WENTRUP was founded in 2004 in Berlin. Conceived as a space that reacted to the young, diverse, and international art scene of Berlin, for many artists of the gallery's early days, it became their first commercial platform.
In 2009, the gallery relocated to a former couture factory building from the 1950s in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. From 2016 to 2018 the gallery was running an additional project space WNTRP in Berlin's art district on Potsdamer Straße.
Since 2019, the gallery space has been located in a listed brick building typical of the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s. A year later, WENTRUP II opened as a second gallery space in Charlottenburg.
From 2021 WENTRUP AM FEENTEICH, Hamburg – a third gallery space – presented exhibitions and discursive events in an Art Nouveau villa in Hamburg, deliberately distinguishing itself from a conventional white cube context.
With its first international branch, WENTRUP VENEZIA is continuing what began in Hamburg: the conceptualisation of exhibitions in architecturally remarkable locations. Located adjacent to Ospedale SS. Giovanni e Paolo in the Cannaregio district, the gallery is housed in a historic building previously used as the studio of Italian fashion designer Giuliana Camerino, a pioneer in the Italian fashion scene from the 1950s onwards.
The gallery's portfolio comprises a diverse group of 20 cross-disciplinary and trans-generational artists with a global background. The gallery artists have been included in a wide array of internationally renowned museum exhibitions, and were part of international exhibition venues such as the Venice Biennial, documenta, Sharjah Biennial, Whitney Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, La Biennale de Lyon, Manifesta, Skulptur Projekte Münster, Berlin Biennale et al.
The gallery regularly exhibits at international art fairs such as Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Cologne, The Armory Show, and West Bund Shanghai.