‘I Can Guarantee Quality if I Am There’: Art Dealer Xavier Hufkens on Why He’s Opening a Third Space in Brussels Instead of Expanding Abroad

As the art industry continues to
feel the pressure of the global health situation and the fallout
from the lockdown, local scenes have gained a renewed sense of
relevance as
gallerists, artists, and collectors remain in place and avoid
international travel.

But for dealer Xavier Hufkens,
investing in Brussels has been an ongoing project for 33 years.
Despite being a mainstay at international art fairs, his eminent
gallery, which represents artists including Nicolas Party,
Cathy Wilkes, and Danh Võ, has always called Belgian
home.

Hufkens—who already has two large spaces in the city on winding
and resplendent streets—is now opening his third Brussels space on
June 18 with an exhibition by Sterling Ruby. The revamped
3,700-square-foot gallery is in a 1960s modernist building replete
with a backyard garden. (In 2021, Hufkens is opening another
project space, about which he has not yet released details.)

“When you come to Xavier
Hufkens, I want to be there,” he tells Artnet News. (He is not the
only European dealer doubling down on his current city: Eva
Presenhuber opened her third space in
Zurich this month, and in May, Berlin dealer Max Hetzler
got his third space in the city.)

We spoke with Hufkens about the recent rise of online viewing
rooms, the importance of brick-and-mortar space, and why he’s so
devoted to the Belgian capital.

How has the reopening of the Brussels art scene gone?

Obviously, horrible things
happened and people have died. We must come out having learned
something from this. It’s great to have people in the gallery
again. It is different, of course, as we can [only] allow one
person wearing a mask per ten square meters [100 square feet]. But
seeing people with masks back in the gallery is so much better than
having it shut down. We are so happy to be opening
again.

It’s quite unusual that you’re opening a space during such a
difficult time. Has that been stressful?

I don’t want to be stopped by a
pandemic. My gallery is 33 years old, so I’ve seen moments where it
was really good, and we have also been through times where it was
more difficult. But if you believe in what you do, if you believe
in the artists you work with, the people in your gallery, the
collectors, and the public, you just want to continue. A gallery is
a destination, it has a real function both physically and
intellectually. We see a lot of these online viewing rooms these
days, but I really think that the physical interaction with the
work and the intellectual interaction between people at the
galleries are important. I don’t want this to
stop. It’s going to be
different, because obviously openings for the moment are not
permitted as we envisioned them. But the gallery is open and people
can visit the show.

It’s interesting what you were saying about the importance of
a brick-and-mortar gallery because, of course, this was already
being called into question by all these online viewing rooms, and I
know you participated in a few of them. What’s your prediction? Do
you think that this will catch on with collectors or that they’ll
still need to go to walk around the fairs?

The online viewing rooms have
been very nice and very helpful at that moment. It was the only way
that we could basically be operational. [But] I really believe that
art is a physical experience. Everything that you add to that is
valuable, [but] at the end of the day, the place we all really want
to be is at the gallery or museum in front of the picture or the
sculpture. The rest are tools. They may be wonderful tools and we
should embrace and use them, but that is what they are.
Brick-and-mortar is necessary. We need places that have
souls.

The coming two years will be
very hard to predict. My feeling is that it is going to be some
time until the physical interaction between all of us becomes
normal again. Art fairs but also vernissages, gallery weekends, and
so on, will be different than before, but they will remain
important because these are places where you meet people from all
over the world. I still think there’s a big future for the art
fairs that really mattered. There were obviously too many, but
people will still want to go to Art Basel and Frieze. I’m going
again when they organize something. But for now we take it week by
week.

Your upcoming show with Sterling Ruby is in June. He’s an
artist who’s based in Los Angeles. Was it logistically
complicated?

It was supposed to open in April, and of
course, that was no longer
possible. But changing the
date was basically the only change we did. In terms of logistics,
you just get used to adapting to situations. There is a slight
chance Sterling
will be able to make it, but we are hoping.

Why did you expand within Brussels and not somewhere else? It
must be sort of a blessing now, in a time where working locally
seems to be the only way.

I always wanted to stay in the
same place. Opening abroad would have been easy. It is something we
thought about. It may be strange to say it, but a lot of wonderful
places, like shops, once they start to expand, those particular
things that you could only find in Paris or in London, suddenly you
could find them all over. I am interested in prioritizing quality
over anything else. My name is above the gallery and I want to be
there. I know that this may sound old-fashioned, but I always felt
that this was important. I know for myself that I can guarantee
that quality if I am there and I can control it. I want to be my
gallery.

I am opening another space in
2022 in Brussels. It is a really interesting project. When I built
the first space in 1991, it was with Paul Robbrecht and I am going to work with him again 30 years
later. It is not a fourth location, but I am expanding the historical
gallery. 

What would you advise younger galleries in this precarious
moment?

You have to do what you do out
of passion. I think you can be a gallery at every level, but
passion needs to run through them. There is no formula otherwise.
There will always be space for galleries and artists. Stay loyal,
stay close to your artists. Offer quality, create opportunities for
your artists, and take risks. Try to be a physical and intellectual
destination with a real function.

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