Venetia Kapernekas

Biography

Kapernekas has been a part of the international contemporary art scene for the last 20 years as a galerist, collector, and supporter of the arts community in New York City and abroad.

She discovered her love for art while completing her BA in Political Science, with minors in Art History and Social Science, from the UCB, University of California at Berkeley. She then received her MFA in filmmaking and visual studies from san Francisco State University, San Francisco, California.

She began her career in the arts as an assistant director at the Pascal de Sarthe Gallery in San Francisco in the mid eighties. In the early 90s, she returned to Europe and established the Ice Box a gallery space in her native city of Athens, which maintained a rigorous program exhibiting an intense and diverse selection of national and international artists from New York, Berlin, London and Los Angeles. In 1998 she returned to New York City, where she established a project space on West 26th street. In 2005 she entered into a partnership and collaborated on curating a series of exhibitions. Soon after she realized an pursued her own vision with the Venetia Kapernekas Ltd gallery from 2006-2009, introducing a challenging series of projects, exhibiting innovative young contemporary artists working in a diverse range of media, often pushing the boundaries of traditional modes and concepts of art making. Since the Spring of 2009 she has redirected her professional efforts towards art consultation, curatorial projects and education. In 2011 she moved to Munich, where she is now involved in the art community (Kunstverein Munchen, Haus der Kunst- Gesellschaft der Freunde, Pinakothek der Moderne) as well as in Berlin (International Council Museum Berggruen, Freund der Nationalgalerie).

Kapernekas is an active member of committees of non-profit art organizations and museums in New York, such as, the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum.