VernissageTV interviews Franziska Leeb of Grita Insam Gallery, Vienna. The gallery’s artists at ARCO’06 are Frantisek Lesak, Ken Lum, Peter Sandbichler and Ruth Schnell. ARCO / Madrid, February 9, 2006.
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Grita Insam (born in 1939 in Vienna, Austria, died in 2012 in Vienna) was an Austrian gallery owner and considered one of the most important promoters of contemporary art in Austria.

Insam studied advertising and market research and then founded an agency. As an advertising specialist, she conceived a campaign with several artists for the Prinzhorn paper company (Hamburger-Mosburger) in 1969/70. She commented on this with “I was suddenly in the art scene – and then didn’t want to get out” and subsequently founded the Modern Art Gallery in 1971. After content disputes, she parted ways with her partners and opened her own gallery in 1974. Insam closed her gallery in November 2011 for health reasons. The last exhibition was dedicated to the artist collective Art & Language (Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden).

In 2009 Insam was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art by the Minister of Culture Claudia Schmied for her work “as one of the pioneers in the mediation and promotion of contemporary art in Vienna”.  (source: Wikipedia)

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