Stacen Berg, senior director at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, joined the gallery in 2011. Founded in 1992 in Zurich by Iwan Wirth, Manuela Wirth and Ursula Hauser, the gallery now boasts branches in multiple cities, including London, Hong Kong and New York. When they decided to open a branch on the West Coast, Berg was instrumental in helping them locate a venue. From the start they targeted the Arts District in DTLA, at a time when the area was still a bit dicey. Their bet has paid off. Opening in 2016, Hauser & Wirth LA and its restaurant Manuela have become prime cultural and culinary destinations for Angelenos and tourists alike.

Artillery: This is a really unique and interesting space, a former flour mill, and you’re using so many different parts of it.
Stacen Berg: It was 2014 when we secured this building. The vision for this space really grew to fit the building that we found. As we went on, it became clear that, ‘Oh, we can have a restaurant here, we can have outdoor sculpture, a bookstore …’ And you have a huge attic space; I once attended a talk there. It’s called the Education Loft, where we have talks, performances and meetings. It’s also a great viewing room.

The loading dock, of course, must have been a big plus.
This building has incredible access points. You can literally drive a truck into it, it’s all on grade. We had the giant Paul McCarthy wood sculptures here. That’s what is really beautiful about this space; each gallery is really unique, not too large. You can do one giant show throughout all spaces or break it down.

How long did you take to renovate?
It was about nine months, because it had all the bones we were looking for, but had been kind of neglected. It’s got a great history; we kept a lot of the original details.

This is now a destination point. I hear people from out of town say, “We have to go to Hauser & Wirth during our visit.”
Totally. Our programming has really followed [the space] to extend beyond just exhibitions of artists we represent. We do a lot of programming, like we partner with L.A. Chamber Orchestra to do free concerts. We’ve partnered with Cal State LA. They have this great program called Community Impact Media, where the kids go out and make short films with nonprofits. We’ve sponsored that program for the last two semesters, and we screen the films here. And Iwan Wirth is on the board of Cal Arts, so we do a lot with them. The Cal Arts dance department has done performances here.

In terms of the art, do you find that you program especially for LA?
There’s a complex and layered conversation about what to show where. I think the building is very inspiring to our artists, and the response of our artists has been tremendous. Some have never shown on the West Coast, like Takesada Matsutani and Geta Bratescu.

The Alexander Calder show (through Jan. 6, 2019) you have up right now is really remarkable, it feels like a curated museum show.
They’re mostly loans from the Calder Foundation, and a few things are for sale.

Who are the Los Angeles–based artists that you work with?
Mark Bradford, Charles Gaines, Paul McCarthy, Rachel Khedoori, Diana Thater, the Mike Kelley Foundation, Larry Bell.

What do you have planned for the coming year?
We’re going to have our first show with Charles Gaines, who’s a great artist and influential teacher, in fall 2019. It’s very exciting, we just started working with him this year. We take a long-term approach—when we work with an artist, it’s for life.