Zurich Gallery Galerie Philipp Zollinger to Close Permanently After Seven Years
Galerie Philipp Zollinger is shutting down permanently, bringing an end to a seven-year run in Zurich as the dealer points to a market that no longer supports the gallery’s scale or ambitions. Philipp Zollinger said the decision follows months of reassessment and a worsening sense that the conditions needed to sustain the program have disappeared.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Zollinger said he had hoped to keep investing in the gallery at the start of the year, but concluded that the global art market remains too unstable to justify continuing. “I have always believed in hoping for the best while preparing for the unexpected,” he wrote, adding that the “conditions necessary” to sustain and grow the gallery “are no longer present.”
The gallery had already closed its physical space on Rämistrasse in fall 2025, citing an unstable art market and the mounting costs of fair participation. At the time, Zollinger noted that art was still being acquired, but “on a smaller scale and less frequently,” a shift that made the business increasingly difficult to maintain. Before settling into its Zurich location near the Zurich Opera House and the Kunsthaus Zürich, the gallery had operated nomadically.
Galerie Philipp Zollinger’s roster leaned toward Swiss and Scandinavian artists working in three-dimensional media, while also including artists from Southeast Asia and the United States. Its most recent exhibition, shown at Galerie Mueller in Basel and closed on April 18, paired Swiss painter Renée Levi, whose work is associated with Basel’s abstract tradition, with Theo Eble, the painter, graphic designer, and co-founder of the anti-fascist Swiss collective Gruppe 33. On the same day Zollinger announced the closure, the Hayward Gallery in London and Audemars Piguet Contemporary said they had commissioned Levi to create a large-scale work for the Hayward facade, set to open this fall.
No future programming is listed on the gallery’s website, and the statement did not specify when the final shutdown will take place. The announcement arrives amid a broader wave of gallery closures that has continued to reshape the international art market, especially for smaller spaces navigating rising costs and uneven demand.
Peers in Zurich responded with public messages of support. Galerie Schudi thanked Zollinger for “the wonderful time” and for being “such a great neighbor,” while Galerie Gregor Staiger congratulated him “on the great run.” Zollinger closed his statement with a note of gratitude to the artists and supporters who sustained the gallery’s work, calling the closure a heavy moment but one marked by appreciation for what the space made possible.
