Pace Gallery and Galerie Judin have announced they are due to open a new gallery in a restored 1950s petrol station in Berlin on 1 May. With space for the two galleries to take turns in mounting exhibitions, the premises will also include a café and bookshop headed by the publishing group Die Zeit.
The petrol station was left abandoned for two decades before Galerie Judin, whose main premises are based nearby in the former printing facility of the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel newspaper, took it on as a renovation project in 2005. From 2022 to November last year, it housed a museum devoted to the German artist George Grosz.
Pace has seven other galleries worldwide—in New York, Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Geneva, Tokyo and Seoul. It has operated an office in Berlin, led by Laura Attanasio, since 2023. The gallery plans to mount two exhibitions a year at the new location, which will also house the company’s offices.
“Berlin has long stood out as one of the world’s most vital centres for artistic innovation, attracting some of the most forward-thinking artists, curators, and collectors,” Attanasio says. “We have great confidence in the city and the broader German market as key drivers of creativity and cultural dialogue, which is why we established a permanent presence here in 2023.”
Unusually for Germany, the new gallery will be open on Sundays. It is located in Potsdamer Strasse, not far from the Neue Nationalgalerie and the Kulturforum, a district that over the past couple of decades has become an art-market hub, home to more than a dozen galleries, including Esther Schipper and Hua International.
“While Berlin’s creative community was the primary motivator” in Pace’s decision to expand in the German capital, Attanasio says, “the VAT reduction has undoubtedly played a positive role in reinforcing our decision.”
The German government reduced value-added tax for art sales to 7% from 19% with effect in January, meeting a long-standing demand from dealers who said they had suffered a disadvantage relative to competitors in other countries under the previous rate.
The inaugural show in the new space will be presented by both galleries, according to a press release. Details will be announced closer to the opening date.
