Artist-run space
Encyclopedia
An artist-run space is a gallery space run by artists, thus circumventing the structures of public and private galleries.
Artist-run spaces have become realised as an important factor in urban regeneration. This effect was particularly strong in Glasgow, where the city won the accolade 'European Capital of Culture
' in 1990, largely due to the large number of artist-run exhibition spaces and galleries. Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist
coined the term "The Glasgow Miracle" to describe this.
Examples of artist-run spaces include City Racing
, BANK
, studio1.1 http://www.studio1-1.co.uk Studio Voltaire, Cubitt
and Auto Italia South East
in London, Milwaukee's BATHAS Internationale, Berlin
's Sparwasser HQ , island6
in Shanghai
, Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou
, 16 Beaver (New York
), Good Children (New Orleans), Mercer Union and YYZ Artists' Outlet
(Toronto
), p-10 (Singapore
), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Transmission Gallery and Market Gallery in Glasgow
, The Embassy Gallery and Total Kunst in Edinburgh
, Generator Projects in Dundee
, OUTPOST Gallery and STEW Gallery & Artist Studios in Norwich
. In the last years many artist-run spaces started opening in South America
, mostly in Brazil
and Argentina
, an example being APPETITE Gallery http://appetite.com.ar/ in Buenos Aires
.
In 2005 Seattle-based SOIL Publications released SOIL: Artist-Run Gallery 1995-2005, edited by Yuki Nakamura. This collection of critical essays, features on past exhibitions and profiles of artists documents ten years in the running of an artist-run space.
located mostly in the East Village
in lower Manhattan became the proving ground for much of the contemporary art that achieved popularity and commercial success in the decades that followed. During the 1960s the Park Place Gallery
became the first important contemporary gallery in SoHo
. Park Place gallery was an artist-run cooperative that featured cutting-edge Geometric abstraction. Eventually by the 1970s SoHo
became the new center for the New York art world as hundreds of commercial galleries opened in a sudden wave of artistic prosperity.
Pierogi 2000, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
, is run by artist Joe Amrhein. The gallery puts on traditional exhibitions and also presents works on paper in an extensive system of flat files. Viewers can look through hundreds of individual artists’ portfolios of works on paper contained within the flat file drawers. These files travel for exhibition at other venues in the United States and abroad.
Momenta Art is an artist-run nonprofit institution also in Williamsburg. Momenta Art shows work by emerging artists that are not well represented in commercial galleries. It has an annual fundraiser
which is a benefit group exhibition and raffle
. The fundraiser has been hosted regularly by White Columns
, another non-profit organization
dedicated to supporting emerging artists.
MINUS SPACE
is an artist-run curatorial project devoted to reductive art
. Minus Space maintains an exhibition space in Brooklyn
and curates exhibitions at other venues nationally and internationally. Minus Space also has a location on the Internet
enabling it to collaborate with other institutions. The website has a running log of related exhibitions and a chronology
documenting the development of reductive and concept-based art.
Manhattan Graphics Center (MGC), located in the West Village, is run by artist volunteers and offers artists printmaking
studios and classes. In a cooperative
system artists can also use the facility in exchange for administrative work. Manhattan Graphics Center also exhibits the work of artists who have used the facility.
and University of San Francisco
. Kitsch was voted Best New Warehouse Space of 2010 by SF Weekly. Artists who have been presented or exhibited at Kitsch include Alex Braubach, Boyz IV Men, Ryan Coffey, Dean Dempsey, Henry Gunderson
, Greg Ito, Warren Thomas King, and Cal Volner-Dison.
founded the Stuckism International Gallery
in 2002 in Charlotte Road, Shoreditch
, in a four-story Victorian warehouse. He said, "The main space was my living room. It had sofas and normal home lighting ... People could come in, sit down, maybe have a cup of tea". The last show there was in 2004.
The Transition Gallery was founded in October 2002 in a converted garage close to Victoria Park
, Hackney
, London, and is run by artists Cathy Lomax
and Alex Michon
to show work by established and new contemporary artists. In 2006, the gallery moved to Regent Studios in Andrews Road, London. Charles Saatchi
bought Stella Vine
's painting Hi Paul Can You Come Over I'm Really Frightened from the gallery in 2004.
