Esther Schipper founded the gallery in 1989 in Cologne. A one-woman operation, the gallery began exhibiting with a core group of 5-6 artists, all of whom continue to be an integral part of the gallery
’s program. Many of the artists with whom Esther Schipper has worked since the 1990s are central figures in radically rethinking the exhibition as form. This paradigmatic shift in the notion of exhibitions has been a central tenet of the gallery’s practice. From its beginnings, activities went beyond exhibitions to include lectures, talks, performances, and musical events, decisively shaping the gallery's mission as a site of experimentation and an engaged, discursive environment.
