In 1995, Michael Janssen opened his first gallery in Cologne where it operated for twelve years and held over eighty exhibtions, among which were notable projects with Lynda Benglis (1997), Pino Pascali (1997) and Braco Dimitrijevic (1999). During this period, Michael Janssen also started collaborating with Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano and German artists Thomas Grünfeld and Peter Zimmermann. In 2004, Michael Janssen introduced the work of Gert & Uwe Tobias (Romania) to the market, by holding their first solo exhibition. In the spring of 2007, a second branch of the gallery opened in Berlin and with all exhibition activities completely moved to Berlin as of July 2008, Michael Janssen closed the Cologne space. Marking the arrival of the first international German gallery to Gillman Barracks, the second branch of the gallery, Michael Janssen Singapore, had its soft launch on 14 September 2012. This inaugural exhibition, “Blended by Desire” showcased site-specific works by four young Indonesian video and mural artists and featured a screening of “Stereomongrel” by Luis Gispert and Jeffery Reed, which premiered in the Whitney Museum of Art. For Michael Janssen Singapore’s official opening on 18 January 2013, a series of ten collaborative works in the series, “Keep it Simple. Keep it Fresh.” was created exclusively for the gallery by John Baldessari and Meg Cranston.
In August 2013, the gallery showcased Ai Weiwei’s first solo exhibition in Southeast Asia. This Asian gallery will showcase emerging, mid-career as well as established artists from North America, Europe and Southeast Asia, present ambitious solo presentations as well as group exhibitions and host public programs such as performances, talks and film screenings.
