Despite a spate of gallery closures and cuts in recent weeks, Grimm is forging ahead with an expanded Amsterdam space and the launch of a new artist residency in the south of France.
The gallery opened in Amsterdam two decades ago and has grown slowly and deliberately since, opening spaces only where its artists live, and resisting the urge to chase collectors or scale too fast. That approach looks shrewder than ever as the market tightens around it, with Tiwani Contemporary and Templon among the galleries to have shuttered in recent weeks and Pace cutting artists and staff.
Now, as its Amsterdam lease came up for renewal, the gallery is moving to a larger ground-floor canal house in the city center—a “rare” find, said founder Jorg Grimm, and a chance to shake off a decade in the same space. It will open in September with a show by Dutch painter Robert Zandvliet.
Grimm also recently expanded his London gallery to a Victorian storefront in the city’s tony St. James neighborhood, following a three year experiment with a smaller Mayfair venue tucked on a small road behind Phillips auction house.
The gallerist—who now represents 37 artists, including Michael Raedecker, Saskia Noor van Imhoff, and Claudia Martinez Garay—also opened a white cube space in New York, first on the Bowery in 2017 before moving to Tribeca in 2020.
Installation view of Saskia Noor van Imhoff’s “Mineral Lick” at Grimm’s former, temporary London space. Courtesy of Rob Harris and GRIMM.
Grimm said his strategy has always been to grow intentionally, opening galleries central to where his artists live, rather than chasing collectors around the globe. “I prefer collaborating with other galleries in that sense,” Grimm said. “Collectors will come to you regardless of your location, although sometimes it might take a bit longer.”
He added that “staying close to your program” while slowly expanding the gallery’s roster in an organic way “is key to relevance and staying sustainable.”
The expansion in Amsterdam comes as many galleries redouble efforts in more regional markets. Grimm said it “might seem like a local city to some,” but points to its strong postgraduate academies such as De Ateliers and Rijksakademie, and a strong museum and private collector base that can support a gallery system.
Meanwhile, the residency takes his commitment to artists a step further. Grimm said his idea for the initiative predated the gallery’s opportunity to buy the 18th-century Château Val Croissant, in Provence, where it will be housed. Inspired by Beatrice Monti della Corte’s renowned Santa Maddalena Foundation residency, where writers come and go casually, Grimm’s project will offer artists, writers, curators” a home away from home,” which they can return to over the years. Families are welcome to accompany residents—a rarity among such programs that increases the accessibility for creatives with young children.
At first, Grimm’s residency will only accept referrals from artists and curators the gallery works with. “However, if we’re keen to work with a new artist, the residency is a great way to introduce the gallery’s overall approach,” Grimm said.