Yorgos Kotsakis is the Gallery Manager at Galerie Templon in Paris. He was introduced to me by Ko Smith, my dear friend who is an incredible artist based in Paris. Yorgos very generously shared some time with me to tell me his story and reveal what it’s like to manage a Parisian gallery.
Yorgos in front of a Jonathan Meese work at his exhibition at Templon
Tell me about your background Yorgos.
I was born and raised in Athens, Greece. My love for art was kind of suppressed as I developed, choosing my path was an internal struggle. I was ‘forced’ to get better in math, physics, chemistry, and I went along with it until it eventually caught up to me. So after finishing high school, I did a year at a university in Athens, before moving to France for a degree in Economics. Neither of them was a match so I eventually ended up quitting both.
During those first years of university, I realised that I wanted to be an artist. I started practicing photography, which I still do to this day. I applied to the École des Beaux-Arts de Lyon twice, but I didn’t make it in. Both times when I got rejected, I was heartbroken. I felt time fleeting away from me and I saw myself being drawn away from art.
So then I applied for a degree in Humanities (Lettres Appliquées-Anglais) at the University of Lyon 2 Lumière. I majored in British and American Civilisation (Literature, Political Studies, and Translation) and French Literature and Language. I went on to do a bachelor’s in Art History and Archaeology, before concluding with a two-year Research Master’s degree in Art History. During my Master’s research, I developed my thesis on the subject of “Anonymous, amateur, gay photography in inter-war France and Switzerland”.
Why Art History?
I took on Art History and Archeology as a sort of experiment. Honestly, I didn’t know where it would lead me. I just know that on my first day, at the end of the day we had a lecture and I left it in tears – I was so happy to have spent the day talking about art.
Yorgos on a studio visit at ORLAN’s studio
I remember talking about it with my family, aunts, friends etc., and all of them had questions such as “What do you become with this degree?” or “Where can you work after?”. In a strange way, where I come from, Art History is a discipline that is sadly, not as sought after or integrated.
So your relationship with art began then?
Haha yes. Well actually, I’ve always loved painting. When I was 4 years old, the kindergarten I was in had submitted the school in a sort of national competition of painting for children and I ended up winning a little something. Immediately after that, my mum enrolled me in a workshop for children at the Museum of Children’s Art in Athens.
How did you get to be working as a gallery manager at Templon?
The gallery was unknown to me before doing my first ever internship at Galerie Suzanne Tarasiève. I was really curious to understand what a gallery does, and I had the immense luck to run into the late Suzanne Tarasiève in 2018, who offered me a six-month internship.
This internship was followed by another two; one at the Galerie Clementine de la Ferronnière, and a last one at Templon, where I ended up being hired after a couple of months.
In your line of work is it always essential to intern first?
It’s a bit of both. It is expected to have similar experiences in the field, or in a similar field, and internships are often mandatory in order to validate a semester, or to complete your university degree (which I went through myself). However, I chose to do additional internships of my own volition, because I wanted to make my CV more desirable in terms of hiring potential.
What is a typical day at work like for you at Galerie Templon?
I get to work at 10am. My day is either filled with guided tours of the show when needed, working on projects related to our artists. Usually, every six weeks we close each show and we prepare the next one. We are blessed to have a big team in Paris, approximately 20 people, including a sales team, a communications team, and a registrar.
I would say that my primary responsibility is interacting with the public, the collectors, people from institutions. I am responsible for the historical space of the gallery, situated at 30 Beaubourg, in the Marais district. I make sure that the gallery has everything it needs in order to function smoothly, from something as small as pencils, all the way up to the more critical administrative tasks.
Yorgos adjusting the lighting for Antoine Roegiers exhibition
What kind of gallery is Templon?
Templon is a contemporary art gallery, founded by Daniel Templon in 1966. We showcase all kinds of media.
Can you tell me about Daniel?
Daniel is a self-made man, who has one of the best-trained eyes when it comes to recognising talent. He had the chance to create the gallery during an era where the contemporary art market was defining itself.
What are some of the challenges that come with your job? Any disaster stories?
One big challenge for me in this industry has been to learn how to adapt my personality depending on whom I am talking with. And so far, the only disaster I have witnessed, was the adjacent building in our courtyard catching fire. Other than that, we are blessed with a great team, so things run very smoothly.
What do you mean by adapt your personality exactly? Adapt how you approach different customers to sell work?
Actually it’s not really about the sales – I don’t do sales. But my job requires me to be able to anticipate everyone’s needs in the space. So that could be a colleague, a visitor, or it could be an artist - I have to be able to adapt depending.
