A Seminal Gallery Writes Its Next Chapters

A gallery soon turning 35 years is a reason to react and look back. Andréhn-Schiptjenko soon turning 35 is a reason to recognize the importance the gallery has had on our journey in art. We first interviewed Ciléne Andréhn and Marina Schiptjenko on the occasion of their 25th anniveresary in 2016. This follow-up conversation has been in the works for a while, but what better time than now, with the gallery operating in multiple cities and also across multiple venues in Stockholm.

Marina Schiptjenko & Ciléne Andrehn. Photographed by Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff

C-P: I love the acronym of your new next-doors project space in Stockholm, in this, your 34th year! ASAP (for Andréhn-Schiptjenko Archives & Projects) is so very fun and tongue-in-cheek. Time flies! I remember our interview in the year of your 25th anniversary. I’m a fan, and the idea of a project space allowing the audience to connect with the gallery’s history and long trajectory and contributions to art makes so much sense given how much material really must exist to anchor the concept of freely revisiting the past in various forms. I can imagine how much thought might have gone into what project to start with. Tell me about the project MANIFESTO and what made it resonate as a fitting throwback to set sail?

A-S: We must give Aris Fioretos, Marina’s husband, credit for the acronym. It did hit the right spot though; We have personally always been “everything now” people. And it is certainly indicative of the spirit of the gallery and how it started, and how it’s still going – out of a sense of impatience. Impatience for things to happen, to be shown, to be seen, to be experienced. So many things and such little time. For us the gallery was – and still is – a platform for shared experiences and for community. It is important to claim this, at a time when many galleries are primarily business ventures and when experiences tend to be more solitary and parallel than shared and discussed.

MANIFESTO is characteristic of the fact that the art world was an international community long before the globalization associated with digitalization, and this international outlook has certainly been characteristic of Andréhn-Schiptjenko from the get-go. It seemed like a fitting project to start with because it is simultaneously obsolete and relevant. What feels wonderfully obsolete is the way it was exhibited – as anonymous posters in undisclosed locations around the city. If you wanted to see them you had to actually schlep your ass around the city. There was no guide to locations and of course no digital or visual assistance whatsoever in where they were and what they might look like. The imagery and attitude, the co-mingling of art, advertising, fashion and commercial imagery and how the artists used all that kind of vernacular for their own work was perceived as confusing but also radical at the time. That is something that merits renewed consideration at a time when artists collaborating with commercial enterprises has become not only accepted without question but almost ubiquitous.

Andréhn-Schiptjenko’s new space ASAP, adjacent to and next door from its Stockholm venue on Linnégatan 31

C-P: Asking for a friend; what can you tease about what to possibly expect to see at ASAP in time to come following this inaugural project?

A-S: Well, the idea with ASAP is to, in contradiction to the galleries where we often have 12–18 months of lead time, not really have that much planning ahead but for it to be more organic and to be able to react quickly to things that come up or ideas that we or our artists have. We know there are a certain number of key historical works that we’d like to show, that can be read in a new way some decades later. It’s also a place where we can do artists’ talks, book signings and suchlike. And we’ll probably invite others to have a look at our archive and pull what they think is interesting. It’s also in the cards that we may use the space to add context to an exhibition in the gallery.

Installation view, M O V I N G, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Paris, 2022. © Alexandra de Cossette. Courtesy of the Artist and Andréhn-Schiptjenko

C-P: Speaking of galleries in plural; it's already been quite a few years now since the gallery hit another major milestone, which was the inauguration of another gallery venue in Paris. I love how the gallery continuously expands its trajectory and so evidently has been able to reinvigorate itself and grow, feeling as hot and current as ever. This frankly cannot be said about all generational gallery peers in the local art scene. Looking at Paris and the gallery there; how do operations and realities for a gallery in general differ there as opposed to here in Stockholm in ways that might not be entirely obvious for a bystander?

A-S: Thank you for your kind words! Indeed at a certain point one needs to make more of an active effort to stay relevant and keep one's ear to the ground, all while staying the course. As for the differences between Stockholm and Paris, it is always difficult to comment on this as someone invariably gets offended somehow. The obvious is of course that Paris is a global capital with top-notch galleries so the competition is on another level entirely. But a difference that not only affects the gallery operations but that infuses French society as a whole is the enormous importance and value that is given to culture in all its forms and shapes. This is fantastic! And as we both know, the opposite can be said of Sweden… On the negative side, a bureaucracy that is spectacularly Kafkaesque. Every website and every procedure seems designed as if by a middle-school collaborative project.

