The Rise and Rise of Transition Gallery…
ZeitgeistArtsProjects, 14th June 2012.
Notes
Cathy Lomax & Alli Sharma
Renowned artists, curators and directors of independent and innovative artist led-gallery and magazine Garageland & Arty.
Cathy Lomax is an advocate of just doing things, ‘I didn’t think too hard and fast about marketing etc. people came to Transition and it grew
The initial idea was to have a place to show my work and that expanded
Arty magazine, is a similar idea to gallery.Cathy started magazine to showcase works as well.
People were interested in it-there is nothing like encouragement to make you keep going , so that’s how Arty started.
Saatchi buying Stella Vine’s work at an early show was really interesting. Saatchi at that time was visiting east end galleries. He bought Stella’s work and then used it to publicise a show at Saatchi so it was a fantastic career boost for her.
Later on they had a solo show with Emma Talbot. Saatchi bought an entire wall of works.
August 2005: Alex Michon and Cathy Lomax put on their show The English Museum in August http://www.transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/englishm/em_pr.html
There was a lot of press as August such a dead month usually in the art world that people wanted to write about us.
Moving from the Garage to current space in Regents studio in Hackney.
It was more on the art route so that was really useful.
Alli and Cathy are pop culture fans. Like quirky names, quirky themes.
Started up Garageland – a biennial mag, thematically produced. Current one is about Paint, future one about Film.
@cathylomax is planning a big project with Hackney Picture House with a show of her works and to launch the Garageland film mag.
Alli Sharma talking about curating.
Fade Away was a show Alli curated which also toured from Transition across the country, 43 works, selected in 2010.
The idea for Fade Away was about the mix of representation and abstraction
Barry Schwabsky, an art critic,wrote an amazing text and we were thrilled he wrote it. Sometimes you have to ask,you never know who shall say yes!
Alli Sharma runs a fantastic blog ‘articulated artists’ exploring artists practice &processes.
http://articulatedartists.blogspot.co.uk/
TIPS: When you approach a gallery, really research the gallery, visit. People approach us that have never been to the show. They do look at all the submissions and some go on file. But you should know the space first.
Keeping in touch, building a relationship with artists is important..
How did Cathy meet Alli?
Emma Talbot was a Tutor of Alli’s and was in a show at Transition
Mix of established artists and younger artists
Alli wanted to be involved in something more than just doing her work.
It’s a fluid organisation.its a not-for-profit org. we don’t have a salary.
Just started press with networking extraordinaire Corinna Spencer @corr has joined Transition as Marketing. An excellent social media networker extraordinaire.
3 directors, Alli, Cathy and Alex Michon and 3 interns. Are a proper limited company&
We don’t represent artists officially but we do work with some artists on an informal basis
Interns? They tend to stay but It’s not always exciting, but we try &get them involved in interesting projects. The people who get the most out of it are the ones who understand what we do.
What was Sluice Art Fair like?
Sounded different and had different ethos which was great. Was very busy.
Has your work suffered as a result of running Transition Gallery?
No it hasn’t, it has improved. There are other opportunities that sometimes come about because of it. You can get more respect from others because you are running your own project so it balances the power.
The idea of artist/curator is more accepted than it was 10 yrs ago.
How do you balance it all?
It’s a question of prioritising. You have to be disciplined!Transition is part of our practice.
