It could be said that my journey towards being a gallerist started in 1988 in Kenya, where this latter day European adventurer ended up on the shores of the Indian Ocean with my then partner and her children in a palm-thatched Swahili dwelling that had been the home of an artist friend. It was in that porous and inspiring house, with the not-so-distant roar of the sea hitting the reef ringing in my ears, that I began my journey towards creating my own art and later to curating the work of others.
Initially, my focus was on building up a publishers’ representation business whilst developing my own art practice on the side. Later I discovered sculpture as a medium, and in 2006 I made the decision to focus all my energies on the subject of “Contemporary African Art”.
When I started the gallery back in London in 2009, we always planned to leave the door open to art that was not connected to Africa or its diasporas – and as you will see from this exhibition, that door is now open wide.
I have come to the business of gallerying from an oblique angle, but not all of the artists we have worked with share that oblique trajectory (though many do). The one thing that unifies them all, be they classically trained or entirely self-educated, is that sense that the art is a means to an end rather than the end itself. Way more important than the “output” are the ideas, ideals and values that inspire the finished work (which, by the way, often remains unfinished; always beckoning the artist towards new possibilities).
Of course, for better or for worse, we live in a capitalist world – and, as a friend pointed out recently, there is no market more capitalistic than the art world. As such, we are in a constant state of negotiation between artefact and commodity; between the often beautiful, transcendent meanings located within the works, and the requirement to quantify them. Gallery-land is paradox-land.
Art and business are about people. This exhibition is for me like a gathering of old friends, some of whom I have known for more than 15 years – but in addition to the artists, without whom there is no gallery, there are the people I have worked with over the years. Kate Beardmore, who issued our first Tweet, tried to unmuddle our Dropbox and donated coffee mugs to the cause; Hamish Dewar, Robert Devereux and Ian Harrison, who even helped me with some set-up money at the beginning.
There are also my various colleagues – fellow travellers in curation, sales, publicity, administration and accounts, who have helped drive the gallery forward in so many different ways – right up to our Associate Director, the brilliant and incomparable Emily Watkins, who has taken things to a completely new level over the last five years. No commercial gallery can exist without clients and collectors; their belief in and commitment to us and the artists that we represent make it all possible.
Last but not least there is my wife and co-director Chinwe, and all four of my children, who have always supported me crucially in so many different ways.
In a seemingly ever more hazardous world, where the values that the gallery and our artists espouse are under threat from military adventures, climate disasters and malign artificial intelligence, rogue Silicon Valley moguls spawning meanspirited algorithms, cost-of-living crises and government cuts, there has never been a greater need for spaces such as ours; we hope that you will continue to support the gallery as we embark on its exciting next chapter.
- Ed Cross, Director
