Thaddaeus Ropac

Thaddaeus Ropac (born 16 January 1960), is an Austrian gallerist specializing in international contemporary art. He founded Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in 1983, and represents more than 60 artists with his galleries in Salzburg (Austria), Paris Marais, Pantin (France) and London (coming soon).

Ropac was born in Klagenfurt, and raised in Carinthia, Austria's southernmost state. He initially unearthed his passion for art on a school trip to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna Museum of Art) and went on to serve his first internship with Joseph Beuys in 1982. While in New York, Ropac became acquainted with young artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Ropac opened his first gallery in Salzburg at the age of 23 in 1983, followed by a second one in Paris Marais seven years later. Launched in 1990 with one exhibition room, Ropac's space today stretches across three floors on Rue Debelleyme in Paris's Marais neighborhood. Today his galleries represent some of the most important Austrian artists, such as Erwin Wurm, Hubert Scheibl, Gerwald Rockenschaub and Arnulf Rainer, as well as international artists like Georg Baselitz, Alex Katz, and Anselm Kiefer. In 2012, Ropac renovated a 1900 former heating systems factory in Pantin, in the east of Paris, and transformed its eight buildings to make exhibition halls, a performance centre, a library/archive, a viewing room and artists’ studios.

The gallery organizes extensive solo and group exhibitions, often accompanied by comprehensive publications, not only in its own premises, but also in collaboration with major international museums and other non-commercial art institutions. Between 2005 and 2011, in partnership with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Ropac asked Hedi Slimane, Robert Wilson, and Sofia Coppola to act as guest curators and to select a series of the foundation's images for three gallery shows. The Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is present at all major contemporary art fairs including, the Armory Show in New York, the Art Basel fairs in Basel, Miami and Hong Kong, Frieze Art Fair in London and New York and the FIAC in Paris.

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