Since 2021, London-based gallery Incubator has injected youthful, collaborative energy into the traditional gallery system. That’s not only because it showcases the work of the city’s emerging artists, giving them a platform it might otherwise take them years to achieve; but also because it proposes an entirely new model for presenting their works. Every spring and autumn, Incubator launches a solo show programme, with six artists each displaying their work in the gallery’s Chiltern Street space for two week-long stints. During the winter and summer months, the gallery unveils group exhibitions, featuring the work of emerging talents alongside established artists.
‘I’m drawn to artists who inspire a new way of looking or thinking,’ says Incubator’s founder, Angelica Jopling. ‘I like to curate the solo show programme in a way that each artist’s practice is radically different from the previous or the following one. Many people who come to the Incubator openings come every single week and so I want to ensure that they’re consistently surprised, intrigued and inspired.’
Six artists to see at Incubator in spring 2024
Lucrezia Abatzoglu, Milky Way, 2023. Oil on Canvas
In April, May and June, Incubator is exhibiting its latest solo show programme, Incubator 24, with a roster of artists from around the world who are currently London-based. First up in early April was Antrea Tzurovits, a Serbian artist who channels his childhood experience as a refugee into sculptures, paintings, installations and more that interrogate the mechanisms of memory and experiences of personal and collective trauma.
Until 28 April, there’s Leonard Iheagwam, a Nigerian artist known professionally as ‘Soldier’, whose vibrantly coloured and repetitively patterned works provoke questions about identity politics, family dynamics and the impact of war all intersect.
Iheagwam is followed by Lucrezia Abatzoglu (1-12 May), an Italian-Greek artist whose paintings bring monumentality to the female body.
Corbin Shaw (15-26 May) creates textiles that explore the notions of masculinity he was taught growing up in a mining town in Yorkshire.
Roman artist Elena Angelini’s hazy, vulnerable portraits will be on display for the fifth instalment of the show (29 May-9 June); and Paul Barlow’s abstract paintings (12-23 June), which draw inspiration from light waves, fractals, and halos will close out Incubator’s spring season.
Each of the solo shows is accompanied by an events programme that includes performances, readings and talks. ‘The events exist as an extension of the solo show programme,’ says Jopling, ‘and so it is a decision made between the exhibiting artist and myself about what would best complement or clash against their work in an interesting way. The idea is that these events can offer a new angle into the work that’s being exhibited and also introduce a different crowd into Incubator, who might not be inclined to view visual art but are more interested in poetry, music or dance. I find that this cross-pollination of people creates such a dynamic energy and fosters some of the most interesting conversations and, in some cases, future collaborations.’
Installation view of Antrea Tzourovits’ show at Incubator
Jopling, whose father is White Cube founder Jay Jopling and her mother is the artist Sam Taylor-Johnson (director of the recent Amy Winehouse film Back to Black), was well-versed in the workings of the art world even before starting Incubator. She has parlayed that knowledge into creating a gallery that supports artists in the early stages of their careers, creating a welcoming and collaborative space for them to display, and develop, their practice.
‘Watching the practices and careers of artists who cut their teeth at Incubator evolve and develop has been incredibly rewarding and exciting,’ Jopling says. ‘The community of artists, collectors, curators, art and art history students and friends that has formed around Incubator has also been surprising and beautiful to witness. It just shows how much desire there is to experience art in person and, in doing that, being among other like-minded individuals to discuss art and ideas.’
Up next for the Incubator project is a small London-based residency programme that, in Jopling’s words, ‘will make Incubator even more of an incubator in nurturing the growth of emerging artists’.
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