Bye Ceri.
So Ceri Hand Gallery is leaving Liverpool in early 2012 and setting up shop in London. This came as a big shock to many of us in Liverpool, although we could understand it perfectly at the same time.
In any place there are a series of complex links and relationships, and Ceri is not just a gallerist, but is woven into Liverpool as a whole: being part of Visual Arts in Liverpool, working with John Moores University, generously lending support or advice to local artists and groups like Royal Standard. There’s more of course, but that gives you an idea. All of these things add up to a hell of a lot and I haven’t even mentioned credibility yet. Her gallery brought a little piece of the commercial art world (London art world?) to Liverpool and when she is gone there will be none like it. There are great institutions, galleries and artist-led spaces of course, but I have always felt like there’s not much in between. As an artist, especially when I was really starting out in the city, that gap has made things like representation seems far away, if not impossible. Ceri has also been very keen to talk about the gallery-artist relationship and to demystify it a little and, as someone who represents artists and shows at art fairs internationally, she has been pretty unique (in Liverpol).
In the Daily Post article (below) she mentions a ceiling for sales and I guess that feels true of a lot of aspects of art outside of London. That she has done well enough to warrant the move is fantastic, but does it also highlight the limits of a regional city?
On the flip side, the gallery, Lucy the gallery manager and the artists are growing and becoming more successful and it’s easy to see why the move to London is necessary to continue that momentum, I wish them all every success. Happy news that the A Foundation building is to be resurrected – as Camp & Furnace – http://www.unionnorth.com/07/camp-furnace-2 is exciting and might lessen the blow of losing both A Foundation and Ceri Hand Gallery, partiularly for the Baltic Triangle area of the city.
Steffan Hughes has also written a blog entry about Ceri leaving here:
http://steffanjoneshughes.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/ceri-hand-gallery-to-leave-liverpool/
http://www.visualartsinliverpool.info/
http://www.artfeast.co.uk/2011/04/art-feast-interv…
