Art

Started by artist Ryan Gander in September last year in a Hoxton shop formerly occupied by Store gallery, Associates is something of an art-world anomaly – a one-off project to put on 12 shows in 12 months with artists who have haven’t had a London solo show yet. And in place of the standard 50-50 sales split between artist and gallery, Gander is giving the artist the full 100 per cent.

‘That’s not just unusual, that’s stupid, really,’ Gander jokes, though there are sound ideals behind what might seem a financially unsound decision. ‘It seemed to me that all the artists who were getting exhibitions were the shameless name-droppers and networkers who could talk about their work really well. But I knew a lot of good artists who weren’t being noticed because they were too busy making their art.’
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Gander, who runs the space with his partner Rebecca May Marston, put in £20,000 of his own money and raised the same amount from patrons, sponsors and even local restaurateurs. With the eighth exhibition by Sean Edwards now underway, the investment seems to have paid off. ‘Some shows we didn’t sell anything and some shows we sold everything, but we’re trying to validate the success of the project by what the artists have gained from it. Matthew Smith, our first artist, is now working with a commercial gallery and has shown in New York. Our second artist, Stella Capes, has just had a solo exhibition in Switzerland. That’s the thing about the art world; you only need one good show, then everything starts to snowball.

’Another sign of success are the crowds at Associates openings: ‘There’s a lot of goodwill among the people who come and lots of students who perhaps feel excluded from more commercial spaces.’ It’s a conviviality that Gander also seems to have engendered among his gallery-owning neighbours. ‘Because we’re only here for a year people seem to want to get involved. Store come and help price the work and Jake Miller from Approach and the boys from Dicksmith all help out in different ways. But then Hoxton Street’s a bit like that; it’s the kind of street that you can cycle down, waving.’