Voices: Fabian Lang, Zurich
Fabian Lang
Fabian Lang is the Owner and Director of his eponymous gallery, located in Zürich, Switzerland.
Installation View, The Self, The Work, The World, Fabian Lang Gallery, 2019, Courtesy of the gallery.
Tell us about one show you are excited to present in your gallery this spring.
Putting together the concept with the artist for our next and first solo show with Elena Alonso. Besides several large scale paintings on paper, we are working on transforming the central pillars in the space into a complex site-specific intervention. It will be Elena's debut solo show with a gallery outside Spain.
Who was the first artist you ever worked with? Tell us a bit about that story.
Jessie Makinson. I was with a friend, and as so often, almost too late. Jessie’s graduation show at the Royal Drawing School in 2014 (she had been awarded the Sir Dennis Mahon Award) was actually over. It was only thanks to the advocacy of another acquaintance that Jessie was prepared to show us her around her exhibition on a Sunday.
I still remember exactly what I saw and felt. I have rarely had such a feeling of being in the right place at the right time, and I have rarely been so excited by what I saw. There were dozens of daunting worlds of images full of stories and perspectives that opened up in front of me and to which I responded to enthusiastically, almost euphorically. There and then, and with gathering certainty in the days that followed, my conviction in the exceptional nature of her work hardened. I needed to be connected with it.
In addition to my work as an art dealer at a renowned London gallery, I ran a small art project space called 9B with said friend, and we were at that time looking for young, innovative, talented artists. It wasn’t long before we curated Jessie’s first solo exhibition Fancy there.
I am glad that we have stayed connected to each other, navigating our way through exciting times since 2014, and we then had our exhibition Nobody Axed You To in 2019 at the new gallery under my name together.
Installation View, The Self, The Work, The World, Fabian Lang Gallery, 2019, Courtesy of the gallery.
Jessie Makinson (right), Sara Anstis (left)
Tell us about why you decided to open a gallery.
After more than a decade acting as director of two renowned international galleries, and an innovative curatorially-driven project space in the heart of London, I wanted to return to my hometown of Zurich to open my own space as a base for showing my own program focusing on innovative artists of my own generation. The gallery launched during ‘Zurich Art Weekend 2019’ with an exciting group show including new or previously unseen works by Sara Anstis, Heidi Hahn, Mernet Larsen, Jessie Makinson, Wangechi Mutu, Mira Schor and Grace Weaver - many of whom we will be working with long term.
What is your personal or professional motto?
The gallery's ethos, as set out in our inaugural show, shall remain consistent: to both promote and represent great and innovative artists, and nurture the best talent from the new generation of artists around the world. It curates and organises four to six original shows throughout the year, both group and solo presentations.
What are you busy working on right now?
Many things at the same time. Most importantly I am working closely with the artists on the concepts for the next three solo shows - Elena Alonso in April, Idris Khan in June and Mira Schor late August.
Installation View, The Self, The Work, The World, Fabian Lang Gallery, 2019, Courtesy of the gallery.
What is your favorite thing about your gallery space?
That it consists of two very different exhibition spaces - the main ground floor space of over 100 square metres in size with architecturally dominant pillars in the center fragmenting the perceptual experience of shows in an interesting way, and a high-ceilinged project space like basement offering a further 30 square metres. We also has the rare luxury (particularly for a space in the old town) of a large terrace to the rear, offering great potential for sculptural projects.
Name a gallery that you admire and why.
Victoria Miro - for their strong ethos related to long term relationships with collectors, clients and artists.
Installation View, The Self, The Work, The World, Fabian Lang Gallery, 2019, Courtesy of the gallery.