Andréhn-Schiptjenko's Paris venue on 56, rue Chapon in Le Marais

C-P: What is the synergy and relationship between the two galleries; considerations of how the two exhibition programmes overlap and work together, while in parallel?

A-S: Well, Marina and I spend a lot of time on the phone hehe. We obviously work with the same roster of artists but indeed we do plan our exhibitions somewhat differently. We have longer exhibition periods in Paris – there is so much on offer that otherwise people will not have the time to come see them. For many of our artists the audience is international and for a US collector for instance it doesn’t really matter if the show is in Stockholm or Paris. And while we are certainly proud to be a Stockholm gallery we take care to not be identified as a gallery specializing in Swedish art.

The gallerists at this year's edition of CHART art fair in Copenhagen, showing Theresa Traore Dahlberg and Kristina Jansson

C-P: The gallery branching out in Paris is in part less surprising, considering the extent to which the gallery has been operating on an international level beyond the mere provincial since early days. Notably the gallery’s history includes consistently participating at a premier art fair like Art Basel. Often when galleries candidly elaborate on fair realities there is a power-press on fairs of this magnitude to be a do-or-die moment where what's at stake can be elevation or something more grisly. What's the gallery's approach with fairs in 2025?

A-S: Glad you asked. We are since a while back re-thinking our fair strategy. Indeed, we did the first two iterations of Liste Basel when that started (1996 and 1997) and since then through 2023 we have done Art Basel in Basel every year it has been taking place. We also did Art Basel Miami Beach for well over a decade and Art Basel Hong Kong for many years. Basel in Basel was the important event on our calendar for a quarter of a century and a crucial part of our gallery’s development. Coming from the periphery it was amazing to be surrounded by peers, and interested and knowledgeable curators and collectors for a week. But like everything else, things have changed and at a certain point we had to be crass, it wasn’t really working for us any longer. For most fairs there has been a dramatic increase in costs, not just for the stands but for everything around the fair – production of works, transport, travel, accommodation, wining and dining collectors and curators.

As a gallery one forwards this out of pocket many months in advance and it puts a big strain on the gallery cash-flow. And it’s exhausting; we are a small team. This past spring we did 4 fairs on 3 continents in a period of 5 weeks; it takes a toll on everything, not least the core activities of the gallery, that is to accompany and support artists’ projects and to curate and mount exhibitions. It’s important that fairs do not become the be-all end-all; we will be taking a break from some of them next year.

Inside Xavier Veilhan's installation, Le Studio, at Andréhn-Schiptjenko's former venue on Kammakargatan, circa 1993.

C-P: 2025 has been an enlightening year, a number of reputable galleries have closed down, some of which marked their exits with letting the cat out of the box in terms of truths of hardships and vocalizing what many know but hardly say enough. If you offer your two cents’ worth; in what ways do traditional gallery models and modus operandi not work and need shifting and reconsideration in these times?

A-S: Some of the recently closed galleries have other situations but for most it’s quite simple: galleries are closing because it has become so insanely costly to run them. As the term “the art industry” has become ubiquitous and the art world has become more corporate in its structure and operations it is very hard to make it work financially. In order to fulfill what is expected of a gallery now – to do several international fairs a year, to be able to finance production, shell out thousands per month in communication costs and what have you – the revenue has to be there and thus prices have to be high and thus a great deal of people are excluded from the market.

That being said, we are wary of all this “the gallery model has to change” talk… Most people who claim that have zero experience of running a gallery and virtually none of them have any suggestion as to exactly what changes they believe will be fruitful. There is a lot of talk about offering “experiences and community” but We’d humbly like to say that that is what galleries have been doing all along, fostering community through experience. An artwork or project is best experienced IRL and a gallery is a dedicated physical space for that. And the idea that “selling objects is obsolete” is naive at best and betrays the idea, increasingly real, that only the wealthy can be involved, not artists, curators or gallerists that need an income from their work.

