zavier ellis clapham art gallery &
www.claphamartgallery.com www.charliesmithlondon.com
charlie smith london
tangent asked & Zavier answered:
Out of the three gallery spaces highlighted in this issue, Clapham Art Gallery is by far the most commercial, yet it is a very contemporary space, showcasing work that comfortably straddles the line between what is seen as marketable and what is seen as critically selective. How did the gallery come about, and how have you managed to strike that balance? My degree was ‘History of Modern Art’ between ’93 and ’96 at Manchester University. It was being an artist that led me to it, but I didn’t want to take the art school route at that point. I was more interested in an academic approach towards art and didn’t want, at that time as I perceived it, to limit myself to only becoming a practicing artist. Upon finishing I considered my options as going into art writing or into the gallery world. The public nature and organizational requirements of the gallery business appealed to me more so that’s the direction I took. Whilst always making work, either painting or photography, during my degree and afterwards, I set up Clapham Art Gallery on a small scale with Aniko Pall. This was March ’98. We never had any investment or private money but worked elsewhere while we were building it in the early days. Gradually the gallery built up and we had to commit fulltime, eventually moving from this tiny but workable space into a much larger, good looking space just around the corner. This was essential in taking the gallery into a more curatorial direction, where I could work with different mediums and put on bigger, more ambitious, more exciting and at times purely experimental shows. Ultimately this has led to establishing a second enterprise called CHARLIE SMITH london that I call a ‘curatorial dealership’. The remit is to curate singular, progressive exhibitions whilst showing at progressive art fairs and networking with other galleries and curators worldwide. My aim with Clapham has always been to promote high quality work that has critical and commercial viability, and it’s the same with CHARLIE SMITH london despite it being more experimental, and it also therefore varies in terms of the nature of the work and the client base. Over the years we have sold to the domestic market, corporate market and to major collectors including Charles Saatchi. As an artist, what was your motivation to open up a gallery? ABOVE: Young Gods 2005; installation shots. Images courtesy of Clapham Art Gallery
From the point of view of being an artist I was interested in being involved in the art world somehow, in a manner that suited my interests, skills and personality, and I didn’t 21