{"id":632904,"date":"2026-10-16T23:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632904\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T23:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:42:14","slug":"not-just-bricks-and-mortar-how-gallerists-are-expanding-beyond-permanent-spaces-to-present-artists-work-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632904\/","title":{"rendered":"Not just bricks and mortar: how gallerists are expanding beyond permanent spaces to present artists\u2019 work – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Bolanle Tajudeen announced her gallery in 2023, she was not sure what that meant. \u201cI\u2019ve just always wanted one, so I announced it, and I didn\u2019t really have a plan,\u201d she says. The curator and arts educator, known for her online art school, Black Blossoms<\/a>, hoped to support emerging and mid-career artists through curatorial projects, rather than simply establishing a conventional commercial space. Thus, Bolanle Contemporary was born, without a permanent home or an immediate roster of artists. Three years on, it has exhibited with Frieze\u2019s No.9 Cork Street and Sadie Coles HQ, as well as at fairs in London and Miami Beach.<\/p>\n

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Bolanle Contemporary held a solo presentation by Osman Yousefzada at No. 9 Cork Street last April Damian Griffiths<\/p>\n

This year, Bolanle Contemporary is the only nomadic gallery to show at Frieze London. This comes after the fair formally removed galleries needing to have a physical space from its requirements for its contemporary art fairs earlier this year, starting with Frieze Seoul. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the most exciting galleries working today are operating without permanent spaces, or through a combination of temporary exhibitions, collaborations and fairs,\u201d says Kristell Chad\u00e9, the executive director of fairs at Frieze. \u201cWe want our eligibility criteria to recognise the quality of a gallery\u2019s programme rather than prescribe a single way in which it must operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eva Langret, Frieze\u2019s director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, notes that, even before starting her gallery, Tajudeen had \u201cbeen part of London\u2019s art scene for many years, creating opportunities for artists and practices that might otherwise go unseen\u201d. At the fair, Bolanle Contemporary is taking part in Artist-to-Artist, a curated programme that sees established international artists select emerging ones for solo presentations. The New York-based Dominican artist Firelei B\u00e1ez chose the Dominican American Eilen Itzel do Esp\u00edrito Santo, \u201cwhich feels like a fitting reflection of that spirit\u201d, Langret says. Do Esp\u00edrito Santo graduated with an MFA in painting from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2024, and is showing abstract paintings, prints, drawings and sculptures.<\/p>\n

Necessity over defiance<\/p>\n

For Tajudeen, not having a physical space was never an act of defiance but one of necessity, she says, noting that it is \u201cthe biggest overheads [for a gallery] alongside participating in all of the international fairs\u201d. She adds: \u201cMy goal is to have one eventually, but I don\u2019t think the market right now is in a place where I can take that on.\u201d Emerging and established galleries alike have felt this tension, with some of the industry\u2019s biggest names having to close spaces in prime locations to stay afloat. Stephen Friedman Gallery, for example, closed its Tribeca space late last year before entering administration and closing its Cork Street flagship in February.<\/p>\n

Yet for many gallerists this changing landscape presents an opportunity to reconsider what a gallery is and does. While forgoing a permanent physical space can mean missing out on organic connections generated by foot traffic, or relying on unconventional venues that might impose constraints on the artist\u2019s work, on the other hand, it means that everything \u201cdoes not always have to happen in the same building\u201d, Chad\u00e9 says, adding that she has noticed many galleries\u2019 \u201cwillingness to think differently about how they support artists and create meaningful encounters with their work\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2024 Artsy described the nomadic gallery model as part of a post-pandemic phenomenon driven by soaring real estate prices, a stronger relationship with technology globally and, sometimes, ethical reasons. But for some galleries, it is an integral part of their practice. One of these is Superposition Gallery<\/a>, founded by the artist, curator and writer Storm Ascher in 2018, and primarily showing in temporary spaces in Los Angeles, New York and Miami. This includes exhibiting at Frieze Los Angeles over the past two years, making it one of the few nomadic galleries to have participated in Frieze\u2019s contemporary art fairs before the criteria changed.<\/p>\n

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Superposition presented work by Helina Metaferia at this year\u2019s Expo\u00a0Chicago Courtesy of Superposition Gallery<\/p>\n

