Gabriele Beveridge: Under Falls of Air, 2022 – Polyurethane paint, steel shop-fittings
240 x 497 x 3.5 cm
Seventeen, 270-276 Kingsland Road, London, E8 4DG www.seventeengallery.com Instagram @seventeengallery
I’ve followed Seventeen closely since it was established in 2006 by former artist David Hoyland at 17 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch – retaining the name when it edged into Dalston by moving a mile up the road to the less snappily numbered block 270-276. David is always ready with refreshingly straightforward, self-deprecatingly cynical takes on the art world, and anyway it’s hard not to like someone who calls me ‘chief’. The programme is diverse: historically, sculpture and video dominated, but in recent years David has also warmed to painters: perhaps he likes selling things as well as putting on challenging and thought-provoking shows. So you’ll find Justin Fitzpatrick, Rhys Coren, Gabriel Hartley and Erin O’Keefe using the language of painting, even if O’Keefe actually shows photographs of painted models. Of the original core group of artists, Susan Collis and Graham Dolphin have become the longest-represented and are favourites of mine: both use a wide range of media to explore conceptual issues while remaining rooted in the intricate use of materials. Joey Holder, David Blandy and Larry Achiampong, on the other hand, tend towards wider-ranging environments and film. Gabriele Beveridge is up currently: her ‘Under Falls of Air’ repurposes shop fittings to poetic effect.
London’s gallery scene is varied, from small artist-run spaces to major institutions and everything in between. Each week, art writer and curator Paul Carey-Kent gives a personal view of a space worth visiting.
