Step Change

A survey of artists discussing the step change in their career that had a meaningful impact.

If there is an artist here who offers a recognised career route, it is Jamie Shovlin. From first degree, straight to Royal College of Art, through inclusion in New Contemporaries 2003 and first commercial representation with a start up hot gallery (Riflemaker, where Jamie’s show opened the gallery in 2004), and a sale of the entire show to Charles Saatchi, being selected for what became the last of the ICA’s Beck’s Future show in 2006. A ‘Tate Now’ solo exhibition at Tate Britain is followed by an invitation to join a blue chip dealer. Jamie’s career path can be considered a ‘model’ for late 20th and early 21st century British artists. Jamie mentions how lucky he’s been when discussing his journey, but he’s also quick to point out that he works very hard to have high quality work available when opportunities present themselves, and this is perhaps key to his success. Being selected for high caliber shows by, amongst others JJ Charlesworth, Haley Newman, Cerith Wyn Evans (New Contemporaries), Martin Creed and Jake & Dinos Chapman (Beck’s Future) requires a sustained quality of practice. Timing is also almost always key, (as we shall continue to see) as when Ben Tufnell moved from Tate to Haunch of Venison, having just curated Jamie’s Tate Now exhibition, the invitation was extended to join the gallery.

This small survey of artists’ and their career journey’s, focusing on step change, offers clues and indications of how visual artists careers develop. None of these artists have enjoyed their success because of how each particular journey developed, its almost always part of the story, which is led by the quality of practice. Some of these stories might seem quite delineated, clear and identifiable, even planned, but that’s probably more about asking the question in this way and it should be remembered that much of the activity is concurrent or closely timed or overlaps. It is not as delineated or organised as this might suggest.

Richard Billingham’s journey could not be more different to Jamie’s. Richard was using photographs of his family as source material for paintings while at his first degree at the University of Sunderland. A painting student, Richard sat in on photography lectures and was impressed by a talk given by visiting tutor Julian Germain. Germain took an interest in Richard and begun to show the photographs to a range of people including Michael Collins, then picture editor at the Sunday Telegraph magazine. A visiting tutor at the same time was Val Williams, who, having seen the photos in a shoe box, scratched and with some covered in paint, included a triptych of photo’s in the exhibition ‘Who’s looking at the Family’ at the Barbican galleries in 1994, the same year Richard graduated from Sunderland. However Richard points out, ‘nothing came of that’ so after graduation Richard returned to the midlands, worked at a supermarket but stayed in contact with Julian Germain and Michael Collins showing them images taken over the next two year period. This led to an introduction to Scalo Publishing in Zurich who planned to develop and publish a book of Richards photographs (which would include a book jacket quote by Robert Frank validating Richard’s work). While developing and reviewing drafts of the book, Richard was introduced to Anthony Reynolds who suggested he act as Richard’s agent, and included Richard’s work in a group show at his gallery in 1995. With the book launch in 1996, Richard remembers his surprise at reading a Guardian review of the book on his return flight from Zurich, ‘Richard Billingham, cult hero, I was still working in a supermarket!’ A series of media interviews followed, managed by Scalo’s PR agent in London. Concurrently to all this Julian Germain had encouraged Richard to submit work for the Felix H Mann prize, which Richard won, and which included a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Film and Photography in Bradford in 1996.

Clearly a range of influential and helpful individuals independently recognized a critical body of work, and Richard met a supportive and influential dealer in Anthony Reynolds who continues to represent Richard today. The period 1994 – 1996 saw Richard’s profile grow substantially, and which was subsequently validated by winning the Citibank Photography prize in 1997 and inclusion in the critical survey show of the nineties, Sensation, Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection at the Royal Academy also in 1997.

Sophy Rickett’s experience was different again. There are three identifiable periods of her career, if you like, a ‘peer’ period, followed by a series of residencies (which had no expected outputs) and the last five years which have included two major commissions. On graduation from London College of Printing (now Communication) in 1993 she wasn’t sure she wanted to pursue a career as an artist. She spent the first few years after graduating alternating between traveling and signing on. She took a series of low paid jobs including washing up at Jongleurs Comedy Club and secretarial work at the Financial Times. She also accepted some commercial photography commissions, contributing a column for Kate Spicer’s new sex column at GQ and feature illustrations for New Woman and Cosmopolitan. In 1995 together with friends Rut Luxemburg (who she had been at college with) and Carey Young (who she had met printing at Photofusion darkroom), she organized the exhibition Stream at Plummet in 1995, an artist run space, developed with friends (Mark Aerial Waller, William Shoebridge, Melanie Carvalho, Pete Jones, Tina Keane, Tim Allen,) in William Shoebridge’s council flat on City Road. Here Sophy first showed the ‘Pissing Women’ photographs. This network of peers and friends working and showing together got Sophy back to making new work and she felt confident enough apply to the Royal College of Art. Having started her MA at RCA in 1997, the work she’d made through the ‘peer’ period of 94 – 97 was included in New Contemporaries in the summer of 1998 selected by Phyllida Barlow, Eddie Berg, Christine Hohenbuchler and Adrian Searle. Sophy remembers clearly the moment she found the language to write about her work. From the ‘peer’ period of discussion, debate, hanging out, private views and press release writing for Plummet shows, she developed her own language for writing about her work. Emily Tsingou visited New Contemporaries, but it was only after RCA graduation that Sophy was taken on by Emily Tsingou Gallery. Sophy now regrets that the ‘Pissing Women’ series was not editioned properly, nor were they priced appropriately. Neither at the time did anyone suggest a publication; the pressure then was to produce the next thing.

