Condo opened across London last weekend–a collaborative exhibition spanning fifteen different London galleries that have teamed up with spaces from outside the UK including ones from New York, Oslo, Shanghai and Guatemala City.
There is a very natural fit between all of the pairings at Condo (with the occasional three-way and four-way) and all the chosen galleries are top of their game. Most are boutiquey and cool—dare we use that word—and have a genuinely exciting roster of emerging and well-established artists, and a fresh approach to curating. This being London, the Condo map—a visually bonkers affair if ever there was one, those with epilepsy look away now—can be broken up into three main areas; Central, East and South.
Of the ‘w’ postcodes, there are only three: Sadie Coles HQ, hosting New York’s Bridget Donahue; Southard Reid, hosting Glasgow’s Koppe Astner—their presentation of Kris Lemsalu is one of the most enjoyably nutty collaborations of Condo, and their teaming up together feels like an obvious, and brilliant, choice; and Rodeo, hosting Berlin’s Supportico Lopez with a solo installation from Swiss artist Franziska Lantz, expanding arid zones.
East London is the most populated, beginning with Project Native Informant near Farringdon—hosting Dublin’s Mother’s Tankstation and New York’s Queer Thoughts—and moving into a strong cluster of Herald Street and Bethnal Green galleries including Wilma Gold (with Frankfurt’s Neue Alte Brücke) and Herald St itself (with Berlin’s Tanya Leighton and Glasgow’s The Modern Institute).
Maureen Paley is a highlight in this area, presenting a thoughtful group show of work with Brussels gallery dépendance which includes Sergej Jensen, Richard Aldrich, Nora Schultz and Haegue Yang. Black and white photography from the likes of Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys complement the muted tones of Jensen’s acrylic on canvas and Thomas Bayrle’s pencil work on the gallery’s crisp white walls. The hanging of work from the ceiling to the floor, in the centre of the room, creates a subtle envelopment of the viewer within the planes of the space.
South London also offers up some great, if more sparsely located, pairings, from Peckham-based favourites Arcadia Missa—paired with Oslo’s VI, VII—and The Sunday Painter, showing a group exhibition that includes works by London’s Emma Hart, with Jaqueline Martins (São Paulo), Seventeen (New York/London) and Stereo (Warsaw).
Greengrassi, originally located in Fitzrovia when it opened in the 90s, moving to Kennington in 2004 for larger premises, have collaborated with Guatemala City’s Proyectos Ultravioleta on a group show with Felipe Mujica, Elizabeth Wild, Giuseppe Gabellone, Karin Ruggaber, Johanna Unzueta and Naufus Ramirez Figueroa. These Architectures We Make explores the relationship between “building and protecting”, in particular, the enormous amounts of energy that are put into building things, as opposed to the output given to take care of what we already have.
Chewday’s’s pairing with Düsseldorf’s Max Mayer, The Middle Class Goes To Heaven, takes its title from Nicolás Guagnini’s slide projection which is included in the show, alongside the work of octogenarian Belgian artist Jef Geys and duo Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr.
‘Condo’ runs at various locations until 11 February 2017 condocomplex.org/
