SC Guide — Herald Street’s Galleries

With its relentless succession of openings, expansions and closures, London’s gallery scene is in continual flux. European collectors are to be expected in the capital, but London is also a crucial place for collectors from regions as diverse as the Middle East, Asia and Russia. While the areas of Mayfair and St James remain principal, new centres keep coming up. Following pioneers like Maureen Paley, who set-up her eponymous space in Bethnal Green back in 1984, a number of new galleries and project spaces have launched in the area over the recent years. Something Curated takes a look at some of the key spaces on Herald Street currently contributing to east London’s thriving art community.

 

Herald St || Nicky Verber & Ash L’ange

Launched at the beginning of 2005 by Nicky Verber and Ash L’ange, Herald St has played a critical role in the city’s art scene, introducing the work of a number of influential artists to the city. The gallery currently represents a roster of 27 international artists, including Christina Mackie, Michael Dean and Klaus Weber. Prior to Herald St, Verber and L’ange ran Millers Terrace in North East London for just under a year, before setting up their Bethnal Green space. The aim of the gallery is to offer a place for experimentation and play, showing established artists whilst simultaneously offering a platform for emerging talent.

Co-founder Verber is currently on the selection committee for Frieze London and has previously served on selection committees for Artissima, Turin and Art Forum Berlin. Notably, from 2014–16 Herald St expanded within London, opening a temporary second space in Soho. Currently showing at Herald St is Berlin-based artist Annette Kelm, whose constructed photographs of ordinary objects offer a chance to reengage with materiality and form. Under the high-key glare of studio lights, like commercial pack shots after the products have been packed away, Kelm’s compositions are contained autonomous worlds, lyrical correspondences of texture, pattern, density, weight, light and colour.

Open till 6 November at Herald St, 2 Herald Street

 

Laura Bartlett Gallery || Laura Bartlett

Established by art dealer Laura Bartlett, the gallery showcases a varied roster of young emerging artists alongside more established names, presenting a busy programme of eight annual exhibitions as well as regular events. The gallery, which was previously based on Leathermarket Street in southeast London, represents artists including Goldsmiths graduate Becky Beasley, and filmmaker-sculptor Elizabeth McAlpine, who is best known for her re-working of Nicolas Roeg’s film Don’t Look Now. Currently on show is a solo exhibition of new work by Sol Calero dedicated entirely to painting.

Solo Pintura features ten new works by the Venezuelan artist, which continue to investigate issues of nationality and identity construction, themes that are at the core of her practice. Embracing the style and pictorial vocabulary of a culture misrepresented, these paintings are bounty rich in tropicália – bursting with fruits, plants and ‘exotica’ – restrained only by the hand-painted frames that contain them. Vibrant colours spool from canvas to wall, as Calero connects the areas of the gallery by painting the walls in pastel shades of green, yellow, pink and peach.

Open till 13 November at Laura Bartlett Gallery, 4 Herald Street

 

The RYDER || Patricia Lara  

The RYDER was established in early 2015 by Patricia Lara. The founder notes, the gallery focuses, “on the presentation of artists not represented in the UK and whose practices encourage the visitor to reconsider our values and preconceived ideas about the world surrounding us. Not restricted by medium, nationality of the artist or concepts addressed, my sole aim is to give exposure to artists whose practices refer to the here and the now.” After studying comparative literature at La Sorbonne followed by Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, Lara worked for a number of curators and galleries before opening the project space.

During its first year, The RYDER’s exhibition program has had a strong focus on performance, video and installation, complemented by public talks and events to encourage dialogue and critical reflection. The gallery is currently presenting a group exhibition, ‘End-User’, including works by artists Jason File, JonesSmithJohnson, Jonas Lund and Carey Young, exploring contract law and its far-reaching implications within our lives. End-user agreements are an integral part of new consumer technologies – the works in the exhibition question this idea, exploring our personal and public life, which is increasingly influenced by legal and corporate culture.

Open till 12 November at The RYDER Projects, 19a Herald Street

 

Maureen Paley || Maureen Paley

New York-born Maureen Paley was one of the first gallerists to present work in London’s East End and has been a pioneer of the current scene promoting and showing art from the USA and continental Europe as well as launching new talent from the UK. Founded in 1984, and called Interim Art during the 1990s, the gallery was renamed Maureen Paley in 2004. Notably, Paley championed a number of the Young British Artists at an early stage. Today, gallery artists include Turner Prize winners Wolfgang Tillmans and Gillian Wearing, as well as Turner Prize nominees Liam Gillick and Rebecca Warren.

Currently exhibiting in the Bethnal Green space is American artist Maureen Gallace, who is presenting her third solo show with the gallery. The group of new paintings Gallace has selected for the show depict carefully adjusted visions of the houses and landscapes that she has visited and reimagined as a subject over many years. Focusing her attention on specific aspects of the weather, the beach shore, architectural details and plants that grow in these areas, Gallace’s oil paintings are realised with wet-on-wet brushwork into formal compositions and completed on small wooden panels.

Maureen Gallace – Open till 20 November at Maureen Paley, 21 Herald Street

 

Photography by Anne Vaandrager