Here we see a small group of artists working together to support one another, helping to get a foot on the ladder with some success for all of them.

Following graduation in 1999 Sophy undertook a range of commissions and residencies, including Grizedale Sculpture Park where Adam Sutherland provided critical flexible support, which Sophy remembers as being highly valuable. Here she made key work, Owl, M6 - her first video work, which was later shown in Geneva and at Emily Tsingou Gallery. A Fellowship at Dundee Contemporary Art (2000) followed where she printed work made in Grizedale, then the Helen Chadwick Fellowship at British School of Rome/Ruskin School of Drawing and a Fellowship at St Johns College, Oxford (2002), where she continued to develop her work. All these opportunities were critical for not expecting shows or outputs from the artist, but offered important developmental research opportunities. The work was shown, but in group shows here and abroad (Spacex, Exeter; NMPF&TV, Bradford; Autowork, Leipzig; Contemporart, Brescia, Estorick Collection, London etc) and dealer shows.

In 2004 Sophy was commissioned by Photoworks, De La Warr Pavilion and Glyndbourne Opera House to make Auditorium, a direct response to Glyndbourne Opera House. This was a major commission, which developed a range of funders, including Photoworks, De La Warr Pavilion, Arts Council England, the Art and Humanities Research Council, the Henry Moore Foundation and The Foyle Foundation. She, and independent curator Elena Hill, would use this mixed economy funded model (adding some commercial sponsorship) for the development of To The River through 2010–11.

Emily Tsingou stopped representing artists on the primary market in 2008, so for a few years Sophy was only represented by galleries in Turin and Tokyo. In 2011 she was taken on by Brancolini Grimaldi, who have expanded from their Florence base to open a new space in London.

Graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1992 had no significant impact for Melanie Manchot. For her the series of photographic works made after graduation, which focused upon her mother and the first solo presentation of these at The Cut Gallery in 1996 (including a sale of work to Charles Saatchi) was the more significant. This was followed in 1998 by the public poster project OUT in South Kensington (again focusing upon her mother as the subject) funded by an Arts Council England grant, which attracted a high level of press interest. Melanie had initiated this by walking into the Cut Gallery and asking for an exhibition, which started a partnership with the gallery director who worked with her on the poster project.

The poster project had a major effect, increasing her profile in the UK, introducing Manchot’s work to the USA, through the media blitz that took place; Melanie’s mother was door stopped by the red top newspapers, while Manchot was asked to appear on television and radio both in the UK and abroad. Stuart Horodner, an American curator, invited Melanie to Pennsylvania, to present the posters in a new public place, and further American exhibitions and projects followed including the later and final colour photographs of her mother.

Melanie reflects on this period 1996 – 99 as having had a critical influence on her career, it was during this time that she developed the critical discourse that still informs her practice, and the exposure opened doors and generated opportunities. She found also a synergy with writers such as Sue Hubbard, Val Williams and Sarah Kent (through a common interest in critical gender studies) who would all write about the work. She’d also developed a professional partnership with Stuart Horodner, who’d come to feature in a later video work himself. In addition, as a German national with a German subject (her mother), the major German newspaper, Zeit, published a full page spread on her work, which would have a further impact on her career in Germany.

Manchot is obviously proud when speaking about this work, as it is still active, still being exhibited over ten years later, whereby, as she admits, some later works from between 2000 – 2003 are more transitional and won’t necessarily be seen again. She also speaks with pleasure at the fact that publishers Prestel invited her to make a book towards the end of this period, after having her work included in Chris Townsend’s Vile Bodies, (Townsend learning of her work through the posters media coverage) which Prestel published with Channel 4 (ISBN: 379131940X). The resulting book Melanie Manchot: Love is a Stranger (ISBN: 3791325329) acts as a critical bookend to this period of work.

The next step change would be developed from a commercial commission, when Manchot was offered three commissions by French fashion magazine Biba. One of these involved a trip to Moscow in 2001. From this initial trip, becoming intrigued in what was happening in Moscow, and after she had completed the Biba commissions, Melanie would make a successful proposal to Arts Council England for a production grant. After a number of visits over a number of years this series of works (Moscow Girls, Hotel Moscow and Groups and Locations) around Moscow would be exhibited at The Photographers’ Gallery, London in 2005 where Manchot was keen to work with the curator Charlotte Cotton.

