Karsten Greve, born in 1946, studied in Cologne, Lausanne and Geneva. He started his career as an art dealer and publisher in 1969. He opened the first of his own galleries at the beginning of 1973, his debut being a solo exhibition featuring Yves Klein in the gallery building at Lindenstraße, Cologne.
His intimate face-to-face contact with foremost artists, such as Cy Twombly, Louise Bourgeois, Jannis Kounellis, John Chamberlain and others, provided the base for the quality of his program, which is defined by international avant-garde after 1945. Apart from Twombly, Kounellis, Chamberlain and Bourgeois, artists like Joseph Cornell, Jean Dubuffet, Willem de Kooning, Pablo Picasso, Louis Soutter, Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni and Wols decisively shaped the profile of the gallery.
During more than 50 successful years as an international art dealer, Karsten Greve contributed significantly to the worldwide recognition of artists like Louise Bourgeois, Pierrette Bloch, Gotthard Graubner, Pierre Soulages, Piero Manzoni, and Cy Twombly. In addition to these highly acclaimed artistic positions, the gallery also represents contemporary artists like Norbert Prangenberg, Leiko Ikemura, Qiu Shihua and Ding Yi, as well as photographers like Lynn Davis, Sally Mann, Mimmo Jodice, Sergio Vega, Robert Polidori, and Thomas Brummett. The program is continously expanded to include rising young artists like Georgia Russell, Claire Morgan, Gideon Rubin, and Raúl Illarramendi.
The gallery's program is characterized by a high diversity of artistic genres represented these belonging to the classic media painting, drawing and graphic arts, sculpture and installation as well as photography. Complementing the shows on a high quality level, bibliophile catalogue editions are released.
Galerie Karsten Greve Cologne is located in the center of the city, close to the Diocesan Museum "Kolumba", the “Museum für Angewandte Kunst – MAK” and the Cologne cathedral. Karsten Greve opened his other European galleries in Paris (in 1989) and in St. Moritz (in 1999).
