Top New York dealers, Lehmann Maupin Gallery will open their first exhibition space outside New York, on Thursday, 14 March 2013, in the historic Pedder Building in Hong Kong. One of the city’s most iconic buildings, located in the heart of Central, the neo-classical building was constructed in 1923 and is the last surviving pre-war building in the area. For nearly eighty years, the building has been a hub for cultural commerce, and today, it is home to some of Hong Kong’s most established art galleries. Lehmann Maupin has retained world-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas and his firm OMA to renovate the gallery space and offices.
The gallery announced today that it will launch its international exhibition program with a solo show of new work by Lee Bul. Considered to be the leading Korean artist of her generation, Lee Bul has achieved international recognition for her formally inventive, intellectually provocative work and her mastery of diverse media from drawing and performance to sculpture, painting, installation and video. This inaugural exhibition will focus on her drawing practice, featured alongside two new painted sculptures, marking the first time that the artist, academically trained in sculpture, has incorporated painting into her sculptural work.
Founding partners Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin said, “We have conducted business in Asia for well over a decade. The gallery is deeply committed to the region and to the vital relationships we have established with artists, curators, and collectors. For us, it was a natural decision to open a gallery in Hong Kong, one that will allow us to continue to strengthen and build upon these relationships and to offer more localized support to our artists. We have been working with Lee Bul since 2007, presenting her work internationally during that time, and we are extremely pleased to inaugurate our Hong Kong gallery space with her exceptional work.”
Since its establishment nearly two decades ago, Lehmann Maupin has identified and cultivated the careers of an international roster of visionary and historically significant contemporary artists, including Tracey Emin, Anya Gallaccio, Shirazeh Houshiary, Juergen Teller, Gilbert & George and Ashley Bickerton. The gallery has garnered a reputation for supporting artists working in new and challenging forms; artists’ whose work has had a lasting impact on contemporary art and culture. Working closely with curators and leading intellectuals in the field, Lehmann Maupin is committed to presenting its artists on an international level and to firmly establishing their contributions to art history in the 21st century and beyond.
Lehmann Maupin’s long-standing commitment to presenting the best contemporary artists working today extends to an outstanding group of Asian artists hailing from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China. In 2000, the gallery organized the first exhibition of Do Ho Suh’s work in the United States. Since that time, Lehmann Maupin has presented solo exhibitions of Rei Sato, and Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, alongside those of Lee Bul, and introduced New York audiences to the work of Mr. and Suling Wang. In June 2012, the gallery announced representation of the Chinese artist Liu Wei, who will have his first solo exhibition in the United States at Lehmann Maupin, New York, opening 28 February 2013.
Courtney Plummer, a ten-year veteran of the gallery and a partner since 2008, will direct the gallery’s operations in Hong Kong. After years of traveling extensively for the gallery, Plummer recognized the importance of establishing a permanent exhibition space in Asia: “Hong Kong has proven to be the perfect crossroads of culture and commerce, and we view our commitment to and immersion in the markets across Asia as a critical step in ensuring our artists’ long-term success.”
The renovation of the gallery space in the Pedder Building marks Lehmann Maupin’s third collaboration with Pritzker-prize winning architect Rem Koolhaas, recently appointed as the curator of the Venice Biennale 14th International Architecture Exhibition (2014). The design incorporates original architectural elements of the building and is conceived to reveal rather than conceal “the patina that distinguishes the historic building from its more glossy neighbours” (OMA). In 1996, OMA was charged with redesigning the gallery’s first location at 39 Greene Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. Six years later, when Lehmann Maupin moved to its current home at 540 West 26th Street in Chelsea, the firm oversaw the redesign of the 6,000plus square-foot space, and also their second New York exhibition space, opened in late 2007, at 201 Chrystie Street in the Lower East Side, Manhattan’s new cultural hub. OMA is responsible for a number of prestigious projec ts throughout Asia, including the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Taipei Performing Arts Center, Samsung Child Education & Culture Center, and Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul.
To coincide with the first edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong, Lehmann Maupin will present a second show in May 2013, organized by Louis Vuitton curator Hervé Mikaeloff, which will explore the diverse ways in which Eastern and Western artists utilize writing and language in their work – traces, imprint, signs and calligraphy. The exhibition will address how written language can be a central question in the relationships between different cultures and civilisations, and how artists across the world play with alphabets, characters, words and phrases. Featured artists will include Tracey Emin; Teresita Fernández; Shirazeh Houshiary and Robin Rhode.
Since its establishment more than fifteen years ago, Lehmann Maupin has organized and curated hundreds of exhibitions for some of the world’s most celebrated contemporary artists working in painting, sculpture, photography, video and new media. The Gallery has given some of today’s most respected artists their first one-person exhibitions in New York, including Tracey Emin, Anya Gallaccio, Shirazeh Houshiary, Klara Kristolova, Liu Wei, Do Ho Suh, Juergen Teller, and Adriana Varejão. In addition, the gallery has highlighted emerging talents, such as Mickalene Thomas, Hernan Bas, Angel Otero, and the Japanese artist Mr., by organizing important solo exhibitions around the world and presenting their work at prominent international art fairs. Lehmann Maupin’s program also includes Stefano Arienti, Ashley Bickerton, Ross Bleckner, Billy Childish, Mary Corse, Teresita Fernández, Gilbert & George, Lee Bul, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Tony Oursler, Robin Rhod e, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Rei Sato, Jennifer Steinkamp, Suling Wang, Nari Ward, Erwin Wurm, and Mario Ybarra, Jr.
Founded by partners Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin, Lehmann Maupin first opened in SoHo in October 1996, and in September 2002, moved to its present location in Chelsea. A second New York gallery space opened in late 2007 in Manhattan’s new cultural hub, the Lower East Side.
Photo: © ArtLyst 2012