Later in 2005 Manchot relocated to Berlin, to prepare and develop new work for a major solo exhibition at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin in 2006. She made two self initiated new video works for this show, Security and Shave, which features the American curator Stuart Horodner, and presented the Moscow series of works. This show would start an intense period of exhibiting and commissioning in Germany, working with curator Mark Gisbourne, and joining Gallery m in Bochum, Germany, which continues today.

On returning to the UK, Manchot was commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella to develop a major new work, partnered through a residency with The Whitechapel Gallery. Manchot produced the ambitious durational 35mm film portrait of a community, Celebration (Cyprus Street), which premiered at the Whitechapel Gallery in 2010. This project, and her success in delivering a high quality art work, which is technically and creatively highly challenging (with support from F&VU which nurtures, supports and advocates for the artists they work with) has enabled a critical confidence that she can deliver to this scale, quality and level of ambition. Along with the increased profile in Germany, this has led to further large-scale commissions in Germany (Deichtorhallen, Hamburh) and France (MAC/VAL, Paris, where Frank Lamy is another Manchot advocate). Importantly, Celebration has also been shown extensively since its premier, and F&VU maintain a dialogue with Manchot, on the work and it’s showing, and indeed on her continuing practice. It should also be noted that Celebration led to a number of prize nominations for Manchot, including the Jarman Award.

For the painter Dexter Dalwood, it took a while for the step change in his artistic career. Dalwood was a successful rock/punk musician, as the bass player in the Bristol based rock band The Cortinas, who split up in 1978. He was 21 when he started at St. Martins, which was an ‘amazing’ experience, but only showed briefly after graduation, in a small group show at the Paton Gallery in Covent Garden, and things fizzled out. He’d started teaching on a BTEC course in 1988 just before applying to the Royal College, which he describes as ‘a disastrous educational experience’, though he also recognizes that the RCA MA offered the opportunity to go deeper into the work, being able to think about his practice. He graduated from the RCA in 1990, the early YBA years. There were lots of shows in warehouses and empty office buildings; indeed his first solo exhibition was in the Clore Building in Shad Thames, which currently houses the Design Museum. He was also teaching in Newcastle as a visiting lecturer. He was in a group exhibition at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, and being singularly unsuccessful in applying to opportunities, for instance failing seven times to get into East, and only got into a John Moores painting prize exhibition because ‘….I knew someone on the panel’.

Around this time in the mid nineties, Dalwood was introduced to some Goldsmiths students such as Michael Raedecker and Stephen Gontarski through his girlfriend who was studying there. This led to showing with Enrico David in a small group show at an artist run space, the Trade Apartment Gallery, Brixton, which a Goldsmiths student was involved in running. Saatchi turned up and bought two of Dexter’s paintings and Dalwood was immediately slotted into the publication ‘The New Neurotic Realism’ (ISBN: 0952745380), and included in the second part of the exhibition of the same name at the Saatchi Gallery. Here then was his ‘break’ as he describes it. Without a representing gallery he found himself in discussions with two major London commercial galleries and Larry Gagosian, who was about to open a commercial gallery in London to compliment his New York gallery. Dexter remembers thinking he should show with one of the signature London galleries, as his peer group would anticipate. However as a young painter in the eighties, he recollected, the thinking then was that if a painter from London didn’t get to America your career could fizzle out, so Dexter said yes to Gagosian. His life changed. He was then able to stop depending on teaching. His first solo show at Gagosian was in October 2000 (a year or so after the Saatchi exhibition) for which he made a whole new substantial body of work. On reflection Dexter recognizes that Gagosian’s interest in him at that time, as the current hot British painter, for Gagosian’s new London gallery, was a ‘right time, right place’ moment. Gagosian has certainly not increased his stable of British artists significantly since.

Hew Locke graduated from Falmouth School of Art in 1988. He gradually relocated to London, via Bristol, and inherited a squat-based studio from artist Lucy Gunning, who’d graduated from Falmouth the year before Hew. Hew could see the early nineties recession on the horizon, and made a calculated decision to ‘hide in an MA’, spending eight months developing a ‘serious portfolio’ which would get him into the RCA in 1991. He likens this time to ‘acting as an animal, hiding in the forest’. It was the height of the YBA period, but this had little influence on Hew, he was more interested in what was happening at places like the Havanna Biennale, the English vernacular, and circus and fairground art. He made an important trip to Guyana in 1992, which would influence the work for his degree show, however when his mother died in 1993, he was given an additional term to complete his work on compassionate grounds, which meant he left the RCA in December 1993 (with his work boxed up) and his graduate show would be six months later in the summer of 1994. Critically for Hew, is his studio in the squat, which he was also now living in, and the affordability of this situation allowing him to survive economically. Hew signed on in the period between leaving the RCA and his graduate show, and with a jobstart interview looming decided he needed to show he’d been doing something about employment. He applied for a Wingate Scholarship, and without any expectations, got it, and along with it a Delfina Studio Award.

