[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dependence.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tD\u00e9pendance, the iconoclast, 23-year-old Brussels gallery that built a trusted reputation as an \u201cartists\u2019 gallery,\u201d is closing.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cGalleries come and go. Some are short-lived but leave a clear trace, others endure for decades without changing much. D\u00e9pendance has been there for twenty-three years and now we feel it\u2019s time to say good-bye,\u201d stated the gallery (spelled in all lowercase) via press release sent last night.<\/p>\n
\n\tCo-founded by Michael Callies, a former artist, and Stephan Jaax, a former banker, the gallery resisted expansion during its over two-decade-long history. With its single location in the city, D\u00e9pendance was a highlight of the Brussels\u2019 gallery scene, while also promoting its artists internationally. It stewarded their participation in international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, Skulptur Projekte, M\u00fcnster, Documenta Kassel, and at institutions such as MoMA, New York, Tate Britain, Stedelijk Museum, and many others.<\/p>\n
\n\tD\u00e9pendance represented about 30 artists, many of whom joined through early connections to the acclaimed St\u00e4delschule in Frankfurt, where Callies, a conceptually-oriented artist, studied. They include artists such as Thomas Bayrle, Michael Krebber, Henrik Olesen, Thilo Heinzmann, Sergej Jensen, and Haegue Yang, who all stayed with the gallery over the years. Additional acclaimed artists on the roster include Josef Strau, Ed Atkins, Allison Katz, Oscar Tuazon, and Jana Euler, to name a few.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a 2020 interview Callies discussed the gallery\u2019s artist-led approach: \u201cI see the gallery more as a work that is close to what I was doing as an artist\u2026I was always very engaged in making the shows, even because there was no budget to do otherwise. For example, with Nora Schultz we chose and sourced her materials together. It was a relationship of trust with the artists, as they thought I had some good ideas\u2026. I still needed to find a way to create, and that was the gallery.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAsked about differences between how D\u00e9pendance has evolved, and what young galleries face today, Callies said that, \u201cfor us it was important that in the exhibitions the artists could always do whatever they wanted without thinking about commercial success. That may have changed a bit [for galleries today], but not for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the gallery\u2019s Instagram page, leading figures within the Brussel\u2019s art scene have been commenting on the closure since the announcement. \u201cThis is really sad news,\u201d wrote Brussels dealer Jan Mot. \u201cYour gallery has been such an important and inspiring place, and not just for Brussels. We are many to be grateful for what you and your team have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen ARTnews<\/em> asked the gallery to explain why they were closing now, they responded in writing that, \u201cWe would like to let the press release and its ambiguity speak for itself as that has always been the spirit of the gallery.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn their statement, the gallery said they are entering a transitional period for closing out any administrative or organizational needs, while the website will remain active as an archive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/dependence-iconoclast-brussels-gallery-to-close-1234788843\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/dependence.jpg?w=1024″] D\u00e9pendance, the iconoclast, 23-year-old Brussels gallery that built a trusted reputation as an \u201cartists\u2019 gallery,\u201d is closing. \u201cGalleries come and go. Some are short-lived but leave a clear trace, others endure for decades without changing much. D\u00e9pendance has been there for twenty-three years and now we feel it\u2019s time to say good-bye,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1986393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1986393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1986393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1986393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1986393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}