Hengesbach Gallery represents original positions in contemporary art with a focus on European and American artists. The program reflects the diverse possibilities of artistic media and seeks dialogue with contemporary cultural philosophy. Approximately six exhibitions are held each year. For over twenty years, close collaboration with artists, museum institutions, and universities has formed the foundation for an aesthetic understanding of art that goes beyond pure market orientation. Sophisticated publications and discussion rounds with invited guests from the fields of art and media studies enrich the theoretical engagement with photography, painting, sculpture, drawing, and video.
In 1991, Rolf Hengesbach founded the gallery in Wuppertal. After a temporary relocation to Cologne, he moved the gallery to Berlin in 2009, where he organized a variety of solo and group exhibitions for the 17 represented artists in a meticulously renovated industrial hall until 2013. Since 2014, the gallery has been based once again in Wuppertal. Rolf Hengesbach draws on nearly thirty years of experience in successful gallery work and numerous art fair participations, including Art Basel, Art Cologne, and ARCO Madrid. Works by his artists are held in public and private collections, such as the art museums in Bonn, Freiburg, Wolfsburg, and Winterthur, the Museum Folkwang, Von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal, Abteiberg Museum Mönchengladbach, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Museum of Non-Objective Art Otterndorf, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Lower Saxony Savings Banks Foundation, the EU Collection, Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, and the collections of the Siemens Cultural Foundation, WestLB, UBS, EON, and DZ Bank. In addition, the gallery’s represented artists regularly participate in international solo and group exhibitions at prestigious institutions and are recipients of significant awards and scholarships.