Hew had previously met Sonia Boyce, who would introduce Hew to Iniva, who were moving into new offices. Curator John Gill was programming art works into these offices and asked Hew to make a work. John took a critical interest in Hew’s work and began to try and get Hew’s RCA graduation work, Ark, exhibited by developing a tour for the work. It would be the first exhibition at the newly reopened De La Warr Pavilion in 1995 (before it’s lottery funded refurbishment) and continue to places like Oldham Art Gallery, where it was exhibited on a glass floor above the library. While it’s been awhile now since Hew has seen John Gill, he is still keen to explicitly explain how important John was to his career.

As a studio artist at Delfina Studio in 1994-95, Hew met a wide range of artists from around the world. He points out that Delfina (and Gasworks) were seminal institutions for developing international opportunities for artists across cultures. While at Delfina, Hew met people connected to Gasworks, and would be offered a studio at Gasworks on the completion of his Delfina Award. Here things for Hew ‘…..intellectually, kicked off’. Working alongside other studio artists such as Francis Richardson, Johannes Phokela and Godfried Donkor was hugely supportive, while a wide range of visiting residency artists such as Sunil Gupta, who would stay for up to three months at a time provided added stimulus. At this time studio artists at gasworks where involved in the residency selection process, so it was an incredibly rich period for Hew. It was a group of like minded people, all of whom felt outside the YBA thing, asking themselves how do they deal with this situation, feeling excluded. They decided to do something themselves and Francis, Johannes, Godfried and Hew along with Juginder Lamba developed Routes: Five Artists from Four Continents, which was exhibited at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS University, London in early 1999 with a catalogue funded by the Elephant Trust. Hew decided to make ‘an insane piece of work’, the huge installation work Hemmed in Two, using a small inheritance from his grandmother to pay for the time to make it. From the Brunei Gallery show in 1999, Hemmed in Two would be exhibited in the V&A (courtesy of a Gasworks studio artists uncle who saw the Brunei show and worked at the V&A), win East International (after Hew’s successful application) and win the Paul Hamlyn Artists award after being nominated for the V&A show. In addition the work was purchased (after the Brunei show, but prior to the East exhibition) after a curator for the Peter Norton Foundation (the computer security software) saw the work on a studio visit organized by curator David A. Bailey. This was an extraordinary 10 months – a step change. Hew is quick to acknowledge the support that made this possible, ‘it coalesced out of the discussions with artists at Gasworks’ over a five year period and will also always be grateful for the Norton purchase.

Jordan Baseman’s early career after graduating from the MA at Goldsmiths in 1988 was a slow burn. He recognizes that he did not have a great experience at Goldsmiths, but acknowledges it was probably his fault, and he was out of his depth. It was not until two or three years later that ‘it clicked’ in his head, and things he’d been resistant to on the MA began to make sense. He was working for a specialist painter and decorator (“I was his slave”), amongst other things, when the cleaning lady at one job mentioned her boyfriend worked at the Serpentine and there was a job going as a technician. Jordan applied, but was unsuccessful, however eventually he was offered a technician job and would work there for 2 ½ years. Here he would learn a lot about the artist’s ambition and the quality of installation required for high caliber shows.

Concurrently in 1990 he got into the Whitechapel Open for the first time, then a real opportunity for young artists, and he was asked to contribute to the education program. Over the next few years he would establish himself as a public speaker, contributing to artist talks on exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery, Hayward Gallery, Royal Academy and Saatchi Gallery. Over the next few years Jordan would also develop a visiting lecturer practice following Alistair Warman’s move from Serpentine to Byam Shaw School of Art, eventually leading to a post at Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford University in 1998 (here there is a link with Paul Bonaventura, previously a curator at Whitechapel Gallery and then, and now, at The Laboratory at Ruskin School – Jordan still considers Paul a real supporter of his practice). Meanwhile through the early nineties, in addition to Whitechapel Open’s, Jordan was showing regularly in group shows in galleries including Anthony Reynolds and Arnolfini, with a couple of solo shows at HarbertPercy Gallery and Mario Fletcha Gallery. However he also had some unhappy experiences with other dealers, eventually taking one to small claims court. At a Mario Fletcha offsite exhibition (which Jordan remembers vividly as he’d worked so hard - finishing at 7am on the morning of the opening - he slept through the private view), British Art Show selectors saw the show, arranged a couple of studio visits and selected him for the 1996 edition. He was showing quite regularly, with nobody in particular pushing him, Saatchi bought some works and he was also included in the last version of the Young British Artist shows at Saatchi Gallery in Boundary Road in 1996.

