Tobias Zielony, Apartment (2017). Image courtesy KOW Berlin/Condo London.

Condo London, which opens its preview weekend this Saturday, January 13, returns with its third edition to spice up a traditionally quiet time in the city, as 17 spaces play host to 46 international galleries for the next four weeks.

The innovative gallery-share event sees dealers from around the world, including South America, Asia, and the US, bringing their artists to the English capital. An event grounded in collaboration—host galleries provide space rent free—the name “Condo” takes its cue from US-style, shared apartment buildings. The event made a successful New York debut last summer, providing a cost-effective and refreshing alternative to art fairs for smaller and mid-sized galleries seeking to reach new collectors.

We’ve highlighted a few of the must-see Condo shows, featuring artists many of whom are making their London debut. (To help find host and their guest galleries, here’s Condo’s handy map.)

Hollybush Gardens
Hosting: Jan Mot, Brussels

Sven Augustijnen, Summer Thoughts (2012-ongoing), detail of mixed media installation, courtesy the artist and Jan Mot, Brussels.

The Brussels gallery Jan Mot brings an ongoing work by the Belgian artist Sven Augustijnen, who is gaining institutional attention for his films and installations grappling with Europe’s modern history. Summer Thoughts, as the piece shown in London is called, questions the present state of crisis in Europe as not merely an economic one, but as a moral and cultural one marked by the deficit of political democracy and the resurgence of far-right movements, according to a gallery statement. References range from Léon Degrelle, Belgium’s most notorious Nazi collaborator to the right-wing Norwegian murderer, Anders Breivik. Meanwhile, upstairs in Hollybush Gardens’ Clerkenwell space, the host gallery is showing work by Andrea Büttner.

Hollybush Gardens is at 1–2 Warner Yard, south Islington, central London, EC1R 5EY.

Project Native Informant
Hosting: KOW, Berlin; Madein, Shanghai

Ned Vena, Tattoo Painting with Dragon (2017).

Hosting Madein Gallery all the way from Shanghai and KOW from Berlin, Holborn gallery Project Native Informant will host a group show around the theme of identity. The London gallery will show work by Ned Vena, and Madein will show a film by London-based artist Shen Xin, which explores the troublesome contemporary revival of eugenics in the proliferation of DNA sequencing companies. This is accompanied by new work by the Berlin-based photographer Tobias Zielony from KOW gallery, whose latest series explores the queer techno scene in Kiev, Ukraine, where deception about one’s “true” identity can be a survival tactic.

Project Native Informant is located at Morley House, 3rd Floor 26 Holborn Viaduct, central London, EC1A 2AT.

König London
Hosting: Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paolo

Lydia Okumura, Installation II (1981). Courtesy, Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo. Photo: Ding Musa.

Based in a stripped-back parking garage somewhat paradoxically located in the upscale Marylebone district, the recently opened London branch of Galerie König will host a group show themed around the language of Minimalism, showing Jeppe Hein and José Davila from their own roster alongside Lydia Okumura, who is represented by Galeria Jaqueline Martins from São Paulo, Brazil. In the vein of early Minimalist discourse, Hein and Davila play with space and the viewer; Brazilian artist Lydia Okumura, who is based in New York, is known for her site-specific geometric mural paintings.

König London is located at 259–269 Old Marylebone Road Winchester House, central London, NW1 5RA.

Carlos/Ishikawa
Hosting: Schiefe Zähne, Berlin; Queer Thoughts, New York

Lukas Quietzsch, Untitled (2017). Photo: Hannes Schmidt / Schiefe Zähne.

Condo founder Vanessa Carlos’s gallery in gritty east London will host young Berlin gallery Schiefe Zähne and Queer Thoughts New York. Carlos/Ishikawa will show Richard Sides, who, in the collaborative spirit of the gallery-share platform, chose to work with German artist Lukas Quietzsch, who in turn shows at the new Berlin gallery, run by Hannes Schmidt (the name of which translates to Gnarly Teeth). The group show will take ideas of puberty as its theme, with Queer Thoughts showing work by Quintessa Matranga.

Carlos/Ishikawa is located at Unit 4, 88 Mile End Road, east London, E1 4UN.

Maureen Paley
Hosting: joségarcía, mx, Mexico City; dépendance, Brussels

Eduardo Sarabia, Untitled (Jitomate) (2017)
©Eduardo Sarabia, courtesy joségarcía ,mx, Mexico City and Maureen Paley, London.

The Brussels gallery dépendance is showing paintings by the German artist Michaela Eichwald and Mexico City’s joségarcía, mx, is presenting work by the Los Angeles-born, Guadalajara-based artist Eduardo Sarabia in Maureen Paley’s gallery in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London. Sarabia’s ceramics, paintings, and sculptures riff on Mexico’s narco culture and violent drug trade. Meanwhile, Eichwald’s abstract paintings and sculpture reject preciousness, as, according to the press release, “her process includes exposing works to the elements, where they accumulate dirt and wear.”

Maureen Paley is at 21 Herald Street, Bethnal Green, east London, E2 6JT.

The Sunday Painter
Hosting: Arcadia Missa, London; Dawid Radziszewski, Warsaw; Galeria Stereo, Warsaw

Leo Fitzmaurice, Camel Limited Edition Blue (1996-2017) (Post Match), courtesy of the artist and The Sunday Painter, London.

Will Jarvis, a co-director of The Sunday Painter, which moved into its news Vauxhall home in South London this fall, promises a lively group show as it plays host to two galleries from Warsaw—Dawid Radziszewski and Galeria Stereo—and a third, Arcadia Missa from its old neighbourhood, Peckham in south London. Dawid Radziszewski is showing paintings by Tomasz Kowalski, Stereo is bringing works by the sculptors Gizela Mickiewicz and Roman Stańczak, and Arcadia Missa presents works by the Bronx-based artists Cheyenne Julien. Meanwhile, the host gallery is showing Leo Fitzmaurice’s epic series made from discarded cigarette packages, “Post Match.”

The Sunday Painter is located at 117–119 South Lambeth Road, Vauxhall, south London, SW8 1XA.


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