Five years after opening a space in Berlin, the gallery Blain Southern marks the occasion with an exhibition of all the artists they’ve shown in the German capital. The group show (16 February-16 April) includes a neon work by the British duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster, who inaugurated the gallery in Der Tagesspiegel’s former printing press in April 2011.
“We love being here,” says Lisa Bosse, the managing director in Berlin. The gallery has “embraced the scene” and worked with several local artists like Nasan Tur and Jonas Burgert. They just signed the Berlin-based Chiharu Shiota, known for her large and eye-catching installation with red yarn and hanging keys at the 2015 Venice Biennale’s Japan Pavilion.
“The exhibition takes a look at our roster of artists and the shows we’ve done in the last five years,” Bosse says. New works include several small-scale bronze sculptures by Lynn Chadwick and a large painting by Jonas Burgert, as well as a site-specific wall text installation by Lawrence Weiner.
Perhaps one of biggest appeals for artists is Blain Southern’s long main gallery, with its 17-meter-high ceiling. “It’s a very exciting space for artists to work with large-scale works, to create and translate different ideas,” Bosse says. In 2013, the artist Francisco Clemente showed a series of hand-painted tents “which he wanted to show for years, but never had an appropriate space”. The group show includes some of Clemente’s smaller, more intimate watercolours.
The dealers Harry Blain and Graham Southern founded the gallery in London in 2010, shortly after leaving Haunch of Venison, another gallery they had opened together but which they controversially sold to Christies in 2007.