London Galleries: A Moving Scene
The 5th edition of London Gallery Weekend, from June 6 to 8, demonstrated the city's vitality: the gallery scene is being renewed with the arrival of young brands and big names
The math is easy to do. With 126 galleries, including 15 first-time participants, London Gallery Weekend (LGW) far outstrips its Parisian counterpart, which only brings together 77 brands. Since 2023, 28 of the galleries featured in LGW have opened their first or second spaces in the city, which represents two to three openings per month over two and a half years. "Post-Covid and Brexit, there were real concerns. But ultimately, things have moved forward, and there's still just as much circulation of works and visitors. London is a surprisingly resilient market; the energy is constantly being renewed," notes Lucy Cowling, co-director of the Emalin gallery, which opened its doors in East London in 2016, and a second space in the neighborhood in January 2024. Its nearly ten years of existence coincide with the birth and gradual establishment of a local micro-scene with macro ambitions. Slowly but surely, the names Hackney and Shoreditch have become synonymous with cool and artsy. Today, East London is home to a dozen avant-garde boutiques: Ilenia, Nicoletti, Kate MacGarry, Neven Gallery, mother's tankstation, Soft Opening, and more. To the west, the Bloomsbury district, which made its name in the 20th century with the Bloomsbury Group, formed around Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster, is now home to another circle of young, committed gallery owners: a.Squire, Hot Wheels, Brunette Coleman, Union Pacific, and more. To the south, a small scene is emerging with the William Hine and Soup galleries. Here, as there, "There's a real sense of community in the neighborhood. We know each other and support each other."
"The current market isn't the easiest place to start out, but there's strength in numbers," says young gallerist Ilenia Rossi, who has worked at Kamel Mennour and Sadie Coles HQ and opened her own gallery, Ilenia, in Shoreditch in the fall of 2023.
A gallery of one's own
"For our second location, we thought long and hard about where to set up shop: in another city, in London, in the East End, or elsewhere," explains Lucy Cowling. "We ultimately decided to strengthen our local commitment. When people come to see us, they can walk to both galleries, and those of friends, within a few minutes." In a city where it's easy to spend an hour traveling from one place to another, the luxury of an artistic stroll is a compelling argument.
"Collectors travel once a month to tour galleries," says French artist Sarah Le Quang Sang, whose eponymous gallery, SLQS, opened in March. The program, specializing in women and queer artists, quickly found a home in Shoreditch, where "the scene is much more experimental than in Paris."
Determined to settle in the neighborhood, she spent over a year searching for a gallery of her own. With crazy rents and an unregulated real estate market, London is as promising as it is expensive.
A former stable
"Landlords prefer to leave premises empty for a year or more before lowering the price. Tenants, on the other hand, have very little protection," explains Sarah Le Quang Sang, who finally found her dream space in the back of a red brick building, giving the small 35m2 attic gallery the feel of an artist's studio. To establish their identity, new galleries are focusing on atypical spaces. Already located in a historic 1880 building, Emalin is doubling down on character with its new location in a former rectory dating back to 1700. "We are committed to our historic walls, which are very different from the white cubes of the big Mayfair galleries," notes the gallery, which has given its own names to each of its locations: The Lazarus Building and The Clerk's House. In Fitzrovia, Frenchman Louis Blanc-Francard, who cut his teeth at Victoria Miro before launching lbf contemporary at the end of 2023, has set up shop in a former stable with high ceilings. "We were looking for a gallery that was distinctly our own, with character and integrity," explains the gallerist, who, like his peers, sees the city and the challenging economic climate as a stimulus to "define our program and identity with even greater precision and intention." There is undoubtedly the potential to thrive in London, where people love discovery and intellectual challenge."
Cosmopolitan Scent
"London is a city that loves stories," summarizes Levent Özmen, director of the Dirimart gallery, founded in Istanbul in 2002, which will make its international debut with the opening of a second gallery in Hanover Square in the heart of Mayfair, where the upscale art district is no exception. It's a short walk from Gagosian, Almine Rech, and Pace, as well as the new London gallery by Perrotin, which has been located since March in the Artspace Café of the 5-star Claridge's hotel; the future new location of Sadie Coles, which will occupy 17 Savile Row, a listed 18th-century building, this fall; and the Pacific gallery Ames Yavuz (Singapore, Sydney), which opened in April and chose London as its gateway to Europe. "London is one of the beating hearts of the market, but also of the multicultural discourse within which our program is embedded," explains founder Can Yavuz, who studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies. "Our artists, whose practices are rooted in the historical and artistic heritage of Turkey and Istanbul, a true crossroads of cultures, find an echo chamber in London's cosmopolitanism," continues Levent Özmen, who was looking for his first international address "a city where not only collectors reside and visit, but also international curators and critics. All of them are accustomed to making an annual visit to London." A tour that is increasingly worth the detour.
