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 allery Michael Janssen was established in 1995 in Cologne, Germany. Since then Janssen has expanded with The Happy Lion gallery in Los Angeles, California and his most recent venture Gallery Michael Janssen in Berlin, Germany.
Janssen represents over 20 contemporary international artists with global reputations, amongst those being Peter Zimmerman, Thaddeus Strode and the Tobias brothers, as well as exceptional newcomers of the avant-garde scene.
Janssen has quickly become a leader shaping the course contemporary art is taking. He regularly exhibits at international art fairs such as Art Basel-Miami, Art Basel, ARCO in Madrid, MACO in Mexico City and the Armory show in New York. Janssen has led his artists to solo exhibitions in museums such as the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California and the MoMA - Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Art Interview: Where did you grow up?
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Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
Installation view of inaugural exhibition Blood Meridian
April 2007
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Michael Janssen: I grew up in Germany in a tiny village near the Dutch border. I was born in 1962 in the Netherlands, because the closest hospital to where my parents lived was in the Netherlands. Later we moved to a bigger village between Düsseldorf and Aachen. I went to school all around the Rhineland area.
Art Interview: What inspired you to become an art dealer?
Michael Janssen: It was not something I did on purpose. I was studying art history and at the time there wasn’t a lot of information on contemporary art.
We had one teacher that was teaching early 1960’s art and there were 2 other teachers in Germany that were concentrating on the 1970’s art movement. If you wanted more information on the contemporary scene you either had to work in a museum that focused on it or you had to get a job in a gallery.
Art Interview: Did you take studio art courses during your studies?
Michael Janssen: Yes, but I didn’t concentrate on them. I had a strong interest in art but I realized that that I was not a producer.
Art Interview: I understand that you worked for museums before starting your gallery. How long did you do this?
Michael Janssen: I worked for about 2 years at the Municipal Abteiberg Museum of Contemporary Art in Mönchengladbach, Germany. That job began as a 3-month internship and led to a freelance position touring the museum collections. Then I worked a friend who was a curator at the Shedhalle in Zürich, Switzerland. They were reopening the space and he asked me to help him with the renovation and afterward I stayed for about 6 months installing shows.
I think that was a very typical beginning for a lot of people I went to school with. No one had very much money. After our education we took jobs doing packing and renovation at galleries.
Art Interview: How did you begin working for yourself?
Michael Janssen: After I worked at the museums I spent 5 years working for a gallery in Cologne. I had to learn the business from scratch. But at a certain point I had to decide either to stay with the gallery I was working for or to start something new for myself. I decided to start my own gallery and I stopped working for other people in 1994.
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Johannes Lotz
Alles wird Musak
2007
Installation view at
Michael Janssen Galerie - Cologne
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Art Interview: That was when you established your own gallery in Cologne?
Michael Janssen: I established my own gallery in Cologne in 1995. I hadn’t expected to find an ideal space so quickly after I left my original position. But I was forced into acting quickly when I found a very unique space in Cologne. It has a great 60’s style, high ceilings, and is really an ideal space for a gallery.
Art Interview: How big is the space.
Michael Janssen: There are 200 square meters in all. The central show room is 100 square meters and in addition it has an additional 100 meters comprised of a solo exhibition space, lobby and office.
Art Interview: You are still in the same space in Cologne?
Michael Janssen: Yes, I still have the same space. There was a period of time when I was looking to change, I felt it would be good to have a new space, but I could never find one I felt worked as well as the one I already had. And the rents in Cologne are so high that in the end I stayed where I was.
Art Interview: Did you provide on your own the initial financial investment that was needed or did you have to take out a loan from a bank?
Michael Janssen: I just had savings from my first job. I began the gallery with 15,000 Deutsch Marks (7,000 US dollars, at the time).
Art Interview: Are you the sole proprietor of your business or do you have partners?
Michael Janssen: No, I run the company myself.
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Thaddeus Strode
Humans, primates and saints ( The ladders)
2006
Mixed Media on Canvas
216 x 205.5 cm
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Art Interview: How long did it take you to establish a line-up of artists?
Michael Janssen: I traveled to a lot of shows in London and Amsterdam to see artists. The first show at my gallery was with an artist named Thaddeus Strode from Los Angeles, California. I knew his work well and he agreed to be the opening artist. It was very much a step-by-step process, I began the program 3 months before the exhibition started and I had to take it as it came because I didn’t have an artist stable at that time. After the first show with Thaddeus I began to line up shows one by one.
I believe that it was about a year before I had a group of artists that I was working with. In the beginning it’s very difficult because nobody knows you or the artists so you start off educating all the people that you know. The art fairs weren’t a possibility because you had to have been a working gallery for at least 3 years to be accepted into them and there weren’t any of these young art fairs until 1996.
Art Interview: Did you know collectors in the beginning that you had gotten to know from other galleries?