The Ruskin job in 1998 however, was critical. A step-change. Ruskin was introducing a suite of Apple Mac computers, and Jordan thought ‘I should know how to do this’. As a sculpture tutor (rather than just a visiting lecturer) he had access outside term time, while still being paid, to Ruskin’s resources. ‘Brian (Catling) had the sculpture studios and I had the computer suite’. This was really important and enabled Jordan’s interest in developing a video practice. Though still exhibiting, Jordan stopped making work for a year and a half while he learnt how to use computers and make video works. He was also determined to take more control of his practice, the previous unhappy experiences and additional issues around the British Art show, a work stolen from exhibition and a piece lost in transit. He was really happy to be in the show, it was important for his career, but the reality also included some problems. His inclusion in Wignore Fine Art exhibition, The History of Existentialism would be the last time he exhibited sculpture and the first time he showed video.

Jordan says he was ‘lucky’ to get the first thing he applied for, a residency at Grizedale in 1999. This was Director, Adam Sutherland’s first or second year and Jordan’s shift from sculpture to video mirrored the start of a move at Grizedale away from the traditional sculpture trail. Jordan’s three-month residency would last a year and a half, the longest time spent in Yorkshire being five days, reflecting Grizedale’s supportive and flexible approach to artists. Jordan is clear that this support provided him with the confidence to continue this new direction in his practice. From this point, Jordan made a range of successful applications to residencies and commissions including Wysing Arts, Papworth Hospital and Lung Transplant Unit and the the British School in Rome in addition to awards from London Arts board, Arts Council England and Westminster Arts Council.

Jordan met up with Robin Klassnik while teaching at Wimbledon in 2003/4 after meeting initially at a tutorial in 1988, which Jordan remembers as ‘not a highlight’ of his education. He asked Robin if he could show him some work, not then knowing that part of Matt’s Gallery funding required Robin to offer mentoring sessions to artists. Robin agreed and subsequently offered Jordan a solo show at Matt’s Gallery. This would commence his relationship with Matt’s and for the first time Jordan would have a representative working on his behalf. Jordan’s clear that he made a conscious decision to place himself and his work in an academic context, making work without commercial constraints.

When ceramicist Richard Slee graduated from Central School in 1970, ‘nobody went to the degree shows’, though there were talks on business practice, which missed ‘telling us to sign on’. Richard was fortunate in having friends outside college who were running a commercial design company, undertaking shop fitting and custom car painting, which was fashionable at the conclusion of the swinging sixties in Kings Road. A series of similar small jobs followed including working as kiln packer and glazer for potter Kate Weaver where he was not particularly happy. He had a studio in Saffron Waldon offered by tutor Dan Arbeid (1928-2010) ‘for a summer’, an abrasive but supportive character, who’d once made Slee cry in a tutorial. Arbeid was ill that summer and Slee gained a role as assistant at a summer school in Barry, Wales, when Arbeid could not deliver. He become a technician at Central School, before an opportunity came up in 1974 helping Macedonian artist Petar Mazev (1927 – 1993) (a relative of a-n AIR rep Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva) who had a commission for a large scale mural for an amphitheatre in Kruševo. Local ceramicists could not help, and through an English teaching contact, Alison Britton was asked, however she was not interested, and Richard would go to Yugoslavia for six months. He remembers that he learnt a lot as a technician about managing a studio, and working in isolation in Macedonia taught him self-reliance, solving problems on-site and in the factory.

On his return to the UK, Dan Abried would introduce him to the principle of Hastings College of FE, where he was offered a teaching post. He moved to Hastings where he lived and worked for two years, at which point he felt he’d had enough of Hastings. Having some part time teaching in London (at Central and Harrow) he and his first wife would house and studio sit for friends in Fulham. Having shown work here and there, for instance at Christopher Strangeways gallery in World’s End, Chelsea, Richard began to work seriously for the first time. After a year or so he felt he had enough work for a show, but had no idea how this would come about. He found an interesting place, the Smith & Others Gallery in Kensington Church Walk and spent ¾ of an hour hovering outside before plucking up enough courage to go in with his slides. Peter Smith took a look at the work and offered a show, Richard’s first solo exhibition in 1977. He only later learnt that the “& Others” was Christopher Strangeways! The show sold well, to buyers including Janet Street-Porter, though only received a byline in Craft Magazine, which Richard remembers mentioned a ‘dubious aesthetic’ and ‘punk ceramics’. Critically for Richard, he was allowed to take over the gallery, using an installation approach, rather than the traditional craft show model.

