London Gallery Weekend 2023 – An East London Top Ten
We are honoured to be collaborating with London Gallery Weekend for this year’s annual city-wide celebration of culture and creativity. Shoreditch Arts Club is opening this Thursday to Saturday as usual, and also on Sunday 4th to coincide with the East London Focus.
BEIGEL ECONOMY ART MAP, Adam Dant, 2023
This London Gallery Weekend 2023 will be the first for Shoreditch Arts Club, having opened in March this year. As such, we are working with a local gallery and artists on the VIP programme, as well as hosting the Arts and Technologies talk in collaboration with Serpentine.
We have also worked with Truman Brewery to commission the local and Jerwood Drawing Prize-winning British artist Adam Dant, who has produced an incredible map of East London Galleries (shown above) to coincide with the weekend events, encouraging our members and guests to learn more about over 40 art spaces in our neighbourhood.
Ten of these are featured below in a brief guide to a selection of local galleries who have exhibitions on during London Gallery weekend:
12A Vyner Street London E2 9DG
Tue — Sat | 11 am — 6 pm
NıCOLETTı burst into the art scene in 2018 with a distinctly contemporary approach to exhibition making, presenting artists that work with aesthetics familiar to our highly global networked reality.
Comprising works by Ali Cherri, Atis Rezistans, Patricia Dominguez, Hessie, Karrabing Film Collective, Candice Lin, and Jean-François Vanel-Pierre, wavelengths is the second chapter of total climate, a three-part exhibition exploring the relationship between colonial history and ecology.
On Sunday 4th of June, artist and musician Rieko Whitfield will lead ‘Songwriting Seance’, a series of free multisensory guided meditations and writing sessions, taking place at 3 pm, 4 pm and 5 pm. The event will be followed by a party on the terrasse of @theglovethatfits, with DJ sets by Canan Batur, Myako, Camille and Oswaldo (5 pm – 12 am).
Maureen Paley – Studio M
Rochelle School, Friars Mount House, 7 Playground Gardens, London E2 7FA
Wed — Sun | 11 am — 6 pm
Maureen Paley is a linchpin of East London’s art scene, having opened her gallery in a Victorian terraced house in 1984 Paley was “amongst the first to present contemporary art in London’s East End.” Her programming has attracted wide audiences for its progressive programming, presenting several Turner Prize winners: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, 2019; Wolfgang Tillmans, 2000 and Gillian Wearing, 1997.
Maureen Paley now has several spaces, including two in East London and one in Hove. At Studio M during Gallery Weekend Maureen Paley is presenting multi-disciplinary artist and activist Reverend Joyce McDonald (1st of June until 31st July) in her first solo exhibition with the gallery. Reverend Joyce McDonald, began working with clay in the 1990s and was ordained as a minister in 2009. Her sculptural enshrine personal narratives including having lived with HIV since 1985 as well as wider cultural experiences of family, love, loss, illness, healing, transformation, and transcendence.
223 Cambridge Heath Rd, London E2 0EL
Wed — Sat | 12 — 6 pm
Rose Easton is the newest gallery on this list having only opened at the end of 2021 to exhibit recently graduated artists exploring fresh narratives in new and diverse aesthetic languages. Gaining quick respect from the higher echelons of London’s art scene, Rose has impeccable style and curatorial eye which she brings to her gallery, such as opting for pink carpet for the group exhibition ‘On the Edge of Fashion’.
Amanda Moström’s itsanosofadog *It’s an arse of a dog will be on show until the 10th of June. It is the artist’s first solo exhibition and it derives from very personal narratives with her family, including her sister’s farm and grandmother's photographic records.
27 Old Nichol St, London E2 7HR
Tue — Sat | 11 am — 5 pm
Kate MacGarry was founded in 2002 and has since exhibited art of a distinct aesthetic, such as Francis Upritchard’s uncanny figurative sculptures, and Goshka Macuga’s historical and archival research based practice. This has gained the gallery a respected position amongst London’s wider art establishment, and MacGarry is one of the key figures in East London’s art scene.
From the 2nd June to 15th July 2023, Kate MacGarry is exhibiting Lisa Milroy (b. 1959, lives and works in London, UK) in her first solo exhibition at the gallery. Correspondence presents a selection of paintings of beloved and collected objects, garments, a selection of stones, lace, and cosmetics, as the artist’s way of “exploring the parameters of still life and the human relationship with objects”.