Michael Janssen: I knew some collectors, but I wouldn’t say they automatically would have bought anything from me. I had the names and I knew the people but it took me a while to give people the confidence to buy the art that I was selling.
Art Interview: What was it specifically that changed their minds?
Michael Janssen: I wouldn’t know what it was exactly. After a while my gallery just built a history and reputation. In the early stages you don’t have a line-up of artists and you have no way of knowing how things will develop in the future. You have an idea of the artists you like and what you want to show and over time the gallery builds a reputation. After a couple of years a collector can see the development of a gallery and then I think they begin to trust what you are doing.
Art Interview: At some point you also opened an additional gallery in Los Angeles?
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Allison Cortson
Dust Painting
2006
Installation view at The Happy Lion Gallery, Los Angeles |
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Michael Janssen: Yes, that’s correct. It was actually around the time I was looking for a new space in Cologne. Since I had begun the gallery in 1995, I had been traveling to Los Angeles a couple of times a year. I received a call from a friend of mine telling me that a man in China Town was looking for a partner for his existing gallery. He was a doctor and didn’t have enough time to look after it in a professional manner. I think he was only in the gallery on Saturdays. He was thinking about giving up the space but he still wanted to retain some level of involvement, so I jumped straight in. It’s a tradition in China Town to keep the original shop sign and name. So, we opened the Los Angeles gallery under the name The Happy Lion in 2002.
Art Interview: Was he showing internationally?
Michael Janssen: I believe he had been showing some artists from Sydney, Australia, which is where he was from and he was showing local artists from Los Angeles.
Art Interview: Did you bring European artists and additional American artists to the gallery?
Michael Janssen: Yes, we wanted The Happy Lion to be a platform for international artists. We wanted to show young artists from Los Angeles with other artists who had already established an international reputation.
Art Interview: Were you also exhibiting at the art fairs at that point?
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Lexi Brown
Director of the Happy Lion,
Los Angeles |
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Michael Janssen: Yes, I was taking part in the fairs at that point. I didn’t take The Happy Lion to the art fairs in the beginning because I wanted it to establish its own identity and profile. I wanted The Happy Lion to be independent from my other gallery.
Art Interview: Do you still have a partner for that gallery?
´Michael Janssen: Yes, I still have a partner. Her name is Lexi Brown and she is running The Happy Lion Gallery in Los Angeles, California.
Art Interview: Is she solely responsible for choosing the artists that show at that gallery?
Michael Janssen: No, we choose the artists together. We discuss the program and sometimes she picks the artists and sometimes I do but it is always a group decision.
Art Interview: Are there noticeable differences between the U.S. and European art markets?
Michael Janssen: From my experience I have found American collectors to be much quicker at buying and they tend to buy what they like. If an American collector goes to an art fair and sees something that they like, then they tend to buy regardless of whether they have a biography or any knowledge of the artist. I find European buyers to be much slower. European collectors seem to want more background history about the artist’s previous shows and collections in order to get an idea of the future of an artist when they are interested in them. However, I should note that the Internet has helped to increase the speed at which everyone deals.
Art Interview: Is it a harder to sell to Europeans?
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Till Gerhard
Heimweg to Hell
2007
Oil on Canvas
120 x 100 cm
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Michael Janssen: Yes, it is harder. As I said, Americans tend buy what they like regardless of an artist’s history. But selling to Europeans was even harder in the past. People are so much more informed than they used to be. The Internet provides an amazing research tool that has allowed both European and American collectors to make decisions faster. In addition, there is more support for young artists and galleries now than ever before.
Art Interview: Do you sell to a specific target market?
Michael Janssen: No, I developed my market through the art fairs. In 1999, four years after I opened the Cologne gallery, I went to the art fair in Basel. I felt it was the right time and made up a nice package with all the information on my artists. When I received the acceptance letter, I was very pleased. I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to pay for attending but I was very happy, nonetheless.
Art Interview: The art fairs are fairly expensive. In order to attend them I assume you needed to have a decent turnover?
Michael Janssen: Yes, this is true. The first time I was accepted at an art fair it was quite scary. But you become more relaxed with time about attending fairs, because you know your own situation and can foresee your future. In 1997 I took part in several art fairs: Art Cologne, in Cologne, Germany and Artissima in Torino, Italy. In order to find out which art fairs are cost-effective you simply have to attend them. Some fairs bring in a lot of money and some do equally as bad. When this happens you have to recoup the money from other sales and that’s the risk you take. The first time I attended Art Basel I decided to just cover my costs and concentrate on making good contacts. That ended up working out quite well for me in the end.
Art Interview: How do you choose which art fairs you attend?
This oral history transcript is the result of a digitally recorded interview with Michael Janssen on May 14, 2007. The interview took place over the telephone between New York, New York, USA, and Cologne, Germany and was conducted by Brendan Davis for Art Interview Online Magazine.
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