Tuesday, June 16, 2015

What webs they weave

Over the last year a number of dealer galleries have clustered (as they do) on Arch Hill. Originally dominated by Two Rooms the area is anchored by the Great North Road. With typical perversity, Michael Lett chose last year to return from his Great North Road location to K-Road. And not just to K-Road but as a very close neighbor of Ivan Anthony and just across the road from Artspace. Anyone who visits this area will have seen another large empty space lurking on K-Road itself. Lett used it for a one-night dinner at the opening of his Implicated and immune exhibition as it’s part of the same ex-retail bank space he occupies. Now it seems another gallery is set to open its doors. Webb’s loss looks as though it might be K-Road’s gain as a couple of ex-Webb people are rumoured to have just signed the lease. As the current Webb’s current staff list has no head of department for fine art, and no one at all for wine, we’re guessing Charles Ninow will be one of them and probably Simon Ward the other. (Turns out the Simon is actually Simon Bowerbank who used to work for Ivan upstairs and also for Webb's - ok that makes us the simple ones, sorry Simons) What sort of gallery would these ex auction guys run? There is certainly room in the secondary market, especially to discreetly place high-end work. Watch that space.
Image: the K-Road site back in the days when you could bank on it being....a....bank.