Stella Vine founded the Rosy Wilde
gallery as an artist-run project space, in 2003 in a former butcher's shop in East London
to showcase work by emerging artists.
joined Solyanka State Gallery in Moscow as its director. The space will be re-launched under the name of SOLYANKA VPA (Videoart. Performance. Animation) - a state museum for screen art and artist-run space.
Artist-run spaces have become realised as an important factor in urban regeneration. This effect was particularly strong in Glasgow, where the city won the accolade 'European Capital of Culture
European Capital of Culture
The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....
' in 1990, largely due to the large number of artist-run exhibition spaces and galleries. Curator Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist is a contemporary art curator, critic and historian of art. He is currently Co-director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London...
coined the term "The Glasgow Miracle" to describe this.
Examples of artist-run spaces include City Racing
City Racing
City Racing was an artist run space in Kennington, South London which was active between 1988 and 1998. It was a cooperative by five artists Matt Hale, Paul Noble, John Burgess, Keith Coventry and Peter Owen. They set up the gallery in a former betting shop near the Oval cricket ground, hence the...
, BANK
BANK (art collective)
BANK was an artists’ group active in London during the 1990s.-History and project:John Russell, Dino Demosthenous and Simon Bedwell founded the group in 1991. Dino Demosthenous left in 1992. In 1993, Russell and Bedwell were joined by Milly Thompson, David Burrows and Andrew Williamson. Burrows...
, studio1.1 http://www.studio1-1.co.uk Studio Voltaire, Cubitt
Cubitt Artists
Cubitt Artists is an artist-run art gallery , artist studios and art educator , founded in 1991...
and Auto Italia South East
Auto Italia South East
Auto Italia South East is an non-profit Artist-run space, founded in 2007 and co-run by Kate Cooper, Amanda Dennis and Richard John Jones. Currently located on the Old Kent Road Peckham, South London in a donated used car showroom, Auto Italia is both an artist-run project space and a site for...
in London, Milwaukee's BATHAS Internationale, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
's Sparwasser HQ , island6
Island6
is a not-for-profit, artist-run space in Shanghai, P.R.C. founded in 2006 by French curator/artist Thomas Charvériat.island6's mission is to provide a forum for contemporary artists whose works explore social, aesthetic,...
in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, Vitamin Creative Space in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, 16 Beaver (New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
), Good Children (New Orleans), Mercer Union and YYZ Artists' Outlet
YYZ Artists' Outlet
YYZ Artists' Outlet is a gallery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It displays visual art as well as artists’ film and video. It also publishes works on Canadian art and culture.-External links:*...
(Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
), p-10 (Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Transmission Gallery and Market Gallery in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, The Embassy Gallery and Total Kunst in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Generator Projects in Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
, OUTPOST Gallery and STEW Gallery & Artist Studios in Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
. In the last years many artist-run spaces started opening in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, mostly in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, an example being APPETITE Gallery http://appetite.com.ar/ in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
In 2005 Seattle-based SOIL Publications released SOIL: Artist-Run Gallery 1995-2005, edited by Yuki Nakamura. This collection of critical essays, features on past exhibitions and profiles of artists documents ten years in the running of an artist-run space.
New York City
During the 1950s in Manhattan, artist-run co-ops became the alternative to the uptown Madison Avenue galleries that catered mostly to wealthy blue-chip and European art-oriented collectors. From the early 1950s to the early 1960s the Tenth Street galleriesTenth street galleries
The Tenth Street galleries was a collective term for the co-operative galleries that operated mainly in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York in the 1950s and 1960s. The galleries were artist run and generally operated on very low budgets, often without any staff. Some artists became members...
located mostly in the East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
in lower Manhattan became the proving ground for much of the contemporary art that achieved popularity and commercial success in the decades that followed. During the 1960s the Park Place Gallery
Park Place Gallery
Park Place Gallery was a contemporary art gallery located in SoHo in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, during the mid to late 1960s. Park Place Gallery was located at 542 West Broadway, on what is now LaGuardia Place just north of Houston Street in the neighborhood that is now called "SoHo"...
