In celebration of its 40th anniversary in Germany and 20th in Beirut, SFEIR-SEMLER Gallery is holding multiple shows in its different spaces; including the launch of the gallery’s book The Rise of Arab Art: Volume I at the Sursock Museum Auditorium. For this occasion, Anastasia Nysten (AN) spoke with Andrée Sfeir-Semler (AS) – art historian and founder of Sfeir-Semler Gallery – about how the gallery has evolved across two geographies, navigated shifting art scenes, and carved out a platform for contemporary art from the Arab world within the international landscape.
AN: Let’s go back to the beginning: how did it all start? What was the spark that made you say, “I’m doing this now”?
AS: Truly by accident, destiny, even. I’d just submitted my PhD when a former gallerist in the small northern German city where we lived decided to move to Düsseldorf and asked if I’d take over his gallery. I said yes. It felt like jumping into a basin of cold water. I came straight from university with no clue about the art market or how to reach contemporary artists. And yet, here we are, forty years later.
AN: In those early days, how did your vision take shape?
AS: Step by step, always. Otherwise you get overwhelmed and feel paralysed. The first show was secured by the previous owner; for the second and third I had to find artists. I was naïve, young, and no one really knew of me in the very north of Germany. So, I phoned major Western artists and said, “I’m building a high-end programme, would you agree to do an exhibition?” Little by little I met artists I loved. I learned on my own dime. If I was to advise someone who is opening a gallery, I would say work first in another gallery. It makes it easier to work with and learn from an established enterprise before getting on your own, because it is really very tough. And at the time, in 1985, war in Lebanon was at its peak; my family couldn’t help financially so I had to support myself and I had to sell in order to finance the gallery. I was a student, my husband was a young journalist at a TV. My brother lent me some seed money and I was able to sell well enough to pay him back within a year.
AN: What were the milestones across 40 years in Germany and 20 in Lebanon?
AS: Being in a small city, in the very north of Germany, without a real art market made art fairs essential. FIAC at the Grand Palais was my first: we had a small booth. Through fairs I met collectors, curators, and museum curators. From the start I targeted professionals.
At the beginning, it was run like a family business – my husband would help me in his spare time to hang artworks. Over time we became more professional; now we’re a team of 13 between Hamburg and Beirut, with a 1,000 m² storage in Hamburg and spaces in both cities operating worldwide.
When our daughter left for university, we moved to Hamburg; my husband joined a major TV station and I opened another gallery in the city centre. In 2000 I met Walid Raad, first at documenta, then via Catherine David in Berlin. I recognised the Beirut Corniche in one of his films, visited him in New York, and offered him a gallery show and his first museum show. Meeting Walid changed everything; he introduced me to his peers, and I began showing artists from the Arab world. After 9/11, there was also a shift because curators increasingly started looking towards the region.
In 2004, Bernard Khoury told me that a large industrial space above his office in Karantina was available. I signed immediately. Despite the 2005 assassination of the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri and the bombings, curators came to Lebanon; even the British Contemporary Art Society held its meeting in Beirut for our opening. Overnight we became a specialist platform for contemporary art from the Arab world, something rare internationally at the time. Invitations to biennials, museums, documenta followed. During the opening of this space, a huge rally was scheduled downtown. I was so frightened because I didn’t want anything to happen. And I didn’t know if anyone would come. But plenty of people came. And when we went to dinner downtown right by the parliament, the city was full of people holding the Lebanese flag. Destiny, again. From that day I said: the real event is not the opening, but what follows. We will fight for professional conditions; production, museum-quality presentations, and create a space where multiple generations can stage ambitious work.
We gradually stopped working with international (non-MENA) artists, even in Hamburg, and focused on art from the region. Early on, Western relevance was a question. We were fortunate to work with artists whose universal quality secured major museum entries quickly. And our programme changed more and more because what the curators were wanting from us was art from this part of the world.
AN: How would you say the art scene has changed from when you started and now?
AS: It has changed enormously. Most of our artists are personally and politically engaged; in this region you can’t not be. But they’re not journalists. We represent artists for the quality of their work, the individuality of each artwork they produce, not for their politics per se. The work must transcend daily news yet testify to its time. Often the politics are not visible on the surface – think of Samia Halaby or Etel Adnan. For me, “political” means the artist’s awareness; however the artwork itself must be splendid.
AN: Let’s talk about your book The Rise of Arab Art conceived as a “volume one.” How did you assemble it? How did you brief the contributors?
AS: It is a Bible. We called it volume one because we were certainly not extensive; there are things we couldn’t include. I didn’t want a coffee-table book for the gallery’s anniversary; I wanted a book that carries the region’s history. The authors are incredible; 46 contributors to be exact. People who ‘made it happen’ are all in this; from Sheikha Al Mayassa Al Thani to Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi and many more. As well as scholars who teach Arab art abroad. I myself contributed the preface and a text on Sfeir-Semler Gallery.
After Art Basel my team and I buried ourselves in editing; Hatje Cantz, the publishers of the book also did their share of editing. We pushed to launch in August – it was hard labour. Briefing the artists depended on which ‘level’ they were contributing to; some artists wrote about their current work like Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Walid Raad, and Rabih Mroué. We also wanted to cover each country of the region so we reached out to mainly curators and scholars like Myriam Ben Salah who will curate the French Pavilion for Yto Barrada at the 2026 Venice Biennale and is currently Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Renaissance Society in Chicago, she wrote about Tunisia. Kader Attia wrote about Algeria. Yto Barrada and Abdellah Karroum wrote about Morocco, and so many more. Another ‘level’ was a Western point of view – from the outside looking in – such as Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s experience as to why she, for the first, invited that many Arab artists to Documenta? Massimiliano Gioni wrote about the Lebanese art scene. Ben Floyd wrote about Art Dubai. Alexandre Kazerouni, professor at the École normale supérieure, wrote a text about the building of museums in the Arab world, from a scholar point of view. Hans-Ulrich Obrist, who is the globe trotter among the curators, wrote about his discovery of artists from the Arab world.
AN: In parallel to the book launch, what was planned for the anniversary of Sfeir-Semler Gallery?
AS: In downtown Beirut we’re honouring Samia Halaby, who turns 89, with a performance and a solo show. In Karantina, a group exhibition curated by Jean-Marc Prévost with major gallery artists, many with new works. In Germany, from 4 September, an exhibition of the gallery’s first twenty years will be on display.
About Andrée Sfeir-Semler
Andrée Sfeir-Semler, born in Beirut, is an art historian and founder of Sfeir-Semler Gallery, established in Hamburg in 1985 and in Beirut in 2005. Pioneering the region’s first white cube space, the gallery has become a platform for contemporary art from the Arab world, representing artists such as Etel Adnan, Walid Raad, and Akram Zaatari. Sfeir-Semler studied fine art and film at the American University of Beirut, later earning a PhD in art history in Germany. In August 2025, she was awarded the Art Cologne Prize, a prestigious recognition previously given to Harald Szeemann and other major figures of the German-speaking art world.