Gallerist Q&A - Mamie Beth Cary and Stefan von Bartha

How did each of you find your way into working in the art world as gallerists?

My understanding of the artworld grew as I did. It began with an art-world baptism of fire working for Frieze, which left me craving the thing at the centre of everything - the art. I proceeded to spend the next years working directly for artists in their studios and it wasn’t until 2016 when I moved to Copenhagen that my environment and my perspective changed again. Following some years navigating the Danish artworld, in 2021 I received an offer I couldn't refuse - to work with Stefan and Hester to establish the first international gallery to open in Denmark, von Bartha was coming to Copenhagen.

The gallery has been the story of my life. I grew up in a house which was also the home of my parent’s gallery – I first attended Art Basel as a one-month old baby lying in a crib under the table on the art fair booth. I was always drawn to the art in my surroundings - it was certainly more interesting that what school had to offer.

If you hadn’t entered the gallery world, what other métier do you think you might have pursued?

For me, there was no plan B. It was clear to me and all of my friends and family that despite a brief phase where I dabbled in design, art was my true passion and love.

Admittedly, it was always going to be difficult for me to find a way to not end up working in the art world. I am the daughter of an artist-father and designer-mother and I grew up in central London, surrounded by a plethora of culture. One of my earliest memories is falling asleep on one of the red leather benches that run through The National Gallery in London. I play the piano, violin, flute and saxophone, so maybe if it wasn’t in pursuit of art, my life could have been music?

How did you find your way to working together?

Stefan and I have known each other for over 20 years. We first met through Stefan’s older brother, Niklas, who has a gallery in London and who represented my artist father. When in 2020 Stefan was considering starting something in the Danish capital where I was already living, the stars aligned. We began planning von Bartha in Copenhagen that autumn.

Hester [Koper, Stefan's wife and Senior Director at von Bartha] and I had been talking about starting a von Bartha outpost outside of Switzerland and then Mamie had messaged me with her new number - and I looked at Hester and we smiled - Mamie being based in Copenhagen was certainly fortuitous.

With Stefan based in Switzerland and Mamie in Copenhagen, how do your roles complement one another?

von Bartha’s mothership in Basel is manned by a fantastic team of 16 experts and a gallery infrastructure that has been in existence for over 56 years. This team supports across all of our ventures, including Copenhagen and von Bartha’s story in the North, with unique history, experience, style and identity.

It is easy to tease my Swiss colleagues about their expectation and delivery of perfection - but it is in some ways a distinct aspect of their national character and our Danish friends and patrons like it! It could be related to the fact that I am neither Danish nor Swiss, that I am able to see both aspects from another perspective, a foreign perspective.

Since opening the Danish outpost in 2021, how do you see the Nordic art scene differing from the Swiss market?

Collecting art is deeply ingrained in Switzerland's history, and the country and it is home to some of the most prolific art collections of all time. Many homes in Basel have all kinds of treasures, but people are private and therefore they remain behind closed doors. In the North, this tendency for privacy is shared, but the history of collecting art is not as widely established; arguably, design has been more of a focus historically, and therefore, we see a lot of potential for growth in this area in the Nordic market.

How do you balance affordability and accessibility in an art market often dominated by high prices and exclusivity?

Having a passion for art is all about discovery and we are always finding new ways to show art. von Bartha has been a gallery for over 55 years, and true to von Bartha’s founders, Margareta and Miklos von Bartha, the gallery continues to work with both established and emerging artists at a range of different price points.

We try our utmost to not support that trend, but the problem is really born out of the media (without wanting to sound like a certain president!). Routinely the majority of press coverage focuses on the highest priced artworks being sold at the most exclusive fairs and this narrative works against the very idea of art let alone the damage it does to supporting artists.

It is really important to von Bartha that we approach a young audience and that we have artworks in different price ranges - but most importantly for us is that we talk about art, the conversation should be about the art and not about how much monetary value it has.

What do you see as your responsibilities as gallerists?

Our main responsibilities are first to our artists and to our clients - the relationship between all of us, artist, dealer, and client is cyclical, we rely on each other.

The foundation of all successful relationships between a gallery and its artists is trust - it is rare for a physical contract to exist between the two parties. The main responsibility of the gallery is to believe in the quality of the artist’s work and from that starting point to work to advocate and elevate it. In return we expect the same trust from our artists, so that they can focus on their practice and trust our guidance.

