DIEHL + GALLERY ONE at MOSCOW

Diehl + Gallery One opens in Moscow with Jenny Holzer solo show

In April 2008, Volker Diehl will become the first western art dealer to open his own exhibition space in Moscow. Diehl + Gallery One will be focusing on contemporary international and Russian art. The opening exhibition is entitled "Like Truth", a solo show by US artist Jenny Holzer. In contrast, the "Glasnost/Perestroijka" exhibition planned in May offers an overview of Russian Soz-Art from the 1980s and 90s. The gallery, centrally located on Smolenskaya with a view of the Moskva River and nearly 600 square meters of space, is run as a cooperation with the Kira Foundation, a Moscow-based art foundation. The venue has a chequered history as an art location: it opened as Gallery No.1, Moscow's first gallery, which from 1978 until well into the 1990s housed the state art trade outlet; it was also used for meetings of the State Committee on Culture. Over the last years, the space has again been home to a gallery. Diehl + Gallery One is in the direct vicinity of the British Embassy and the famous Russian White House, the present Russian Federation parliament building.

For many years, Volker Diehl has been closely following developments on the Russian art scene. His main Berlin gallery has shown, for example, works by artist duo Blue Noses, the enfant terrible of the Russian art scene, and Chechen graphic artist Alexey Kallima. Volker Diehl is an Art Moscow fair consultant and a member of its Expert Committee. He founded Berlin's Art Forum international art fair and was Managing Director of the event from 1996 to 2001. For over 20 years, Galerie Volker Diehl has been exhibiting internationally relevant contemporary art in Berlin. Apart from the Russian artists mentioned above, the gallery's programme includes up-and-coming names such as Indian artist Shilpa Gupta (Mumbai), Chinese artist Zang Huan (New York/Shanghai) and American conceptual artist Susan Hiller. In September 2007, Galerie Volker Diehl moved to a new location, a spreading 400 square meters in a freshly refurbished gallery house on Lindenstrasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Since then, the former space on Zimmerstrasse in Berlin-Mitte has been run under the Diehl Projects label, showing young, emerging artists and guest-curated shows.