20th Anniversary Celebration at Galerie Christian Lethert: “20 Jahre Galerie Christian Lethert” Group Exhibition Featuring 17 Artists
In Cologne’s art- and design-infused Belgian Quarter (Belgisches Viertel), daylight filtering through the tall windows of a historic Gründerzeit building greets you the moment you step inside the gallery. Spanning two floors, this light-filled atmosphere plays host in the autumn of 2026 not merely to an ordinary exhibition, but to a passionate two-decade journey through contemporary art. From September 5 to October 16, 2026, Galerie Christian Lethert brings together all 17 artists from its roster under a single roof with the group exhibition 20 Jahre Galerie Christian Lethert.
The story traces back to August 2006. Having served for nine years as an assistant to master gallerist Erhard Klein at Galerie Klein in Bad Münstereifel while completing his business degree, Christian Lethert decided to carve out his own space. Opening his doors at Antwerpener Straße 4, he was Germany’s youngest gallerist at the time. Launching his inaugural exhibition with sculptor Lutz Fritsch, this beginning was, in Lethert’s own words, above all a moment of “a dream realized.”
Twenty years on, the gallery looks back on 120 exhibitions, 95 international art fair appearances, and countless institutional collaborations. Relocating in 2017 to its current two-story premises at Antwerpener Straße 52, the gallery expanded its programme without straying from its commitment to abstract and minimalist art. Over time, it evolved beyond a space of display into a dynamic forum for contemporary artistic discourse and production.
Celebrating this landmark milestone, the works unfolding across the gallery illuminate the conversation that minimalist syntax establishes with material, form, and light.
Upon entering the space, Imi Knoebel’s monumental acrylic-on-wood work Figur H 145 (1986) anchors the room’s sculptural and architectural equilibrium. In contrast, Rana Begum’s play of color across stainless steel mesh (No. 639 L Mesh) shifts with the changing angles of natural light, transmuting an industrial material into a sensory veil.
This tactile diversity of surfaces runs throughout the entire exhibition. Jill Baroff’s ink traces on Japanese Gampi paper (Hurricane Ian) distill the destructive momentum of a storm into a meditative abstraction, while Natascha Schmitten’s oil on nylon canvas (Butterfly effect) yields a lightness filtering through its layers.
Daniel Lergon’s experimental synthesis of earth and reflective pigment on canvas (Untitled), Winston Roeth’s timeless tempera on honeycomb panel (Eldorado), and Richard Tuttle’s handwritten scroll work encased in a wooden box, Almost Sky, invite the viewer to pursue micro-details. Kai Richter’s concrete and steel column (Pfosten II) enters into direct dialogue with the building’s structural framework, while Gereon Krebber’s glazed ceramic form (Plöppi) and Roman Gysin’s wood-and-fabric sculpture (Faggot (Michaël)) inject unexpected dynamics into the show’s formal architecture.
Pius Fox’s Lilie, rendered in egg tempera on paper; Szelit Cheung’s serene Canvas XXI composition on linen; Henrik Eiben’s Voyager, bridging cashmere and blown glass; Joe Fyfe’s acrylic interventions on canvas (Zola); Tony Huynh’s oil on wood (King of the Delta); and Alicia Viebrock’s layered fusion of ink and acrylic (Lamia)… And of course, Lutz Fritsch—who stood at the core of the gallery’s first exhibition in 2006—nods to the starting point of this twenty-year arc with his lacquered aluminum work Goldene Zeiten: Oktober.
Galerie Christian Lethert’s two-decade presence stands for more than a single gallery’s vision; it represents a collective memory woven in tandem with collectors, artists, and institutions. Having successfully preserved the quiet authority of minimalism and abstract thought, the gallery honors its past while remaining intently focused on shaping the artistic discourse of tomorrow.
