⸻ About:
The Galleries Show website represent 3 unique projects [London, Antwerp and Future] which were developed independent of each other. What connects them conceptually is the naming- but most importantly is the idea of the 'exhibition-as-fair' model. The original London show selected 20 leading commercial London galleries inside an institutional frame of The Royal Academy and presented it as an exhibition- predating the Frieze Art Fair by one year.
Antwerp was initiated by ExtraCity Kunsthalle inviting 11 international emerging galleries which each invited another gallery for a total of 22 spaces. Extra City also commissioned new productions from at least one artist for each participating gallery and entrusted the gallery with the realization and presentation. These commissioned works marked the role of Extra City (institution) within the exhibition project as an enabler with a critical focus/perspective.
Future will both discuss + build new forms for the 'exhibition-as-fair' model- which could manifest differently depending on the selected city and budget. Initially we are discussing a month long series of pop-up galleries in smaller cities such as Lyon and Lisbon.
current goals for The Galleries Show
⸻ Discuss: The Globalisation of Art Brands and the Regionalisation of the Art Market
How Brands such as mega-galleries (Gagosian, H&W, Zwirner) and mega-fairs (Art Basel & Frieze) are both expanding & contracting the marketplace.
⸻ Regionalisation represents the expansion of the art market beyond historical ideas of NYC and London as the center to hundreds of smaller markets such as Antwerp, Abu Dhabi, Dallas, Mumbai etc ... and bespoke resort locations such as St. Moritz, Aspen, Monaco or The Hamptons.
⸻ IRL vs Social Media: has the value of physical exhibitions been replaced by instagram and other forms of social media. Our focus is building new forms of physical exhibitions or fairs the are gallery-centered, while being open to new forms of online distribution.
⸻ Can the 'exhibition-as-fair' model be developed in niche regional markets as an alternative to mega-fairs?
⸻ New Communities: Gallery Share Models, and Art Week(end)s are building new forms of collaboration. we have experience working with and building weekends
above: image courtesy KuhnMalvezzi. booth layout for the short-lived Frankfurt Fine Arts Fair (2006)
below: Map for CONDO-London 2025 (Gallery Share) and map of Gallery Weekend Berlin (2024)