Local angle<\/p>\n

Ascher explains that while a gallery\u2019s \u201ccredibility is often measured by square footage\u201d, Superposition is prospering regardless, having exhibited February James and Greg Ito at Frieze Los Angeles; the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired a piece by Helina Metaferia from its 2026 stand at Expo Chicago<\/a>; and at this year\u2019s Armory Show, its artist Zo\u00eb Pulley won the fair\u2019s inaugural Bronx Museum Acquisition Prize<\/a>. \u201cWithout a permanent space, the fair is where Superposition physically comes to life, so I treat every booth as its own exhibition,\u201d Ascher says. \u201cI design it around the artist\u2019s world rather than a neutral backdrop, and the response from collectors and institutions has been\u00a0remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superposition also involves the locals of a fair, giving opportunities to those who might not engage with art in this way. \u201cWhen we brought Alex Anderson to the Seattle Art Fair<\/a>, [taking place earlier this year] in his hometown, the presentation carried on outside the fair with dinners and gatherings for the community that raised him,\u201d Ascher says. \u201cThat kind of connection is our foundation.\u201d She references criticism of the 1893 Chicago World\u2019s Fair, an international exposition showcasing a range of human achievement from technology to fine art, where the committee was accused of purposefully excluding African Americans, as inspiration for this aspect of her approach. \u201c[Journalist and activist] Ida B. Wells and [the abolitionist] Frederick Douglass handed out a pamphlet protesting that Black Americans had been left out,\u201d she says. \u201cSo we build trust by showing up fully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tajudeen describes Bolanle Contemporary as operating with an \u201cartist-first\u201d approach. For Tajudeen, this means helping the artist secure institutional placements, press coverage and introductions to curators, as well as developing broader networks both nationally and internationally. It also allows Bolanle Contemporary to direct more resources to exhibitions. \u201cI really care about curating installations that are memorable and museum-
worthy,\u201d Tajudeen says, adding that she is particularly committed to solo and two-person shows. \u201cGroup shows are great marketing for the gallery, whereas solo shows are great marketing for the artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the Minor Attractions fair in 2024, Bolanle Contemporary exhibited Djofray Makumbu Courtesy of the artist and Bolanle Contemporary<\/p>\n

For the 2025 edition of the alternative art fair Minor Attractions<\/a> (which for the past three years has offered luxury hotel rooms as gallery spaces), Bolanle Contemporary transformed its room at The Mandrake Hotel into a traditional Jamaican wake. The presentation by the artist Ramone K. Anderson took the form of a shrine-like memorial inspired by Jamaican Nine-Night (a community vigil that runs in the days leading up to a formal farewell) with a stereo, hanging clothes, shelves of collectables and CDs. It was awarded the WYN Exhibitor Prize for best domestic booth\u00a0presentation.<\/p>\n

Tajudeen also points out that her gallery\u2019s show with the British-Congolese artist Djofray Makumbu at Minor Attractions the year before saw the re-creation of a classic Congolese living room, complete with a nostalgic 1970s television, alongside videos and music from the country. \u201cWe tried to create [unique experiential exhibitions]\u2014which we developed with the artist\u2014without it being too like set design or gimmicky,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Tajudeen emphasises her distaste for the term \u201cnomadic\u201d, explaining that it does not encapsulate all that her gallery does. \u201cThe art world is all about words, and I think nomadic is a really ugly one; it\u2019s not sexy,\u201d she says. Instead, she calls Bolanle Contemporary \u201ca contemporary art gallery with an international exhibition programme\u201d. She adds: \u201cWords that feel a bit more sophisticated could help more people in the arts move to this new way of running galleries without a fixed location.\u201d<\/p>\n

A gallery can be wherever its people are, and the art world is richer for it <\/p>\n

Bolanle Tajudeen, gallerist<\/p>\n

But, regardless of semantics, Frieze\u2019s decision to alter its rules suggests that perceptions of what constitutes a gallery are changing. For Ascher, removing the requirement for real estate \u201clowers the barrier for young dealers, makes room for artists who\u2019ve been shut out, and draws in collectors who want a relationship with the work, not just an asset\u201d, she says. \u201cA gallery can be wherever its people are, and the art world is richer for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Bolanle Tajudeen announced her gallery in 2023, she was not sure what that meant. \u201cI\u2019ve just always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,26140,501,182840,156,309004,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-632904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-commercial-galleries","tag-design","tag-emerging-artists","tag-entertainment","tag-frieze-london-2026","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}