Michael Lett opened his eponymous gallery in a ground floor space on the corner of Karangahape Road and Edinburgh Street, Auckland in 2003.

Lett had previously worked for art dealers Anna Bibby and Sue Crockford and was with the Gow Langsford Gallery when he decided to open his own business.

[8] Andrew Thomas, who had previously worked with Hamish McKay in Wellington and White Cube in London, joined the gallery and later becomes partner and co-owner.

The gallery has also shown an interest in promoting recent art history and first showed work by Jim Allen the influential teacher and artist within three years of opening.

The work exhibited was a re-creation by Allen of his performance piece Poetry for Chainsaws that was first shown in 1976 at the Experimental Art Foundation in Adelaide, Australia.