INTERVIEW WITH ZAVIER ELLIS
British Art Fair will have a new section in the 2022 edition, titled SOLO CONTEMPORARY. I understand this was an idea concocted between you and CEO Will Ramsay. Can you explain what we can expect from it?
We’re excited to insert an insurgent element into the Fair, but one which works in perfect harmony with the other galleries and sections. It will feel curated, being solo booths only, and vibrant. There will be ten gallerists/curators who each have their own vision, believe in their artists, and who are hungry to engage.
Your gallery, CHARLIE SMITH LONDON, is listed as one of the ten exhibitors. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
The conversation began with Will asking me if I would like to exhibit at the fair and one thing led to another. CHARLIE SMITH LONDON is a curatorial gallery project that I’ve run for 15 years and I’m excited to show in this context, alongside my SOLO colleagues, and within the overall context of British Art Fair. I’m hoping for a strong dialogue between SOLO CONTEMPORARY and the remainder of the Fair and I know there will be a strong buzz in our section.
Why did you choose to represent Hugh Mendes?
I’m interested in technical painting that has a profound philosophical basis. Hugh makes beautiful oil paintings that explore death, art history and the generation and proliferation of image making, both mechanical and manual. In the context of British Art Fair, there will be work by the artists that Hugh is depicting elsewhere, so let’s see what synergy that creates.
What criteria did you use to choose the other exhibitors?
I went for vibrant individuals who take a position and stand by it – exciting gallerists and curators who have high quality programmes and are committed to their work. I also wanted to demonstrate the changing nature of the gallery model, especially post-Covid, by promoting alternative methodologies. We have gallery projects; not-for-profit; bricks & mortar galleries; curators; and collectors turned gallerists -people who are not afraid to do it differently.
British Art Fair is predominantly known for showing Mod Brit artists. Are there many connections between the great and the good of the 20th-century British art scene and the contemporary artists who will be shown at SOLO CONTEMPORARY?
Yes, without doubt. You will find a trajectory from Mod Brit to contemporary, and let’s not forget there is a profound correlation within our art schools—many of those Mod Brit artists were also tutors, especially at London schools like the Slade and Chelsea, so there is deep-lying heritage within the system.
I understand that you are an artist, as well as a gallerist. How has the former practice helped you in the latter role?
It’s very intertwined. One practice informs the other - doing a degree in History of Modern Art made me a better artist and doing a Masters in Fine Art made me a better gallerist! I see things as far more interrelated and rhizomatic than our binary-minded politicians would have us believe. Being an exhibiting artist also enables me to understand the processes and requirements of an artist. And for my next trick I’m adding an online art school called Contemporary Art Academy into the mix!
You have your finger on the pulse of the contemporary art gallery scene in London, and beyond. What trends are driving that scene?
Painting is big and there is a strong strain of Romanticism running through contemporary art - something to which we have always been attuned. The art world is also highly vocal about diversity and usually where the art world goes the other world follows, so let’s hope that remains true.
If you had to pick a favourite public gallery, which would it be, and why?
I’d have to go with the Royal Academy. It has such a rich history, and the programming is first class, but it also gives lesser-known artists a chance with the Summer Show. And fundamentally the Royal Academy Schools remains the only non-fee-paying art school and continues to be amongst the best in the UK and beyond.
You are allowed a Mod Brit and a contemporary work of art to hang on your two desert island palm trees. What will they be?
Right now, I’d go with Keith Vaughan for my Mod Brit piece. I saw a wonderful gouache from the neo-romantic phase with AUSTIN/DESMOND at London Art Fair. I’m torn on the contemporary. I might very well go for the incredible, large-scale Jonas Burgert I saw with Adrian Sutton at Masterpiece, or a young artist I am working with called Melissa Kime. I have a small painting and works on paper but am missing a large Kime. You know, Melissa would go very well with the Vaughan so let’s go with that and keep Burgert on the wait list!