became the first important contemporary gallery in SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
. Park Place gallery was an artist-run cooperative that featured cutting-edge Geometric abstraction. Eventually by the 1970s SoHo
SoHo
SoHo is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City, notable for being the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and also, more recently, for the wide variety of stores and shops ranging from trendy boutiques to outlets of upscale national and international chain stores...
became the new center for the New York art world as hundreds of commercial galleries opened in a sudden wave of artistic prosperity.
Pierogi 2000, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
, is run by artist Joe Amrhein. The gallery puts on traditional exhibitions and also presents works on paper in an extensive system of flat files. Viewers can look through hundreds of individual artists’ portfolios of works on paper contained within the flat file drawers. These files travel for exhibition at other venues in the United States and abroad.
Momenta Art is an artist-run nonprofit institution also in Williamsburg. Momenta Art shows work by emerging artists that are not well represented in commercial galleries. It has an annual fundraiser
Fundraiser
A fundraiser is an event or campaign whose primary purpose is to raise money for a cause. See also: fundraising. A fundraiser can also be an individual or company whose primary job is to raise money for a specific charity or non-profit organization...
which is a benefit group exhibition and raffle
Raffle
A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...
. The fundraiser has been hosted regularly by White Columns
White Columns
White Columns is New York City’s oldest alternative non-profit space and one of its most prestigious. White Columns is known as a show case for up and coming artists....
, another non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
dedicated to supporting emerging artists.
MINUS SPACE
MINUS SPACE
MINUS SPACE is a curatorial project located in Brooklyn, NY. It has gallery and web site devoted to reductive art.-History:MINUS SPACE began as an online curatorial and critical project presenting reductive and concept based art. Reductive art includes geometric abstraction, artwork that deals with...
is an artist-run curatorial project devoted to reductive art
Reductive art
Reductive art is a term to describe an artistic style or an aesthetic, rather than an art movement. Movements and other terms associated with reductive art include Minimal art, ABC art, anti-illusionism, cool art, rejective art , Bauhaus aesthetic, work that emphasizes clarity, simplification,...
. Minus Space maintains an exhibition space in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and curates exhibitions at other venues nationally and internationally. Minus Space also has a location on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
enabling it to collaborate with other institutions. The website has a running log of related exhibitions and a chronology
Chronology
Chronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...
documenting the development of reductive and concept-based art.
Manhattan Graphics Center (MGC), located in the West Village, is run by artist volunteers and offers artists printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
studios and classes. In a cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
system artists can also use the facility in exchange for administrative work. Manhattan Graphics Center also exhibits the work of artists who have used the facility.
San Francisco
The Kitsch Gallery is an artist-run space located in San Francisco's Mission District. It was founded in 2009 by three students, Nikki Mirsaeid, Taj Robinson, and Myrina Tunberg at the San Francisco Art InstituteSan Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
and University of San Francisco
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco , is a private, Jesuit/Catholic university located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1855, USF was established as the first university in San Francisco. It is the second oldest institution for higher learning in California and the tenth-oldest university of...
. Kitsch was voted Best New Warehouse Space of 2010 by SF Weekly. Artists who have been presented or exhibited at Kitsch include Alex Braubach, Boyz IV Men, Ryan Coffey, Dean Dempsey, Henry Gunderson
Henry Gunderson (artist)
Henry Gunderson is an American contemporary artist. He attended Redwood High School in Larkspur, California. He is currently a BFA candidate at the San Francisco Art Institute.-Work and reception:...
, Greg Ito, Warren Thomas King, and Cal Volner-Dison.
