New king of gallerists brings his act to Hong Kong
David Zwirner ranks No. 5 in ArtReview’s 2017 Power 100 list of gallerists, artists and conceptualists, the highest ranked gallerist on the list and 10 places ahead of Larry Gagosian
There is a very precise kind of casualness to David Zwirner, the German-born, New York-based art dealer named one of the art world’s most powerful people by ArtReview since 2003, most notably in the manner of his appearance. He is always dressed in an open-necked shirt and blazer, often paired with blue jeans, whether in the company of a Hollywood celebrity, the hottest new artist, a former US president, or all three at once.
To date, Zwirner and his team represent close to 60 artists – including cultural icons like Bauhaus pioneer Josef Albers, avant-garde Japanese multimedia artist Yayoi Kusama, and pop art sculptor Jeff Koons – working across different mediums, and have held around 400 exhibitions.
In 1993, Zwirner opened his first gallery in Manhattan’s SoHo, with a solo exhibition by Austrian sculptor Franz West.
At the time, Larry Gagosian was the titan of the art gallery world. From 2003 to 2013, Gagosian was always in the top five of Art Review’s list. But Zwirner’s father was a well-known gallerist in Cologne, Germany, and he grew up immersed at the intersection between business and art.
In 2002, Zwirner relocated to the thriving art neighbourhood of Chelsea, and a decade later, established his European presence with a space in London’s Mayfair district. This was followed by the opening of two more galleries in Manhattan – a five-storey exhibition space in Chelsea, which opened in 2013, and a gallery in the Upper East Side for historical focused exhibitions and special projects, opened in 2017.
