Thaddaeus Ropac, Ely House, 37 Dover Street, London W1S 4NJ
ropac.net Instagram: @thaddaeusropac
That tricky spelling is the Latinate version of the gallerist’s first name: he was born in 1960 as Thaddäus within a family of Carinthian Slovenes in southern Austria. He interned with Joseph Beuys, opened his first gallery in 1981, and now leads a global brand which has expanded from its Austrian origins to take on spaces in London, Paris, and Seoul as well as Salzburg. Thaddaeus Ropac’s London branch opened in 2017 – 27 years after Paris – with former Serpentine director Julia Peyton-Jones picking up the splendid title of Senior Global Director: Special Projects. Ropac took over the five-storey listed mansion in Mayfair that was formerly the Bishop of Ely’s London residence. That provides plenty of space across the two public floors – enough that, unusually for a single commercial space, there are currently three substantial shows there, all of interest, as well as a viewing room. One of them is a varied display of an Austrian artist – Markus Schinwald – and Ropac also represents other leading österreichisch: VALIE EXPORT, Erwin Wurm, Martha Jungwirth, Hubert Scheibl, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Arnulf Rainer… You can also see Rona Pondick’s animal-self fusions and Lee Bul’s paintings with Mother of Pearl. The Schinwald image is from a series of anthropomorphic forms made purely from antique table legs.
London’s gallery scene is varied, from small artist-run spaces to major institutions and everything in between. Each week, art writer and curator Paul Carey-Kent gives a personal view of a space worth visiting.
