domobaal, 3 John Street, London WC1N 2ES
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domobaal is a friendly place to visit. It feels rather like being invited into someone’s home – and that is what it is: behind the mild disguise of the lowercase merger of the gallery’s name, it is Domo Baal who lives there and will greet you.
Baal opened the gallery in 2000, and some 200 exhibitions in, 20 artists are represented across all disciplines. She characterises her interest as being in ‘the ‘how’ an artwork does what it does, not the ‘what’ – that for me is the relatively quotidian illustration of an idea’. That’s often meant conceptually interesting painting – over the years I’ve enjoyed Lothar Götz, Ansel Krut, Emma Talbot and Miho Sato as well as the current widely acclaimed ‘Light Industry’ by recent John Moores prize winner Graham Crowley ( image above), he thematically paints shadows in Payne’s Grey onto the brightness of Cadmium Lemon. Yet one could also cite sculptural tendencies, as in the work of Neil Zakiewicz, Mhairi Vari and Rachel Adams, the filmic emphasis of Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s multimedia practice, or the tricky-to-classify projects of the design group International Lawns. Whoever is showing, Baal is always happy to take the time to explain why she reckons they’re good, and I often agree. Among various offsite activities, the gallery has been a welcome presence at the London Art Fair – and this year’s stand, with Alice Wilson and Aliki Braine, got my vote as the best of the 120.
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.
