26th October 2012 Hotel Elephant 27- 29 Brandon Street, London SE17 1NA
Hotel Elephant is an art gallery project and studio space founded in 2009. Until recently the gallery relocated from near the underground maze at Elephant and Castle’s station to the midst of the Heygate estate. The gallery’s founders have the desire to bring creativity to the area and are fully committed to developing a self- sustaining and accessible culture of activity to enrich the surrounding neighbourhood. Funded solely on the affordable studio space it provides to artists, the provision of its gallery space and its educational projects. As part of The South London Art Map Hotel Elephant opens late for SLAM Friday’s at the end of every month.
Opening as part of Elefest The gallery resides on the second floor of a disused council block, following the trend that has occurred in recent years of curating, since Roger Hiorns evocative, Yves Klein Blue, carapace of copper sulphate crystals ‘Seizure’ turned an Old Kent road bed sit into an urban crystal palace and saved the building from demolition in 2009. Hiorns work has now painstakingly been removed from south London and will go on public display from spring 2013 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Inside Hotel Elephant there resides two separate gallery spaces and a small but perfectly equipped cinema. The galleries are mainly used by artists who are in residence at the project but on this occasion For the opening of the new project space, Hotel Elephant brought a collection of works, cross discipline from practitioners who have worked both in residence and from the surrounding area. The exhibition featured the work of: Eva Sajovic, Eleanor Shipman, Emile Kelly, Kamala Katbamna Rebecca Davies and Reuben Paul.
For more information about up coming events, exhibition and life drawing courses can be found at hotelelephantgallery.blogspot.com or alternatively on Facebook page www.facebook.com/HotelElephant
