Alicja Kwade, one of Europe’s most prominent sculptors and installation-based artists under the age of 50, is now represented by Pace Gallery. The global gallery brand, which operates eight permanent locations across three continents, will include a Kwade sculpture in its presentation at Paris + by Art Basel, which opens today. Pace will also stage a solo show of the artist's work at its Los Angeles gallery in 2024.
Kwade, who was born and raised in Poland and is now based in Berlin, is best known for exploring celestial and temporal themes using large-scale sculptures made from marble, steel, copper and double-sided mirrors, often placed in dialogue with natural surroundings. She has shown at the 2021 Helsinki Biennial and the 2015 Venice Biennale, among other prestigious international exhibitions.
Pace will share representation of Kwade with her three existing galleries: Mennour, in Paris; 303, in New York; and i8, in Reykjavik.
The signing also coincides with the news that Kwade is no longer represented by König Galerie, with whom she had shown since 2009.
"I have concluded my successful 15-year collaboration with König Galerie," Kwade says in a statement to The Art Newspaper. "I'm grateful to König Galerie for the work we've done together over this period, and I am looking forward to a new phase in my career. After many years of getting to know Marc [Glimcher, Pace's chief executive] and watching how Pace supports its program, I felt it was a natural and fitting decision to join a gallery with a history of realising ambitious projects."
More than 10 artists have left König’s roster in the past 18 months—including Elmgreen & Dragset (also represented by Pace), Camille Henrot and Monica Bonvicini—following reports, first published in the German newspaper Die Zeit in August 2022, that ten women had accused its founder, Johann König, of sexual misconduct. König has denied the allegations, contending that Die Zeit’s reporting is “false and misleading”, criticising the article’s authors and claiming that “[t]he incidents definitely did not take place in the form described”.
Die Zeit's article has only been allowed to remain online after significant redactions due to rulings in German court over contested aspects of the reporting. König has also sued Carolina Würfel, one of the journalists responsible for the newspaper's exposé, for defamation.
In the past fortnight, a number of artists who have left König’s roster—and who were previously removed from the gallery’s website—have reappeared on its landing page under the heading "artists exhibited since 2002". A spokesperson for König did not respond to The Art Newspaper’s request for comment.
Installation view of Alicja Kwade's rooftop commission at the Met
Courtesy of Pace
Glimcher says that conversations with Kwade about signing with his gallery happened "a long time before things started changing at König". He first saw her work at a 303 gallery show in New York in 2019 and met her later the same year, when she took on the rooftop commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Parapivot, the resulting installation at the museum, consisted of marble spheres resembling planets affixed to interlocking geometric metal frames.
Kwade is a "perfect fit" for the gallery’s history of outdoor and abstract sculpture and assemblage, exemplified by Pace artists like Louise Nevelson and Alexander Calder, Glimcher says, adding that "few artists working today know how to make sculpture in nature like Alicja does".
The signing comes a few months after the launch of Pace's Berlin office, led by the former König senior director Laura Attanasio. “Laura has worked with Alicja more than anyone else in this world,” Glimcher says.
Asked whether Kwade’s move, as well as Attanasio's hire, confirms rumours that Pace’s increased presence in Berlin is an attempt to hoover up part of König’s business, Glimcher says: "We’re not trying to plug a hole. There are more galleries in Berlin than almost anywhere else in the world. The local community is so strong already."
Rather, he says, Pace has established its Berlin office because so many of its artists live in the city, making a physical presence there "essential to stay on top of everything happening in the studios". Apart from Kwade, Pace's group of Berlin-based artists includes Adrian Ghenie, Nina Katchadourian, Elmgreen & Dragset and Trevor Paglen.
Still, Glimcher does not rule out the possibility of Pace opening a Berlin gallery soon: "You know me, I want to open a gallery everywhere!"