Maureen Paley, 60 Three Colts Lane, London E2 6GQ
www.maureenpaley.com Instagram: @maureenpaley
New York born Maureen Paley came to London to attend the Royal College of Art in 1978-80 and stayed. She’s been operating as a gallerist for over 40 years: first as Interim Art, starting in what was an open studio space in a Victorian terraced house, and then eponymously in a light industrial space. Uniquely, for a gallery with such an international reputation and reach, Paley has stuck not just to the UK, but to the East End. That said, she runs three spaces: the main one in Bethnal Green; the smaller ‘Studio M’ project space in Shoreditch; and ‘Morena di Luna’ in Hove (that would be ‘Dark haired one of the Moon’, after the nickname given to Paley by one of her longest-represented artists, Wolfgang Tillmans). The first show I can recall seeing was of Helen Chadwick, so influential since her untimely death in 1996.
Paley isn’t one for many group shows, and looking back over this century’s programme, it’s solos by Rebecca Warren, Anne Hardy, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Hannah Starkey and Max Hooper Schneider that come to mind. The programme is kept fresh with new artists – though Paley has worked for decades with several – and fifty are currently represented. Michael Landy, who had a solo show in 2003, isn’t one of them, but he drew the gallerist as above – she is more strongly associated with his partner, Gillian Wearing. Back in the present, this is the last week to catch Merlin James across both London spaces – an artist I have followed for twenty years, but is new to the roster. Next up, by way of contrast, will be Liam Gillick, who first showed with Paley in 1992.
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.
