About us

From the beginning...

The sale of an Attersee landscape work was one of the starting points for Ebi Kohlbacher and Lui Wienerroither’s gallery work today. As early as the late 1980s, a student flat styled like an “Kunstheuriger” became the meeting point for young collectors and artists.The company was founded soon afterwards in 1993. A few years later in 1997, W&K moved to Vienna´s city centre. The high arches of Palais Hardegg on Strauchgasse offered the perfect atmosphere for presenting classical modernism. Modernism focusing on Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka and Alfred Kubin, as well as art from the Interwar Period were the centre of interest right from the beginning.

By participating in international art fairs and presenting furthermore representatives of classical modernism such as Erich Heckel, Lyonel Feininger and Pablo Picasso, W&K has established itself as a key at the artmarket over the past 25 years. With the W&K Edition, the gallery is dedicated to the publication of scientific exhibition catalogues and monographs. Collaborations with internationally renowned experts such as Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Jane Kallir, Gerd Pichler, Dieter Buchhart, Serge Lemoine and many others are always crucial in this respect. In 2013, W&K associated with the well-known Shepherd Gallery in New York and since then, has been implementing joint exhibition projects. In obtaining a further location, this time in Vienna, the gallery was expanded three years later. With the baroque premises of Palais Schönborn-Batthyány, steeped in tradition, a unique exhibition room was added, where W&K has displayed contemporary items and art from after 1945 ever since.

In their 25 years as art dealer, W&K have placed prominent works with notable museums and private collections across the globe. As part of regular collaborations and loans, works from W&K have already been exhibited in more than 30 international museums and collections, such as the Albertina Museum Vienna, the Belvedere, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Gallery in London and the Fundación Juan March.