We can all agree that January in the UK is a bit… meh. The art market is sluggish too, so events like the contemporary gallery-sharing exhibition Condo London, which starts on Saturday and runs until 15 February, help pep things up a bit. As the local dealer Kate MacGarry puts it, Condo “brings energy and conversations to London at what is generally a quiet time”.
Established in 2016 by Vanessa Carlos, the co-founder of Carlos/Ishikawa gallery, Condo—which returned last year for the first time since the pandemic—features 49 galleries in its latest edition, including some travelling from China, Guatemala and Lebanon, across 22 venues.
“Collaboration is key in a more challenging market,” says MacGarry, a proponent of the format who has previously hosted the Hong Kong gallery Kiang Malingue (2018), Berlin-based Trautwein Herleth (2019) and, last year, Bureau from New York.
But this year the Los Angeles-based dealer Tanya Leighton—whom MacGarry was due to host for Condo—has been unable to travel due to the catastrophic wildfires in her home city. “Our thoughts are with Tanya and all our colleagues and friends and the wider community in Los Angeles,” MacGarry says.
Despite the wildfires, the young LA gallery Ehrlich Steinberg will still take part in Condo, presenting a joint show of Los Angeles-based T.J. Shin and London-based Abbas Zahedi. Ace Ehrlich, the gallery co-founder, was able to travel to London to take part but his business partner Tabitha Steinberghas cancelled due to the devastation the fires have caused. She tells The Art Newspaper: “The situation right now is incredibly tough and shocking. Entire neighbourhoods have been levelled. There are many artists and art workers who have lost their homes, studios or places of work. However, there has been an intense outpouring of community rallying and support.” The gallery is supporting the fundraising initiative Art World Fire Relief LA (Grief and Hope).
Ehrlich Steinberg will be hosted by Phillida Reid, in the West End, but generally the Condo venues skew to the east of the capital—the most westerly venue being Arcadia Missa on Duke Street, St James’s—reflecting London’s contemporary art topography. Here are a few of our highlights.
Jimmy DeSana at Amanda Wilkinson
Amanda Wilkinson is working with the estate of Jimmy DeSana (1949-90) to present works from the American photographer’s Suburban Series (1979-80)—think sexed-up suburbia with a twist of the absurd. DeSana's work will be shown alongside paintings by Greek-born Sevina Tzanou, shown by the Glasgow gallery Kendall Koppe. “Tzanou is a burlesque performer as well as a painter, so both her and DeSana share an interest in nightlife culture, DeSana very much being a part of the punk/no-wave underground culture of 1970s and 80s New York,” says Amanda Wilkinson gallery in a statement. Tzanou “plays with images of exaggerated, playful and performed femininity and femme beauty, providing a fruitful dialogue with DeSana's defamiliarising and queering of the nude body.”