Loyal Gallery’s New Chapel in Lund Reframes a Two-Decade Stockholm Story
A 19th-century chapel in Lund, Sweden, is now the setting for one of the country’s most closely watched galleries. Loyal Gallery, founded by Martin Lilja and Amy Giunta, has moved out of Stockholm after 20 years and into a space designed by Swedish architect Helgo Zettervall, where the founders say exhibitions can breathe differently.
For Lilja and Giunta, the relocation is less a break than a recalibration. The chapel, they said, offers a shift in pace and perspective — a roomier environment for work that can unfold more slowly and settle with greater clarity. That change matters for a gallery whose identity has long been shaped by editorial thinking, close artist relationships, and a willingness to take risks early.
Loyal began in 2000 as a magazine launched by Lilja. Giunta, then living in New York, met him in Stockholm the following year and joined the publication in 2001. What started as a magazine with a dedicated following for arts and culture reporting became, in 2005, a gallery in Stockholm’s Vasastan neighborhood. The transition was not framed as a strategic pivot so much as a natural extension of the same impulse: to build context around artists and shape how audiences encounter their work.
That approach helped define Loyal’s reputation in Stockholm, where early solo exhibitions featured artists including Eddie Martinez, Katherine Bernhardt, and Wes Lang, all of whom later became far more widely known. The gallery has remained intentionally lean, operated almost entirely by Lilja and Giunta, a structure they say has kept them close to both artists and collectors.
The roster has continued to grow across generations and geographies. Artists associated with Loyal include Brian Belott, Michelle Blade, Daniel Heidkamp, Mario Ayala, Chanel Khoury, Alex Gardner, Zoé Blue M, and Ross Caliendo. The gallery’s network also extends beyond Sweden, shaped by ties to New York, London, and especially Los Angeles, where Lilja and Giunta spend a quarter of each year. Loyal also stages an annual pop-up at the El Royale apartment buildings during L.A. Art Week in February; the first edition, in 2023, featured 13 artists.
In mid-March, part two of Infinite Planes High opened in Lund, marking the new chapter in a space that seems designed to slow the viewer down. For a gallery built on publishing, curation, and long-term artist relationships, the chapel feels less like a departure than a continuation — one with more air around it.
