Kate MacGarry, 27 Old Nichol Street, London E2 7HR
www.katemacgarry.com Instagram: @katemacgarry
Kate MacGarry opened her eponymous gallery in 2002, initially on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch. She relocated to Vyner Street in 2007, when it became the East End gallery hub. That lasted only a few years, and by the time MacGarry moved back to Shoreditch in 2011, few galleries remained – indeed, with Nicoletti’s recent move away, I don’t think there’s a single gallery on the street. At any rate, MacGarry’s rooflit space particularly suits artists who engage with natural light, Rana Begum currently being a prime example.
I’ve seen most of the shows over those two decades and might, somewhat simplistically, group my favourites broadly into those in which material presence is the key factor and those engaging primarily in a – typically playful – conceptualism. The first category might include Matt Bryans and the painters Bernard Piffaretti and Patricia Treib, as well as Begum; the latter might embrace John Smith, Peter Liversidge, Goshka Macuga and Marcus Coates – I particularly recall the last disguised by means of shaving foam as twenty species of British moth in 2012! But the gallery represents 25 artists, fully celebrated in a Cork Street pop-up celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2022, and I see I haven’t mentioned Peter McDonald, Ben Rivers, Renee So and Francis Upritchard – all of whom have had several solos I’ve enjoyed. MacGarry is also, importantly, a founding member of the Gallery Climate Coalition, which recognises the role the art world has to play in reducing emissions, and advocates for change.
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. See them all here.