1 Holywell Ln, London EC2A 3ET
Wed — Sat | 11am — 6 pm
Emalin was founded by Leopold Thun and Angelina Volk in 2016, to specialise in international young and emerging art. The gallery represents thirteen artists and showcases a multi-disciplinary programme of diverse and forward-thinking practices guided by a principal aim to establish lasting platforms for up-and-coming and art historically marginal positions. Since 2021 Emalin has been based in the Lazarus Building, an inconspicuous historical landmark.
During London Gallery Weekend, Emalin is presenting Diurne, a solo exhibition of seven paintings of oil on linen by Kate Spencer Stewart (b. 1984, lives and works in Los Angeles, US). In the paintings the artist attempts to paint ‘nothing, or the void’, through repetitive brushstrokes that draw the viewer into a mesmerising and somewhat meditative state. These are exhibited in natural light, which adds to the subtlety of the work and pleasure of viewing them.
Tea Building, 7 Bethnal Grn Rd, London E1 6LA
Wed — Sat | 11 am — 6 pm
Hales Gallery dates back to 2006, and now has spaces in New York as well as London, situated in the very same iconic TEA building as Shoreditch Arts Club. Their programme includes emerging artists, they also represent those who are familiar to the global museum circuit, such as Hew Locke and Carolee Schneemann.
From 19th May until the 1st of July 2023, Hales Gallery is exhibiting Recalling Echoes by Basil Beattie (b. 1935, West Hartlepool, UK, lives and works in Mitcham, Surrey), in his third solo show with the gallery. The production of works on show span over the past decade wherein Beattie uses visual codes and motifs to communicate literal and figurative experiences. The selection of large scale, powerful abstract paintings seem to depict motifs of ascent, such as ladders and steps, in dynamic compositions of bold colours and graphic elements.
Unit 9, 472 Hackney Rd, London E2 9EQ
Wed — Sat | 12 — 6 pm
Annka Kultys Gallery was founded in 2015 to specialise in post-digital practices and with an emphasis on female artists. Self-described as a “phygital art gallery, the programme is made up of both physical and digital art experiences, working with the blockchain and virtual reality as well as traditional mediums.
During Gallery Weekend Annka Kultys are exhibiting Swedish conceptual artist Jonas Lund’s (b. 1984, Sweden) In the Middle of Nowhere II, which explores the integration of AI into our mundane lives seen through the twisted AI lens visioning artworks depicting AI generated animals in office environments. Lund’s wider practice is known to interrogate the digitalisation of culture, touching on the complexity of creative labour, production, authorship, and authority within the art market and society at large.
270-276 Kingsland Road (Entrance on Acton Mews) London E8 4DG
Wed — Sat | 11 am — 6 pm
Seventeen opened at 17 Kingsland Road in 2006, and exhibits and represents emerging artists, with a particular focus on moving image. Majority of represented artists have a significant video and film component to their practice, although the gallery is also known for strong sculptural and wall works. In the club we are lucky to have several works by artists represented by Seventeen including Joey Holder, Gabriele Beveridge, and Rhys Coren.
For London Gallery Weekend, Seventeen will be exhibiting Ripple, Rhys Coren’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery. Coren’s work is very playful, with many references to movement and games, for this exhibition he has created rectangular paintings, shaped paintings, relief paintings, marble works and an animation inspired by resonance, reverb, repetition, reaction, riffs, rhythm, remixes and refraction.
Thu — Sat | 12 — 6 pm
Union Pacific is a contemporary art gallery based in London, representing challenging and ambitious new artworks and artists. It was founded in 2014 by Grace Schofield and Nigel Dunkley, with the quest of exhibiting emerging international artists in London.
Libyan-born artist Nour Jaouda will be exhibiting Where, if not faraway, is my place? at Union Pacific. Her textiles are a conduit for exploring sights relating to migration. Each of her large-scale dyed tapestries mirror the shape of prayer mats from her immediate surroundings in Cairo, Egypt.
91 Middlesex St, London E1 7DA
Tue — Fri | 11 am — 6 pm
Sat | 11 am — 5 pm
Public Gallery has a contemporary and graphic approach to exhibition making, with a unique space comprising a “storefront” facing the street, and two more floors of exhibition space hidden upstairs. Already challenging the notion of the exclusive gallery with their name, they predominantly exhibit emerging artists who create bold visual experiences, including giant blow up strawberries by Adam Cruces and an extreme aluminium sculptural wall work by Lito Kattou.
During London Gallery Weekend, and until June 24, 2023 Public Gallery are exhibiting Tiffany Wellington’s (b.1996, Kingston, Jamaica, lives and works in London) Duppy Water. The artist works across mediums including sound, installation and sculpture, and through these forms often mixes fact with fiction. Concurrently, there is an exhibition of Samantha Roth on another floor of the gallery.
