Iwan Wirth

Iwan Wirth (born 1970, Zürich) is a Swiss contemporary art dealer and gallery owner. President of Hauser & Wirth Zürich London New York, he started selling artworks as a seven year-old and opened his first gallery while still a schoolboy in St. Gallen in 1986.

Wirth founded Hauser & Wirth Zürich with its other principals, Ursula Hauser and Manuela Wirth, in 1992. Since 1996 it has been located in a former Löwenbräu brewery building on Limmatstrasse, along with art museums and other contemporary galleries. In 2003, Hauser & Wirth London opened on Piccadilly in an historic Sir Edwin Lutyens building. Three years later Hauser & Wirth set up offices and a shared gallery space in Old Bond Street, hosting several exhibitions annually.

In September 2009, Hauser & Wirth New York will open at 32 East 69th Street with 'YARD', a seminal Environment first made in 1961 by Allan Kaprow, the profoundly influential American artist known as the inventor of 'Happenings.'

Sammlung Hauser & Wirth, which houses the family’s extensive private collection, staged public exhibitions in St. Gallen from 1999 to 2004.

In 2008, Art Review magazine’s annual 'The Power 100’ list placed Wirth as the most important contemporary art dealer in Europe and second in the world, stating: ‘If you want a gallerist who truly does everything, then Iwan Wirth is your man’. The New York Times describes Wirth as ‘one of the most powerful players in contemporary art’, while a recent survey of artists’ opinions for Flash Art magazine’s ‘100 Top International Galleries’, voted the gallery number one in Europe and second in the world.