Jutta Koether Is Headed to Lévy Gorvy -ARTnews

The German-born painter Jutta Koether is leaving her longtime New York rep, Bortolami gallery, and heading to Upper East Side outfit Lévy Gorvy. The news comes from a somewhat unusual source, Stefania Bortolami herself. Generally, such announcements are made by the gallery acquiring the artist. This afternoon, Bortolami sent a letter to art-world colleagues saying that “after ten years of representation in New York, it is with mixed emotions that we announce a new phase of Jutta Koether’s career as she joins the uptown organization Lévy Gorvy.” The full letter follows below.

A rep for Lévy Gorvy, which has spaces in London and Hong Kong and a roster that includes Martial Raysse, Pat Steir, and Dan Colen, confirmed the move and provided ARTnews with a press release containing a statement from the gallery.

“We are inspired by Jutta Koether’s unique approach to painting,” Dominique Lévy said in a release. “She is a rare artist who has her roots in a deep European tradition and yet profoundly belongs to a very meaningful group of American artists.”

Koether, who is based in New York and Berlin, is currently the subject of a survey show at MUDAM Luxembourg that traveled last year to the Museum Brandhorst in Munich. She had a one-person outing in Philadelphia through Bortolami’s Artist/City program in 2017.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

After ten years of representation in New York, it is with mixed emotions that we announce a new phase of Jutta Koether’s career as she joins the uptown organization Lévy Gorvy.

We are immensely proud of everything we have done with Jutta. Over the last decade, she gave us great solo exhibitions at the gallery, the year-long Artist/City project in Philadelphia, and participated in numerous group shows.

Most importantly, Jutta’s intellectual rigor and tireless work ethic has been a true inspiration and challenged us to expand our role as a gallery. With enthusiasm, we endeavored to advocate for her work, and broaden and develop the recognition she has long deserved for her important contributions to art, music, writing, and culture. We thank the institutions, museums, private collectors, and curators who have helped us with this effort.

A particular point of pride for us has been the Artist/City project. Working collaboratively with Jutta, we developed a site-specific, multi-phase exhibition of past, recent, and new works complete with public programming in a townhouse the gallery rented over the course of last year.

Though parting ways is difficult, we will always be honored and humbled that Jutta entrusted us with her work. On a personal level, my relationship with Jutta is one that I treasure—I hope it will continue for the decades to come. All of us at Bortolami are grateful for the ways in which she enriched ourlives and wish her the best of luck in this next chapter.

Stefania