Alison Britton recommended Slee’s work to Hyke Koopmans (1924-2010) of Galerie Kapelhuis in Holland, who would show Richards work on a number of occasions. It was at one of these shows where Tatjana Marsden would first see the work, and offer Richard shows at the Craft Council shop at the V&A, where she then worked, and later the British Craft Centre, where he’d continue to exhibit through the eighties. A number of people begin to support Richard, with collector

Nelson Woo, V&A curator Oliver Watson (‘there’s a joke going around the V&A, how many Slee’s have you bought this week?’) and writer Peter Dormer (1949-1996) playing roles, while he’s showing regularly here and abroad, mainly in public institutions. Through the late eighties and early nineties, Richard would continue to show, but focus mainly on teaching. Garth Clark would begin to show Richard’s work in his New York Gallery in 1994, having known Richard’s first wife as a student. This important American gallery for contemporary ceramics would be a continuing supporter. Further commercial support would be realised when Richard began showing with Barrett Marsden Gallery in 1998, with Tatjana Marsden continuing her support for the artist which started at the V&A and would continue for a further ten years.

Paul Hedge had seen Richard’s work at the Crafts Council Gallery when he was a postman in central London, and when Richard’s partner Linda was writing an article for the Journal of Design History she asked Paul’s wife Jane for an image, the two were introduced. Paul included Richard’s work in a group show at Hale’s Gallery,

Voodoo Shit, around the same time as Slee’s last solo exhibition at Barrett Marsden. Slee felt that the show was OK, he was filling the gallery and selling well. However, he was bored and ‘needed a wider audience’. He felt studio ceramics was ‘dead….talking to itself’ and decided he needed to move gallery.

At a subsequent Hales Gallery opening, being prodded in the ribs by partner Linda, he asked Paul for advice, “I’m looking for a new gallery, can you help?”, Paul responded ‘come with me…” and Richard moved galleries.

Heather and Ivan Morison had no immediate plans to become artists after graduating from Brighton in 1997. They moved to London, where Heather admits they ‘had no clue’. While they came out of Brighton as the last generation without any significant debt, there had been no professional development training, and only one trip to London in the three-year course. Having recently been advising students in Brighton, Heather notes things have significantly improved. In London, Heather would initially get a job at Travelbag and Ivan, after a year as a film runner, succeeded in applying for an internship at Frieze on his second attempt. Heather would then get a job at the Art Newspaper as Advertising and Marketing manager, while Ivan would, with Frieze’s support, secure a post at Lisson Gallery, initially as a receptionist. Ivan would be promoted at Lisson to eventually work on special off site projects with amongst others Anish Kapoor and Julian Opie. They were not making work, but were clearly getting embedded in the sector, and learning a great deal. Heather notes, they met all sorts of artists, such as Simon Patterson, ‘…they didn’t know what they were doing [in terms of professional development]……it was a great comfort’.

They both decided they wanted to begin making work, and started to in their basement flat in Blackheath, but it was not ideal. Ivan’s Great Aunt passed away, and his family inherited a warehouse in Birmingham’s jewelry quarter. The building was not in the best shape, ‘it was going to fall down’ recollects Heather, however Heather and Ivan, influenced by London’s east end saw an opportunity. They persuaded the family to let them use the warehouse to make work and present exhibitions. Ivan maintained a freelance graphic design relationship with Lisson, while Heather undertook a six-month contract as Communications Officer at ACE West Midlands. It was also at this time, that Ivan also started a part time MA at University of Central England, which offered a studio and an environment to start making work again. They showed the work of MA students in their warehouse/gallery, which no one else was doing at the time, and when Ikon Gallery Director, Jonathan Watkins first came to a show, everyone got really excited.

From his MA show Ivan was offered the Ikon project space to develop a show, at which point they were not officially working together, though Heather was working on admin and PR. They had started to make large sculptures, the replica of Derrick Jarman’s cottage for instance, and had taken on a Victorian allotment, where Jeremy Deller would come to tea. The allotment became their studio space, from which a range of exhibitions would come. Ivan’s Ikon show in 2002 would be reviewed (as a front page feature) in Art Monthly who’s editor Patricia Bickers would become a regular supporter of the pair. Heather & Ivan would be the contemporary sharp end of landscape practice, showing alongside older hands such as Richard Long, Hamish Fullerton and Ian Hamilton-Finley. At this time they also started making and distributing small artist cards, to a targeted list of curators, gallery directors and writers, which while acting as a marketing tool, is also a part of their regular creative practice, which continues today. Heather would continue working through this period, gaining professional management qualifications, and becoming Marketing Director at C-Plex.

Concurrently they had decided to develop the warehouse. They’d seen that the development of the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham was gaining speed. With a plan to realize their asset, they invested heavily (going into debt) over this three-year period up to 2002, when Heather would leave her full time job and they would sell the building, sharing the proceeds with Ivan’s family, which would offer them a financial resource, and time to make the work they wanted to.

They applied to Vivid in Birmingham, for a Hothaus residency and were successful. For Global Survey they traveled from Birmingham to Auckland over 12 months, making work throughout. They subsidised the Vivid finances with their own resources from the sale of the warehouse, making the project much more ambitious. This period from 2003, when they undertook the Global Surveyjourney, through to 2007, when they exhibited at the Venice Biennale, would be critical.

While they were already making something of a name for themselves, Global Survey was a step change in scale, showing a determination to extend and develop practice.

