Last week I found myself on London’s Amwell Street. It’s in Angel, somewhere behind Sadler’s Wells, a street that, according to The Telegraph anyway, is the 11th coolest street in Britain. It has, or so I am later told, three hairdressers, a ceramicist from New York, a fancy stationary shop, several studios, coffee shops and, of course, a pub, which I find myself outside of, talking to the three people behind Amwell Street’s latest addition, Tripp Gallery. First dreamt up six years ago by artist Chris Burns, and helped into life by make-up artist extraordinaire Sharon Dowsett and her husband Tony, whose basement the gallery resides, was opened to feed from the artistic community that the street has always housed, creating a space led by artists, for artists. “There’s a real community around here,” Sharon tells me. It dates back to a time when the street looked very different. Now, Tripp Gallery and its neighbours show how far it’s come.
For Chris, a painter, who has had a studio just off Amwell Street for many years, the idea of an artist-led gallery has long made sense. As commercial galleries get more involved in shaping the output of the artist’s they represent, he saw the need for the people who create that work to have an output for the other pieces that doesn’t necessarily fit with the strict commercial vision sometimes pressed upon them. “I think it’s about doing things a bit different. So many artists get caught doing commercial, in one style,” Chris says. “We wanted to do something a bit different.” And, with rent rising, and more and more young artists being priced out the capital, or, unable to come to London at all, due to the rising price of university fees, Chris wanted to create a gallery they allowed artists more freedom, letting them take control of the space and taking less commission from final sales. “I think that’s what we’re trying to do here,” he says. “Trying to get rid of those financial restraints a bit.”
But it’s a big ask. “Having an artist-led gallery in London is tough,” he tells me. “And commercial galleries kind of look down their nose a bit at them, but they are coming up, it does seem to be moving that way. A lot of artists are keen to be involved, we have a long list.” Because ultimately this is about having fun with art, to create not just a gallery, but a living, organic thing, that not only supports artists but reflects the community that it resides. “In many ways I see us like one of those independent record labels that used to be in abundance,” said Burns. “And, as serious and as political as I can sound, it’s more about having a bit of real fun with it. It’s not vocational and you don’t need the right C.V to exhibit at Tripp, it really will be the case of: is the work good? And is it made in the right spirit?”.
The first exhibition, opening with a road block party that attracted a who’s who of London’s art scene, including Gilbert & George and stretched from gallery to pub (“I think we’ll have to do it a bit smaller next time,” Tony laughs) is entitled What’s It Going To Be Then, Eh? The exhibition was never meant to be about one thing – but more of a tester, a starting point, bringing together artists from Chris’ life and community – there’s work from his cousins, friends, his old art teacher (“Those are the one’s are images of cans in Frances Bacon’s studio. We want to do an exhibition of his work later on”). Michael Hazell, an Australian artist also exhibited in the gallery, was an instrumental in finding the rest. “We just shared the same studio, the same idea,” he says. And, as the work got hung, the work kind of wove together into a loose theme. “I think it’s a bit nostalgic, a bit fifties, a bit domestic. It wasn’t intentional, it just kind of came together that way,” says Chris.
But the gallery remains a work in progress. When we talk, they are planning to re-hang the original exhibition. It’s how Chris sees it working. “It’s like a tool for artists – I want artists to be able to come here change it around each week if they want, to bring in pieces straight down the road from their studio,” he says. “I think we’re just working on what we want at the moment”. Stay tuned.
Tripp Gallery, 59 Amwell Street, London, EC1R 1UR, Wednesday – Saturday 11am-6pm
Photographs courtesy of Tripp Gallery, painting by Chris Burns.
