Berlin’s Galerie Kamm Will Close in September

In another shocking blow to the Berlin art scene, Joanna Kamm announced on Wednesday afternoon that she will close Galerie Kamm at the end of September. Kamm founded the gallery in 2001, and has represented artists such as Kate Davis, Karl Larsson, Amy Granat, Lorna Macintyre, Michele di Menna, Simon Dybbroe Møller, and Albrecht Schäfer. Larsson’s current exhibition runs until August 9th, followed thereafter by the gallery’s final show by Bernd Ribbeck until its closure on September 27.

She served on Art Basel’s selection committee for many years and was a co-founder of Art Berlin Contemporary, the German capital’s sole art fair since the closure of Artforum Berlin in 2011. Her program was critically lauded for its consistently experimental and dynamic approach, even by Berlin standards.

Last year, Kamm announced that she would suspend her participation in all art fairs internationally in order to place renewed focus back on the gallery program itself. She subsequently expressed a frustration with being torn between her passion—working with the artists themselves—and the financial pressures of running an international gallery today.

In a statement to gallery supporters on Wednesday, Kamm wrote:

“It was my aspiration from the very beginning to engage in an exciting dialogue about the essential questions of our time, both within the structure of a gallery and through intense exchange with the artists.This dialogue and process, which has pointed me in new directions again and again, will be continued in the future. The platforms for this will change, but surely I will meet many of you on this open path again.”

Galerie Kamm’s closure follows that of Martin Klosterfelde, almost a year ago to the day, and that of Giti Nourbakhsch in 2012. Moeller Fine Art also announced the closure of their Berlin space on Wednesday.