With support from Kay at Vivid and Nigel Prince at Bournville, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, this major worldwide creative expedition, included making art works and broadcasting, guided by and sharing the lives of the people they met. Six or seven curators from around the world agreed to receive artworks, and they would also contribute to the projects publication. Nigel Prince would also lead a successful application to ACE for a touring exhibition of the project.

Inclusion in the British Art Show 6 could also be traced from a subsequent 2004 residency at New Art Gallery Walsall, when selectors Andrea Schlieker and Alex Farquarson “who were lovely” remembers Heather, visited the gallery. When the BAS6 visited Bristol, they established a relationship with Claire Doherty (Situations), who would become another key supporter. Concurrently they had left Birmingham, and purchased a wood in Wales, which is where Hannah Firth (Chapter Gallery) would find them on her curatorial search for artists, selecting them to represent Wales at the Venice Biennale in 2007.

After 15 years as a successful illustrator/photographer, Stuart Haygarth had had enough when he was asked to do the same thing, in a different colour, one time too far. He already started to make lighting from found and discarded objects, and decided to show this new work at the third London Design Festival, in Designersblock, a paid for pop up space in a disused warehouse in Shoreditch in 2005. He showed three works in a four-day exhibition, and received a huge amount of press including inclusion in a designer’s issue of The Observer Magazine. He is not an ecological designer, but his approach to appropriating thrown away items and re using them, making very high quality functional art works took off. He was invited to show work in galleries from Comme Des Garcons in Dover Street Market to Modern Ground Exhibition in Knightsbridge, and after the Design Museum included his work in an exhibition, they also commissioned a work. Moving to Berlin in 2006 offered a chance to focus on this new practice, with exhibition and commissioning opportunities still flowing from the Design Festival publicity. Shows generated publicity, which generated shows.

He’d started a relationship with Toolgalerie in Paris, who regularly showed his work and generated sales. However after returning to London in 2009, the relationship faltered over money. Shortly after this, Stuart was approached by three galleries; Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Established & Sons and Haunch of Venison. The first two are established design focused galleries, while Haunch of Venison, had been approached by Rachel Barraclough to introduce designers to their stable of artists. She’d seen Stuart’s work at Designersblock and asked him to join Thomas Heatherwick and Barber & Osgerby at Haunch of Venison. Stuart accepted this invitation and had his inaugural solo exhibition at the gallery in December 2009. In 2010, the London Design Festival organisers commissioned Stuart to make a work for the V&A staircase, in collaboration with John Jones framers in a nice validation, completing the journey from his paid for inclusion in the festival in 2005.

Alice Kettle, like Jamie Shovlin, is an example of continuing successful practice, without a clearly identifiable step change, though she would be the first to admit, this does not suggest an easy or smooth path, and has required real commitment and hard work. She graduated from an MA in Textile Art from Goldsmiths in 1986 and almost immediately started exhibiting. Her textile based practice is, as she says; a niche, and with support from the Crafts Council (including a setting up grant) and the Embroiderers Guild, which at that time was a champion for contemporary textile practice, she was showing widely, including the Oxford Gallery in London and Kyoto Biennale. A major exhibition on textiles, ‘Stitched Textiles for Interiors’ at the Royal Institute of British Architects ‘put me on the map’ when her postgraduate work was included the show. She’d returned to her place of birth, Winchester, to a new start-up studio scheme at Winchester College of Art & Design, complemented by joining the enterprise allowance scheme, which was the Thatcher governments program for small business (and getting individuals off the jobless figures), which artists and musicians took full value from. She was invited back to teach part time at Goldsmiths, which she continued to do until 1994. She is particularly proud of an early Museum purchase of work by Jennifer Harris at Whitworth Gallery, Manchester University in 1989, which contributed to introducing contemporary textiles to the collection there.

Alice continued to maintain a busy practice through exhibiting and commissions with a range of support, including The Contemporary Textile Gallery in Golden Square London, which stocked and sold work and Mary La Trobe Bateman, who ran Contemporary Applied Arts, while early public sector support came from Crafts Officer, David Kay at Southern Arts as well as the Crafts Council. Through the nineties, Alice would respond to invitation for commissions in Winchester Cathedral, the Law Courts in Edinburgh, the National Library of Australia in Canberra, as well as the P&O cruise company. She recollects, ‘there was more work than I could do’.

In addition her now ex-husband began publishing a series of books on craft practice, surveys of practice by country and monographs on individual makers. Highly regarded at the time, nobody else was doing this then, and when Jennifer Harris was asked to select artists for a second Great Britain selection, Alice was included, somewhat to her embarrassment. She is no longer connected to that business.

