Studiously Avoiding Hong Kong, the Berlin-Based König Galerie Is Opening a Tokyo Location

König Galerie, the venerable Berlin
gallery founded in 2002 by Johann König, is opening a new
location in Tokyo.

The dealer tells artnet News that he has been looking for an
opportunity to expand eastward for several years. After looking
into Seoul and Hong Kong, everything fell into place following
a chance encounter with representatives from
the luxury fashion label MCM Worldwide. 

The leather goods brand, which is opening a
Tokyo flagship this spring, offered König a space, which he
will open on November 9 with a solo exhibition of
recent works by German photographer Juergen Teller. In a nod
to the German roots he shares with the brand, König plans to
present a program dedicated to German, Austrian, and Swiss
artists.

“In Tokyo, we will be relatively unique in having branch there,”
König tells artnet News. “There is Blum & Poe and Perrotin, but
there are no other Western galleries, whereas Hong Kong is full.”
Indeed, König seems to be actively
skipping over Hong Kong, where protests continue to rock the city,
which is saturated with outposts from galleries such as David
Zwirner and Gagosian.

With a 300 square meter (3,200 square foot) space, König
will have one of the biggest commercial galleries in Tokyo. He
plans to lease the space through at least 2021.

While his partnership with a fashion brand may sound
surprising, König points out that the art and fashion
industries are much less distinct from one another in Asia.

“We see possibilities for a new interesting partnership,” he
says. “And all over Asia, the fashion and art industry are much
more mixed,” he says, citing Chanel, Hermes, and Louis
Vuitton, which have all held art exhibitions in Tokyo.

König admits that Japan is not exactly known for its wide
collector base, but he says he’s not concerned. There are at least
six “very strong” collectors, König says, naming Yusaku Maezawa,
who acquired the star Basquiat lot at Sotheby’s year for a cool
$110.5 million. (It was the highest price ever paid for a work by
the artist at auction.) Beyond that, König feels quite sure that
Chinese collectors will pop over to visit.

The Teller show will include recent photos of subjects such
as Kim Kardashian (posing pant-less in the desert)
and Kristin Scott Thomas donning a paint-splotched EU sweater
(König produced the sweaters in collaboration with the Berlin
fashion label Souvenir).

Next year, he will organize solo shows by Polish-born,
Berlin-based sculptor Alicja Kwade, Swiss artist Claudia
Comte, and painters Norbert Bisky and Katharina Grosse.

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König Galerie Is Opening a Tokyo Location appeared first on
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