Oh I see. And what are the best parts about your job?
Being able to talk about and deal with art during the whole day. It’s so cliché to say that, but for me, being able to interact with the artists I work with, and witness art history happening before my eyes, it’s the biggest privilege I have.
Do you have any stories about some amazing art or artists you’ve worked with?
Antoine Roegiers is one of my favourite artists that we represent. We met in 2020, when I was starting out in the field, and we immediately clicked and became really close friends.
That’s so nice, how did you meet?
We met in January 2020, I was interning at Tarasiève’s gallery, and we ended up doing half of the installation of his show the two of us. We bonded a lot during the exhibition, and we just never stopped being close since then. He has a unique talent and a true passion and devotion for his work. Roughly two years after starting at Templon, I pitched his portfolio to the gallery and then magic kind of happened.
Yorgos, with Chiharu Shiota’s work, The Extended Line, Art Basel Unlimited, 2024
Antoine is an avid admirer of the Flemish masters; Pieter Bruegel the Elder, James Ensor, Hieronymus Bosch, are some of his influences and inspirations. I remember Antoine telling me that when he was younger and his parents took him to museum visits, when he was looking at paintings, he would very often try to imagine what happens after the moment that is captured in the painting.
He is a graduate of the Beaux-Arts of Paris, and then went on to do a training in animation, where he learned how to create videos of his work. In January 2020, he started painting a series that is narrated in chapters (each exhibition is a chapter of the series) the first chapter being showcased in 2020 at Suzanne Tarasiève’s gallery. In November 2023 he exhibited the third chapter in our Brussels gallery, and in October 2024 the fourth, in the space I am managing.
Oh incredible!
Can you describe the art world in Paris? Is it very different?
Paris is like a beehive: it’s smaller than other capitals but it has such a vibrant energy when it comes to the art world. The city’s museums and cultural foundations have a very condensed agenda, showing new exhibitions every 4 to 6 months. Something that I have always admired in the French museum system, is the thorough research that is taking place for the exhibition to happen; most of the time they find bold and fresh angles to explore the topic they have chosen, which is usually the hardest thing to achieve.
Anything terribly frustrating about it?
No, nothing really. Well, maybe just the fact that there are way too many things to see, and not enough time to see everything.
Haha
During a Norbert Bisky exhibition
And Le Marais?
The Marais is kind of a miracle. It used to be an industrialised area until laws regarding pollutant emissions changed and pushed all sorts of industries of the kind in the outskirts of the city. Former spaces such as the one I work for benefited from it, because they were ideal for contemporary art. They offered great heights, very few walls, allowing galleries to establish a “white cube” easily. Daniel (Templon), moved his gallery into the space I run in 1972. The Centre Pompidou was still an empty lot at the time, but the at-the-time government had announced their plans for the future museum, just across the street.
Since then, it has become a vibing area with great shops and restaurants, a beautiful selection of museums, foundations, and contemporary art galleries. Working in a gallery in the Marais on Saturdays is intense in a good way. It’s definitely one of our busiest days, especially after lunch time.
Really, Paris is quite spoiled, in a good way; and the Marais remains the centre for contemporary art, where you can literally spend an entire day gallery-hoping. But yea, in the past 2 years, the city has seen a lot of growth and expansion in terms of new galleries who establish a space in the city, such as Hauser & Wirth, Mendes Wood DM.
What is it like working with your Collectors?
I couldn’t really categorise the type of collectors we work with and put them all into one ‘box’, simply because our collector base is very diverse. They come from backgrounds that are completely heterogenous. And I couldn’t give you a number, but we do welcome collaborations with art advisors.
As a gallery manager, I am always physically present at front desk. The part of the job I enjoy the most, is talking to the public, whether it is to visitors who are around to see what exhibition we are showing, or collectors who are interested in acquiring a piece.
Collectors are even more interesting in a way, because there is a more profound connection to be made there: discussing an artist that interests them, getting to know their likes and dislikes. There is a sort of bond that is being created.
Most of our collectors like to check-in from time to time, to see which artist we are showcasing, what projects we are involved in, which fairs we are participating in.
Any cool shows coming up?
Oh, for sure – we are showcasing an exhibition with new works by Alioune Diagne, a Senegalese painter who represented his country in the Venice Biennale in 2024. His first-ever solo exhibition in Templon New York is opening on March 6th.
There is also a beautiful show by Jeanne Vicerial, opening in the space where I am based, in May.
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