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Leo Koenig, 23
Owner/art dealer
Leo Koenig Inc.
When Leo Koenig showed up in New York City in 1996, seeking refuge from the mandatory draft in Germany, he had only his suitcase and the addresses of some established art dealers who were friends of his father.
Five years later, every show at his hip TriBeCa gallery is a sell-out, and Mr. Koenig is being heralded as one of the hottest new things to grace the art world.
“I would put him in the top echelon of the younger dealers, no question,” says Frederic Cooper, a renowned collector, and assistant general counsel at KPMG. “I implicitly trust his eye and his judgment.”
Mr. Koenig developed his instinct for art growing up in his mother’s art bookshop in Munich, and going on weekend jaunts across Europe visiting museums with his father, German museum curator Kasper Koenig.
His first solo attempt at a fledgling gallery took place in a garage on the outskirts of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, back in 1999. Opening night brought in around 800 people and put his name on the map.
Last January, he set up shop in a 4,000-square-foot TriBeCa space, seeking a different atmosphere than the established art scene in Chelsea. His gallery is already booked with shows through January 2002.
Mr. Koenig, a lanky blond, is quickly becoming known as a trendsetter, both for the emerging artists he represents and the fashionable all-night parties he throws. But he tries to stay above the fads.
“I don’t like the words ‘trend,’ or ‘hip,’ or ‘cool,’” Mr. Koenig says. “What we’re doing is a very serious job and it takes a lot of consideration and thought. So ‘trend’ doesn’t really play into that.”