20 years VAN HORN

There’s plenty to celebrate at this year’s Art Düsseldorf, with several galleries marking major milestones.⁠
Leading the way is VAN HORN: The gallery has been an established art space within Düsseldorf’s contemporary art community and celebrated its 20th year in 2024. Its founder, Daniela Steinfeld, discusses the history of the gallery, its connection with the city of Düsseldorf and plans for the future in our exclusive interview.

The history of Van Horn

Daniela Steinfeld wanted to create a space where she could not only act freely as an artist, but also collaborate with others – something that has always been essential to her artistic practice. VAN HORN was originally founded as a non-profit exhibition space and has been an established gallery in Düsseldorf since 2004.

The gallery takes its name from a small town in Texas, near the Mexican border and close to Marfa, where the founder spent several months in the 1990s as an artist-in-residence. The associations with Van Halen (the rock band), Van Helsing (the vampire hunter), and Van Cleef & Arpels (the jeweler) opened up a name that invites multiplicity and playfulness.

But VAN HORN is more than just a name – it’s a space for diverse forms of cultural expression, and a platform where art, people, and different actors come together. For Daniela Steinfeld, the gallery is a place where art, life, and business can intersect and evolve, free from rigid rules.

Why did you choose Düsseldorf as the location when you founded the company? What was the city like back then?

Düsseldorf was more or less a given. I studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, had my studio in Düsseldorf after graduating and was deeply rooted in the Düsseldorf art scene. At that time, there was no comparable space in Düsseldorf and no new generation of galleries (yet). I saw the opportunity to develop something new and unique in the city, to fill a gap and make a difference.

Düsseldorf is changing as an art city. What developments have you observed over the years and how has the gallery positioned itself in this context?

After focusing on Berlin for a long time, the energy has now returned to Düsseldorf. Fortunately, we have always had an important breeding ground for art in the city with the Academy of Art. In recent years, this has been joined by a high-quality, lively gallery scene, an internationally positioned art fair, new directors of the city’s most important institutions, whose openness, curiosity and understanding of the special local art world make a big difference, and a political landscape that sees art and culture as the basis for good coexistence in civil society. Van Horn is part of this expanded art landscape and I myself am actively involved, both with the gallery and as a volunteer on the board of the Friends of the Kunstpalast, as a jury member on various committees or as one of the ambassadors of the BVDG in NRW.

When you look back: Which moments or exhibitions were particularly formative for you?

There are a few to name. The key exhibitions, the basis for everything to come, were certainly the series of exhibitions in the first year: the icon of underground comics Robert Crumb (with his first solo exhibition in Germany), the wall panel drawings by the founder of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, which found particular resonance in the Beuys city of Düsseldorf, and Nicole Eisenman, also in her first solo exhibition in Germany. Also very important for me was the solo exhibition “Mucha Zuhause” by the great Reinhard Mucha, which took place in parallel in the old exhibition space and the new rooms of the gallery. Then there are the exhibitions curated by Wilhelm Schürmann and realized with his support, from Cady Noland to “Volume Imaginaire”. “Fuck Your Fear”, created in collaboration with Florian Peters-Messer and the statement exhibition ‘Germany’, which opened shortly before the pandemic. And, of course, always the large solo exhibitions of the artists I have been accompanying for many years.

How do you select the artists you represent? Are there certain criteria or focal points that are particularly important to you?

That’s a difficult, almost impossible question to answer. For me, it’s a personal, intuitive process: something in the work grabs me, touches me, fascinates me so much that I can’t let it go. Sometimes it happens very quickly, sometimes it takes me years to extend an invitation. Of course, the choice to work together is always mutual. It’s important to me that artists are passionate about their work, that they don’t let go, that they search and find and do their own thing. Fashions, movements and schools don’t interest me that much. Later on, other, gallery-immanent considerations come into play.

To what extent has working with artists changed over the years? Do you have a different approach than when you started the gallery?

Yes, everything flows, everything is constantly changing. As the founder of the Van Horn exhibition space, I invited colleagues; as the founder of Galerie Van Horn, other criteria flow in that go beyond the actual works of art. Mutual respect, openness, transparent communication, friendliness and decency have become increasingly important to me in our collaboration.

What does the future hold for VAN HORN? Are there any new projects or changes we can look forward to?

Surprise.

In addition to the gallery, you also host the Voices On Art podcast. What criteria do you use to select your guests and what challenges do you face during production?

There are no criteria other than my personal interest in the story of the people I talk to. In my productions for the Independent art fair, the guests are usually selected from the galleries and artists exhibiting there. The challenges are mainly of a technical nature, both in terms of recording and editing. We record online and it is particularly difficult for some of the older guests to prepare for this.

To what extent do the conversations from the podcast influence your curatorial work and your perspective as a gallery owner?

The podcast is above all a great enrichment of my life and work. I’m doing what I enjoy most and what I’m perhaps also quite good at – connecting with people.

VAN HORN is represented as MAIN Gallery at Art Düsseldorf 2025. You can look forward to an exciting gallery booth!