Installation view from an exhibition by Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff in Stureparken, Stockholm

C-P: A number of artists have more recently joined the gallery and have been presenting with you. I'm thinking about artists like Sabine Mirlesse, Amine Habki and Sally von Rosen. I myself had a public talk with Amine Habki and enjoyed his textile works as shown during Market Art Fair, and Sally von Rosen is currently having a moment in Vienna during the annual “Curated by” gallery festival. Tell me about them and what can be expected from them?

A-S: Yes, we are very excited about all these three! In November we will be presenting the first solo exhibition with Amine Habki in our Stockholm gallery and we can confidently say that you will not be disappointed. We first saw his work in an open studios situation and were immediately intrigued by his work. We invited him to Weaving, Stitching, Painting, a group show in our Paris gallery shortly after that, with Linnea Sjöberg and Mukenge-Schelhammer in December of 2023. He has received a lot of attention since then, with a solo show at the Centre Pompidou Metz last year and important institutional group presentations at Institut des Cultures d’Islam in Paris, Institut Français in Tanger, Morocco and at FRAC Île-de-France.

We first met Sabine during the pandemic and were intrigued by her Letters to Volcanoes and her photographic work. So we had followed her work for quite a while when we invited her to do a first exhibition, which was absolutely sensational, with us in Paris in late spring 2024. We then did a solo show in Stockholm earlier this year, which included Ode to Measurement, an outdoor work that is still visible in the waters outside of Skeppsholmen. She has recently shown at places such as Château La Coste, and in Apocalypse, the large survey exhibition curated by Jeanne Lebrun, chief curator at the Centre Pompidou for the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, and currently has a work on view in Creux de l’Enfer.

Both Amine and Sabine have a number of future projects lined up but they are all confidential.

Sally von Rosen is rapidly gaining international attention and we are very happy to have signed her on, following her inclusion in the group show FEEL FIRST, THINK LATER at the gallery earlier this year. She will be showing a large sculpture with us at Art Basel Paris next week and she is also doing a solo exhibition at our Stockholm gallery early next year. There are group exhibitions lined up at Tempesta Gallery, Milano, Pace Gallery, Berlin and Göteborgs Konstmuseum in 2026, and a solo exhibition at a German institution in 2027.

From the photo archives

C-P: With two gallery venues I'm thinking about how the gallery might want to, if it does, bridge on occasion closer to music and performance, with more interdisciplinary outputs. There's certainly presence of music and performance/dance in the gallery's artist roster looking back in time. Cecilia Bengolea for one is an artist whose background in dance and choreography opens up a window in such direction. In brief, I would love it if the gallery scene in Stockholm leaned more towards events in this direction every once in a while. That would feel like injecting a certain pulse and energy in the gallery spaces we visit here.

A-S: Indeed, there is a desire to reach over into other areas such as dance and performance but also music and literature; all of these are centres of interest for Marina and me. We have done performances and movie-theatre film-screenings with Cecilia and recently had a music performance within Katarina Löfström’s ongoing Stockholm exhibition Loops and Lamentation. The truth is that while many claim they like these events they tend to be very time- and cash-consuming to organize, and sometimes our spaces and the works on view don’t really allow for large crowds, and while many people claim to want them it is not always easy to get an audience. But it’s good to hear that you for one appreciate them!

Amine Habki, I Will Sew Up All the Petals of Your Garden, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, 2025

C-P: In the immediate future leading up to Christmas, what has the gallery in stone beyond Art Basel coming up and Amine Habki's solo exhibition that you've totally got me switched on to now?

A-S: As far as upcoming projects, Cecilia Bengolea will open a solo exhibition at Borås Konstmuseum on November 22 with several new works. Matts Leiderstam will open a solo exhibition at Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde on November 13th. In our Stockholm gallery there is Amine Habki’s much-anticipated opening – and we have our staff member Chaymae Moutayeb coming up from Paris for that. In Paris we will be showing Cornelia Baltes’ extraordinary exhibition The Sun Stumbles In until November 22 and after that we will mount Carin Ellberg’s very first Paris solo, opening on November 29! Exciting projects for the beginning of next year are two newcomers: in Stockholm the first solo of Sally von Rosen – a smashing success with collectors and curators alike at the recent Art Basel Paris – and in Paris Irish artist Ailbhe Ní Bhriain who will show a range of new works: tapestries, photography and painting. We are very excited!

Ashik Zaman

All images courtesy of Ciléne Andrehn, Marina Schiptjenko and Andréhn-Shiptjenko