London
Charles ThomsonCharles Thomson (artist)
Charles Thomson is an English artist, painter, poet and photographer. In the early 1980s he was a member of The Medway Poets. In 1999 he named and co-founded the Stuckists art movement with Billy Childish. He has curated Stuckist shows, organised demonstrations against the Turner Prize, run an art...
founded the Stuckism International Gallery
Stuckism International Gallery
The Stuckism International Gallery was the gallery of the Stuckist art movement. It was open 2002 to 2005 in Shoreditch, and run by Charles Thomson, the co-founder of Stuckism...
in 2002 in Charlotte Road, Shoreditch
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
, in a four-story Victorian warehouse. He said, "The main space was my living room. It had sofas and normal home lighting ... People could come in, sit down, maybe have a cup of tea". The last show there was in 2004.
The Transition Gallery was founded in October 2002 in a converted garage close to Victoria Park
Victoria Park, East London
Victoria Park is 86.18 hectares of open space that stretches out across part of the East End of London, England bordering parts of Bethnal Green, Hackney, and Bow, such as along Old Ford Road, London E3 and Victoria Park Road E9. The park is entirely within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets...
, Hackney
South Hackney
South Hackney is a district in the London Borough of Hackney situated north east of Charing Cross.It is immediately north of Victoria Park and the area centred on Victoria Park Road and Lauriston Road...
, London, and is run by artists Cathy Lomax
Cathy Lomax
Cathy Lomax is a London artist, curator and director of the Transition Gallery.-Life and career:Cathy Lomax is an artist mainly known for her figurative paintings. She has a BA Fine Art from London Guildhall University , and an MA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design...
and Alex Michon
Alex Michon
Alex Michon is a British artist, based in London, and runs the Transition Gallery in Hackney with Cathy Lomax.-Career:Alex Michon is a graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. She exhibits her work, which is mostly painting and drawing. She also writes for Arty magazine...
to show work by established and new contemporary artists. In 2006, the gallery moved to Regent Studios in Andrews Road, London. Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi
Charles Saatchi is the co-founder with his brother Maurice of the global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and led that business - the world's largest advertising agency in the 1980s - until they were forced out in 1995. In the same year the Saatchi brothers formed a new agency called M&C...
bought Stella Vine
Stella Vine
Stella Vine is an English artist, who lives and works in London. Her work is figurative painting with subject matter drawn from either her personal life of family, friends and school, or rock stars, royalty and celebrities.After a difficult relationship with her stepfather, she left home and in...
's painting Hi Paul Can You Come Over I'm Really Frightened from the gallery in 2004.
Stella Vine founded the Rosy Wilde
Rosy Wilde
The Rosy Wilde gallery was an artist-run project space, established in 2003 by British artist Stella Vine in a former butcher's shop in east London to showcase work by emerging artists. Vine was not making money and was expecting bailiffs, when a painting by her of Diana, Princess of Wales, was...
gallery as an artist-run project space, in 2003 in a former butcher's shop in East London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
to showcase work by emerging artists.
Moscow
In 2010, Fyodor Pavlov-AndreevichFyodor Pavlov-Andreevich
Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich is a performance artist, writer, theater director and filmmaker...
joined Solyanka State Gallery in Moscow as its director. The space will be re-launched under the name of SOLYANKA VPA (Videoart. Performance. Animation) - a state museum for screen art and artist-run space.
See also
- Tenth Street galleriesTenth street galleriesThe Tenth Street galleries was a collective term for the co-operative galleries that operated mainly in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York in the 1950s and 1960s. The galleries were artist run and generally operated on very low budgets, often without any staff. Some artists became members...
- Alternative exhibition spaceAlternative exhibition spaceAn alternative exhibition space is a location, et al. other than the normal professional venues, for the exhibition of artwork to the public. Located in places which have been converted, such as a store front empty space into an exhibit space, for an organized assembly of artworks from an...
- Artist cooperatives
- Artist-run initiativeArtist-run initiativeAn artist-run initiative is any project run by visual artists to present their and others' projects. They might approximate a traditional art gallery space in appearance or function, or they may take a markedly different approach, limited only by the artist's understanding of the term...
- Canadian artist-run centresCanadian artist-run centresCanadian artist-run centres are a series of galleries and art spaces developed by artists in Canada since the 1960s. "Artist-run centre" is the common term of use for artist-initiated and managed organizations in Canada...