs for six days and brings together galleries ...

. König describes the concept of his gallery as follows: "My strategy was always to have the best artists in their respective disciplines .. Some galleries try to focus on a school. They have a group of certain movements, say, Leipzig painters. I always try to have the most relevant representative from each field, so to speak." Elsewhere he said: "I really try to avoid having a school."

Locations

König Galerie was initially located at

Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, formerly the Bülowplatz, is a square in Berlin-Mitte, Germany. History The square is dominated by the Volksbühne (the "People's Theatre", built 1913-14) and by the Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, the headquarters of the Germa ...

, then moved to Dessauer Straße near

Martin-Gropius-Bau Martin-Gropius-Bau, commonly known as Gropius Bau, is an important exhibition space in Berlin, Germany. Originally a museum of applied arts, the building has been a listed historical monument since 1966. It is located at 7 Niederkirchnerstraße ...

and

Neue Nationalgalerie The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its sculpt ...

in 2006. In May 2015, König Galerie took up a second location at St Agnes in

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...

, a former

Catholic church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

complex that was built in the 1960s by the German architect and city planner Werner Düttmann and considered to be a prime example of

Brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

. It provides an exhibition space of . In 2012, König signed a long-term lease for the complex, and it was converted by the German architect Arno Brandlhuber into an exhibition space for his gallery. The project won the Berlin Architectural Prize 2016. Today, the building also accommodates other tenants, including New York University Berlin’s art studio. In 2016, König Galerie reopened its original Dessauer Straße location for Gallery Weekend Berlin. Since the gallery moved into St Agnes, the space at Dessauer Straße is also the studio of

Jeppe Hein Jeppe Hein (born 1 August 1974, Copenhagen, Denmark) is an artist based in Berlin and Copenhagen.

. In 2017, König Galerie opened a second location in a former underground carpark in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In partnership with

MCM Worldwide MCM Worldwide is a luxury fashion brand originally founded in 1976 by fashion designer Michael Cromer. The brand’s signature logo-printed material, called Cognac Visetos, appears on many of its products. Its brass plate insignia is found on al ...

, the gallery later maintained space at MCM branches in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

(2019–2020) and

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

(since 2021). In 2023, König Galerie opened a second space in Berlin, in a complex that once housed the postal service’s telegraph office.

Programming

Since 2017, König Galerie has been publishing the KÖNIG Magazine, covering mostly artists from the gallery and also launched design and merchandise articles under the name KÖNIG Souvenir. In 2019, König published his autobiography ''Blinder Galerist'', which was co-written with Daniel Schreiber. In March 2020, right at the beginning of the newly enforced lockdown measures amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully contained ...

, König began a Live Talk series on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, ''10am Series'', featuring daily conversation with artists, collectors, and curators. In June 2020, following the cancelation of Art Basel, König decided to hold his own art fair in his Berlin gallery. The fair offered more than 200 artworks from the first and secondary market and attracted about 4,000 visitors. Responding to the success of the first one, further editions were held.

Artists

König Galerie represents among others the following artists: Koo Jeong A, Kathryn Andrews, Micol Assaël, Evelyn Axell, Norbert Bisky,

Claudia Comte Claudia Comte (born 1983 in Morges, Switzerland) is a Swiss artist. Comte works in a variety of media including sculpture, engraving, Installation art, installation murals and painting. Education Comte earned a B.A. in visual arts from École ...

, Jose Dávila,

Tue Greenfort Tue Greenfort (born 1973) is a Danish artist best known for his environmentalist works. He studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste–Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and at Funen Art Academy in Denmark. Selected solo exhibitions 2009 F ...

, Kristina Foster (10 June 2022)
Gallerist Johann König: ‘The art market is progressive in its content, but conservative in its performance’
''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

''.

Jeppe Hein Jeppe Hein (born 1 August 1974, Copenhagen, Denmark) is an artist based in Berlin and Copenhagen.

, Karl Horst Hödicke, Robert Janitz,

Annette Kelm Annette Kelm (born 1975 in Stuttgart, Germany) is a German contemporary artist and photographer who is particularly known as a conceptual artist. Kelm uses medium or large format cameras in her work, creating still life and portraits. She favours ...

, Manfred Kuttner,

Alicja Kwade Alicja Kwade (born 1979) is a Polish-German contemporary visual artist. Her sculptures and installations focus on the subjectivity of time and space. Kwade lives and works in Berlin. Early life and education Kwade was born in the industrial cit ...

, Justin Matherly, Anselm Reyle, Michael Sailstorfer, Andreas Schmitten, John Seal,

Chiharu Shiota (born 1972) is a Japanese performance and installation artist and belongs to a generation of young artists who have gained international attention in recent years for body-related art. Shiota has lived and worked in Berlin, Germany since 1996. ...

Monira Al Qadiri Monira Al Qadiri (born in Dakar, Senegal, 1983) is a Senegalese-born Kuwaiti visual artist, who is currently based in Berlin. Her work employs various media, including video, sculptures, installation art and performances. She's had several solo e ...

, Bosco Sodi,

Matthias Weischer Matthias Weischer (born 1973) is a German painter living in Leipzig. He is considered to be part of the New Leipzig School. Life Born in Elte, North Rhine-Westphalia, Weischer studied painting from 1995 to 2001 and received his MA in 2003 fro ...

, Johannes Wohnseifer, David Zink Yi, and

Erwin Wurm Erwin Wurm (born 1954) is an Austrian artist. He lives and works in Vienna and Limberg in Austria; Hydra, Greece; and in New York City. Early life Erwin Wurm was born in Bruck an der Mur, Austria, in 1954. His father was a detective, who did n ...

Other activities

König was a member of the jury for the 2020 Berlin Architectural Prize. He is also part of the jury of the Berlin Masters Foundation, which annually awards the TOY BERLIN MASTERS AWARD, and of PArt, an initiative of the Spiegelberger Foundation in support of artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. König's memoir, ''The Blind Gallerist'', was first published in 2019 and later translated into English in 2022.

Lawsuits

Since 2019 he has faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. König's attorney obtained an injunction (Az. 324 O 397/22) from the Hamburg Regional Court because of false factual allegations and inadmissible reporting of suspicions. With the judgment of the court, essential parts of the reporting are prohibited.

References

External links

KÖNIG GALERIE

"Take a stick and make it sharp"
exhibition by Helen Marten, Johann König, Berlin, 2011 (''Prix Lafayette'' 2011). {{DEFAULTSORT:König, Johann 1981 births German art dealers Living people