In these times, it is more important than ever that art galleries are places anyone can go and experience art for free. I encourage you to go and just zone out, or find yourself in a completely alternative world! The way that artists address topics is different from, for example, watching a political television show - and most importantly art is culture and the world without art would be very gray. Perhaps it is a bit old school but I believe we should get back to an art gallery being a place where you can just - spend time. This is the foremost reason behind von Bartha’s current investigations into different gallery formats, we want to create spaces that are welcoming.

The gallery space can for many be perceived as somewhat intimidating. With this focus of yours, how do you work to make the gallery space more welcoming?

This can be seen both on a macro and micro scale - have good coffee, have good seats, offer conversation. One change we are making in Basel is to remove the 00s-style front desk. This classic piece of gallery architecture creates a barrier between the gallery staff and our visitors, and we feel it should be much more of a fluid interaction; our audience is just as much part of the story.

Stefan’s parents founded Galerie MINIMAX in 1970 with a mission to support young audiences and the contemporary avant-garde. How do those founding values translate into the gallery’s identity today?

The foundation of von Bartha’s identity was created in the first 10–15 years of the gallery by my parents. My father’s heritage led to our expertise in the Hungarian Avant-Garde and my mother being Swedish developed relationships with Lars-Erik Falk, Olle Bærtling, Erik Olson amongst many more. We are so lucky to have built from that unique base that we cherish and value very highly - it is still clear in our programme today.

We delight in cultivating dialogues between modern and contemporary art and we feel that it is really important that the gallery does not align with a single identity. For example, this year at Art Basel we will present a beautiful work by Sophie Tauber-Arp in dialogue with a monumental piece by Landon Metz, whilst at CHART we will present a completely different project. We strive to speak to a diverse number of audiences rather than participating in 7 different art fairs where each booth features the same artists and is indistinct from one another.

You are currently amidst moving to a new space in Copenhagen. Your gallery space in Basel, a past petrol station, and the former space in Copenhagen, a lighthouse in Carlsberg City, are architecturally distinctive. How do these spaces shape the way you present art, and will the new Copenhagen space continue this approach?

It is true that von Bartha is known for making bold decisions when it comes to the architecture of our galleries and the choice of building has been key to our decision-making. In the case of von Bartha in Copenhagen, it was the first outpost outside of Switzerland, and needed to offer our artists something they could not find elsewhere, and Kridttårnet was part of that experience.

Yes, we have a big history with architecture - Basel as a city is such a hub for architecture, producing practices such as Herzog & de Meuron and Christ & Gantenbein to name but two, and alongside art and design, architecture is certainly a passion of mine. Kridttårnet will always have a special place in our story, but we are really excited about what we are working on now. We are focusing more intensely on what happens within a space as well as what the space can be for our artists. We are also thinking about the environment for our team, and of course our visitors’ experience. Within this context we are very excited to be working on something in Copenhagen - which is not at all conventional, but very exciting.

Stefan is a visionary, and he is always thinking at least 5 years ahead of the rest of us(!) His leadership and the recent renovations in Basel have truly spurred an expansion of our entire team’s creative ideas too - and to question what we think is relevant to the art world now, and what may have changed since we last discussed this.

Looking ahead, what are the next steps for von Bartha in terms of exhibitions, programming, and broader ambitions?

Something most galleries and artists can agree on, is that art is made to be shown and then, if it is not immediately sold, it can end up being stored for a long time before it is shown again. There frequently exists a flawed assumption, that the value of a work already shown, is in some way diminished. With larger exhibition spaces, many artists may work on site-specific works for a year or more for them only to be installed for a couple of months. The typical gallery calendar of 8 to 12 week long programmes only exacerbates this.

Therefore, for von Bartha’s new profile and space in Copenhagen, we are considering this carefully, and we have plans to make a structure whereby we can show the work by our artists for longer, or with greater flexibility, and more selected viewing opportunities, giving the art the time and space it deserves to be appreciated.

We are always planning 3–5 years ahead with our exhibition programme and we are looking forward to announcing more in regards to this in Basel, as well as some significant updates to our art fair schedule - not least our inaugural participation in CHART! Joining CHART in 2026 is a highlight in our calendar.

As mentioned, we will soon announce more about our plans for von Bartha in Copenhagen, but in general, when thinking ahead, our most important ambition is to be a gallery that doesn’t feel like a gallery you have visited before. We are not shy to move out of our comfort zone and in dialogue with our team and artists, we never want to stop questioning our purpose and what we are doing. We want to improve on what we have already done and to become a cultural hub for important conversations - perhaps even the name ‘gallery’ is outdated. We are such a young team and von Bartha has a lot of energy! We are confident about what will come in the future.