Delfina Foundation, 29/31 Catherine Place, London SW1E 6DY
www.delfinafoundation.com Instagram: @delfinafdn
Since 2007, Delfina Foundation has been much more than a gallery: its primary purpose is to promote artistic exchange and experimentation, notably through residencies that, in the non-profit organisation’s words, ‘create opportunities for emerging and established artists, curators and writers to reflect on what they do, position their practice within relevant global discourse, create career-defining research and commissions, and network with colleagues’. That ethos currently supports 40 residencies per year, and over 1000 practitioners have been helped since Delfina Studios (the predecessor to the Foundation) was set up by the visionary philanthropist Delfina Entrecanales in 1988. Exhibitions at the premises near Victoria are typically linked to the residencies, either as solos or group shows on such themes as power play, the politics of food, and performance as a form of recording and re-writing history. One room of Haegue Yang’s current extensive retrospective at the Hayward Gallery emerges from her time at the studios in 2004; and the Foundation has just held the first European solo exhibition by Myanmar artist Moe Satt, who was a resident in 2020. There’s a chance to talk to the current residents and see what they are up to at an open studio drop-in event on 27 November. However, as Aaron Cezar – Director since 2007 – explained to me, the Foundation has a new challenge. Entrecanales passed away in 2022, and there is now a requirement to secure the future by acquiring the property, renovate it and establish ongoing funding. Hence a £7m fundraising effort is under way for ‘A Home for Artists’.
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.
