Graham Southern is an English art dealer and gallery owner. In 1994, Southern was the Founding Director of Christie's (London) Post-War & Contemporary Art Department which he ran until 2001, leaving to become a director of the Anthony d’Offay Gallery. In 2002, he founded Haunch of Venison gallery with Harry Blain.[1]The gallery represented, amongst others, Turner Prize winner's Richard Long and Keith Tyson.
In 2007, Blain and Southern sold Haunch of Venison[2][3]to Christie’s International plc. Southern remained within the business and continued to run the gallery with Blain when they both left to launch a new gallery, BlainSouthern, in 2010.
Together with Blain, Southern staged many acclaimed exhibitions while at Haunch of Venison, including major surveys of Abstract Expressionism[4]and late twentieth century Russian art[5] in New York and London respectively; in Berlin they put on an exhibition with Damien Hirst and Michael Joo in 2010[6]
This April Blain|Southern will open a Berlin gallery with an exhibition by the acclaimed British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. The space, formerly the printing presses of Der Tagesspiegel, Germany’s liberal daily newspaper, is located on Potsdamer Strasse with a total floor space of 1,300 square metres, of which more than half will be exhibition space.
In 2010, Southern and Blain were cited in an Evening Standard survey as being among the most influential people in London.[7]They also featured in the 2010 Art + Auction Power 100 [8]