Annka Kultys Gallery, Unit 9 (entrance in courtyard), 472 Hackney Road, London E2 9EQ www.annkakultys.com Instagram: @annkakultys
This is the tenth anniversary year of Annka Kultys’ eponymous gallery, and over the decade the Swiss gallerist has developed a forward-looking and distinctive position as a physical gallery that emphasises the digital, through both the gallery programme and extensive online offerings. The physical space has always been near Cambridge Heath station, albeit the gallery moved a few yards in 2022. By showcasing artists who engage with technology, both in traditional and digital media, Kultys promotes what she terms a hybrid ‘phygital’ approach, aiming to push the boundaries of what is achievable in both physical and digital gallery spaces. Consistent with that, many of the exhibitions feature new media – relatively conventional painters have been shown, but Kultys says that is less likely going forward.
AKG was early to show the artificially intelligent AI-DA Robot, sought-after in recent auctions; and I have enjoyed technologically-innovative shows by Gretchen Andrew, Molly Soda, Signe Pierce and Sasha Stiles. Currently, you can engage online with ‘Cacotopia 09 | VR – Illuminated: Moving Image Perspectives’, the latest in an annual programme sampling new work: that title is the opposite of ‘Utopia’, suggesting challenging perspectives on where we might be headed. The physical gallery currently features another favourite of mine: Bonn-based Louisa Clement presents an artificially-generated church sermon, as found in Korea; and a striking 100-panel installation featuring abstracting close-up shots of her body, over which she has lasered her own texts addressing how, in her words, ‘our facts become more blurred than ever before’, exacerbated by how ‘the AI continue to generate texts from themselves’, such that the associated ‘loss of knowledge in the body is a central theme of our time’.
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.
