2021 Reflections

Verity’s 2021:

What a year. This time of year often feels a bit like a  limbo period – desperate for the “fresh start” of a 01/01 date, reflecting on the last year, and waiting for the sun to set after 4PM again. 2021 has certainly felt like a transitionary year in my career. Highlights of 2021 for me have been the first two renditions of the Art Laughs comedy night, speaking on various lovely panels, and writing some stuff I’m proud of. This autumn I made the move out of London to Southampton, which has given me some much-needed space from the fast-paced energy of the capital. I’m still getting used to recognising this new peace as necessary respite, and not as loss of momentum. I’m learning that working at max-capacity at all times isn’t actually the same thing as being happy, and that I can reach my long-term goals without viewing spare time as a symptom of failure. 2021 has been a lot of learning. 2022 feels full of possibility: bring it on.

5 artists whose work has had a profound impact on me this funny year have been: 

·      Amy Dury @amy_dury

·      Wilfrid Wood @wilfridwoodsculptor

·      Nettle Grellier @nettlegrellierartist

·      Billy Bagilhole @billybagilhole

·      Gavin Dobson @gavdob

Leo’s 2021:

This has been an interesting year to work through. The gallery has kept things busy, having produced 5 exhibitions and completed a number of individual projects. Highlights have been putting on a 15 person group show, ‘Abstract Zeitgeist’ which bought together a fantastic selection of emerging Scottish talent. Towards the end of the year we embarked on our most exciting project to date with artist Jonathan Freemantle, details of which will be released early next year. As the year wore on, I had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with a wonderful selection of contemporary artists and curators around the UK.

Going forward the gallery will be evolving yet again into a smaller scale cultural producer. Partnering with artists to bring their ideas to life. This kicks off with Jonathan Freemantle. The concept of producing cultural moments is going to be at the core of the gallery for the foreseeable. As silly as that phrase is, I genuinely couldn’t come up with a better one.

5 artists whose work I look forward to seeing develop in 2022 are

·      Faye Eleanor Woods @eleanor_woods

·      Rebecca Gilpin @r.i.gilpin

·      Dom Mcivor @dommcivor

·     Lily Macrae @lilcmac

·      Jennifer Smith @jennifer_smith_art

A few other artists I highly recommend looking at are Jonathan Freemantle, Jacob Littlejohn, Sam MacInnes, Callum Youde, Maxine Keenan, Annalisa Merrilees, and Gena Milanesi.