Timo Kappeller Joins Pace Gallery as Senior Director

Timo Kappeller has joined Pace Gallery as senior director in New York, where he will focus on sales and artist relations, the gallery announced this week. He assumed the role on January 20.

Capelle comes to Pace after three years as artistic director of The Campus, a collaborative exhibition space in upstate New York run by Bortolami, James Cohan, Kaufmann Repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps and Kurimazutto. Prior to this, he held senior positions at Hauser & Wirth and Andrew Kreps, and began his career in Europe, including early roles with Documenta in Kassel, Germany, and KW Institute of Contemporary Art in Berlin.

Kappeler was hired after numerous departures from Pace’s top brass over the past two years. Last September, senior vice president Jessie Washburne-Harris left Pace to become global director of White Cube. Then, in November, news broke that artist Yoshitomo Nara would be leaving the gallery to succeed David Zwirner, brokered by Joe Baptista, a partner at Pace until 2025. In 2024, Gary Waterson, who recently joined the gallery as executive vice president of global sales and operations, was one of three employees laid off.

The move marks Kapelle’s return to a sales-focused role in the art market, although he sees it as more of a continuation than a shift. Over the course of his career he has moved between exhibition production, sales and institutional settings, often occupying spaces where these categories blur.

“I’ve always been interested in tracing an artist’s trajectory and helping to communicate the work as clearly as possible,” Capelle said.

At Pace, this means staying close to artists while carefully thinking about how their work flows between studios, collectors and institutions, without letting short-term needs dictate long-term decisions. Kapeller said he especially likes Pace’s emphasis on patiently managing his career rather than pushing up the price as soon as he gets attention.

This long-term view also shapes his view of the current market. While much of the discussion in recent years has focused on younger buyers and emerging artists, Kapeller noted that he sees increasing opportunities for mid-career artists who have been producing serious work for decades but have never been entirely affected by earlier market cycles.

“There’s huge potential there,” he said, describing the moment when galleries and collectors began to look back at artists whose relevance never faded, even as visibility did.

Announcing the appointment, Pace President Samant Rubell said Kappeler’s experience in galleries and institutions enhances the gallery’s ability to support artists at different stages of their careers. She emphasized Kappeler’s long-standing relationships with artists and collectors, as well as his sensitivity to artistic practice, as assets to the New York-based team.

Kapelle’s background in Europe also aligns with Pace’s broader international strategy, particularly as the gallery continues to expand its footprint in the German-speaking world (it opened a branch in Berlin last year), as well as its long-standing presence in New York and other global centers.