Gordon VeneKlasen is starting over. After more than three decades running Michael Werner Gallery's New York space, the dealer has split from the partnership and is relaunching under his own name—taking the New York location and the London gallery with him. Werner's Los Angeles outpost closes. It's a clean break that lets VeneKlasen reshape how he works.
Two longtime directors are stepping up: Justine Birbil, who handles global operations, and Kadee Robbins, who runs the London space. Both are now partners. VeneKlasen will keep representing artists he originally brought to Michael Werner while gradually adding more conceptually driven practices to the roster. The gallery debuts at Art Basel Qatar next week with a solo show by Issy Wood, followed by inaugural exhibitions of Sigmar Polke works in both cities.
It's a moment of recalibration in a market that's been watching dealer transitions closely. VeneKlasen's move signals confidence that independent galleries can still compete at scale—and that the artists themselves, not the gallery name, are what draw collectors.
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Start Your News DetoxA Lost Renaissance Painting Resurfaces
Sofonisba Anguissola painted fewer than 20 signed works in her lifetime. One of them just turned up in Durham, North Carolina.
Portrait of a Canon Regular (1552) is a striking image: a preacher with his hand raised over an open Bible, rendered with the precision Anguissola was known for. The painting had been missing from public view for so long that experts believed it might be lost entirely. It existed only in a black-and-white photograph.
The owners—who inherited the work—didn't realize what they had until Michael Cole of Columbia University, who wrote the definitive monograph on Anguissola, gave a public lecture on recent discoveries in her work in 2024. They reached out, had the painting authenticated, and decided to sell it through veteran Old Master dealer Robert Simon. The work is now on view at the Winter Show at Manhattan's Park Avenue Armory.
It's a reminder that Renaissance women painters, long sidelined by art history, are still being rediscovered. And that inheritance can sometimes mean inheriting a piece of history you didn't know you had.