In contrast to some others here, Alice was successful from the start; however, making work in a craft tradition has somewhat limited her exposure in the visual art sector. Later in career than these others, a significant step change for Alice can be identified which came in 2005, when she was asked to apply for a research post at Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. A major touring show of her work, funded by Arts Council of Great Britain and the Crafts Study Centre, had recently toured the country, bringing her work to wider attention. At MMU Alice has established an academic career focused upon collaboration and partnership working. She contributes to a design laboratory, while writing, lecturing and active research. This been key to bringing a broader dimension to her practice, allowing her thinking time to engage theory and encourage a less isolated practice. She is working in partnership with other makers and academics in the UK, Ireland, India and the USA, while expanding her tool kit to include digital approaches to developing new work. This has been facilitated by her role at MMU, where a key developmental activity is digital approaches to art and design.

Alice recognises that this academic activity can distance her from her practice, and collaborations have the challenge of retaining an individual identity in the work. She is confident her own practice is visible in the collaborations, but she, like others here, focuses upon the quality of practice as key.

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Conclusions/closing thoughts:

This is clearly not a comprehensive survey, but offers some examples or illustrations of how artists have developed their practice. This is not a map or plan for success, but aims to show the variety and mixture of career development, it is different for everybody. There are some synergies and similarities. Charles Saatchi, for instance has played a major role through the late 80’s and 90’s (better explored elsewhere, see Supercollector: A Critique of Charles Saatchi, ISBN: 978-0954570224, My Name is Charles Saatchi and I am an Artoholic, ISBN: 978-0714857473 and http://www.stuckism.com and http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk), and appears in a number of the stories, while the introduction of the National Lottery in 1994 has also been a major influence on career development through the increase of funding to the arts and the corresponding increase in opportunities (how much longer this remains true, we shall see).

This piece does not address any of the ‘whys’ these artists make work, which is probably another piece of work, or I’d suggest, is for more individual research. Nor does it include some parts of the conversations, which the artists wished made confidential, but in general some of these areas are covered below.

To repeat the contextual warning earlier in this piece, quality of work is a priority. That’s not to suggest that great work cannot fail, but for success (add whatever qualifier(s) you choose), a high quality of the practice must be present.

From these stories we can see that support from other artists, peer groups and networks are important, especially early in career. These are usually small, probably informal, and personal. Engaging with the visual arts sector, in any way, is also very useful, as we can see from Jordan Baseman’s experience, and Heather and Ivan Morison.

Support and advocacy from individuals in positions to do so, are also part of the story, sometimes in a very personal manner (see Richard Billingham) or more formally, such as in selection for signature survey shows. Advocates can come from education, media (both national and art form specific), the gallery and museum sector, or the commercial sector, and they can be unexpected, so, as Jamie Shovlin remarks, be prepared. The social context should not be ignored, as the sector operates as much in the informal as it does in the formal, and the nexus remains London.

I was told years ago that persistence is a prerequisite for an artistic career, and Richard Slee reminds me, that this remains the case. I think all the artists here would agree. Heather and Ivan also promote an embedded approach; all of what you do, including for instance, marketing and communication can be part of the creative practice.

Commercial representation is obviously welcome for artists, however it can come with negatives. A dealer too concerned with sales may not show enough interest in the work, or be transparent with the artist in financial negotiations with buyers, undermining the relationship. A dealer who is also a collector, is in danger of not promoting or supporting a wider development of the artists profile. And commercial representation is not always required for success, there are a number of economic models around, and artists have always maintained a portfolio of income streams (teaching, sales, commissions, etc), though in the current economic uncertainty these are shrinking. Internationalising ones practice, where possible, is a possible solution, though with its own challenges. However there are useful and quite easy approaches, such as submitting video works to film and video festivals for screening programs [rather than exhibition] which can bring work in front of a wider international audience, increase ones profile and engage different sectors.

The relationship between public and commercial can also be challenging. Recoupment of publicly funded investment from sales of work, can, if not handled carefully undermine the sale. Little has been written on the subject of these relationships, despite much investment on training public organisations on recoupment, and the odd Audit Office investigation.

Opportunities for emerging practice are getting more limited, and there are less signature survey shows for artists. Hew Locke turned down a recent opportunity, encouraging the organisation to engage a less well known artist, recollecting that this happened to him, when Spitalfield City Farm chose him for a project early in his career.

New support activates are, however, being developed, such as the Showcase exhibitions (http://www.mkgallery.org/s/showcase_2012) and forthcoming ‘Platform’ initiative in the South East, and the West-midlands offering studio visits by curators and artists as part of a new artist development program (http://www.tpwestmidlands.org.uk/artist-development-overview/). Other Turning Point regions (now rebranded Contemporary Visual Arts Network, www.cvan.org.uk) are also developing programs.

Which organizations are currently taking risk on emerging practice? There seems to be a consensus in this small survey that its artist led groups that are currently the most responsive.

And last, if not least, I should emphasis the level of work and commitment that all of these artists bring to their practice.

Originally commissioned by a-n in 2014

For more information on each of the artists and their practice:

Jamie Shovlin: https://waterside-contemporary.com/artists/jamie-shovlin/

Richard Billingham: https://www.anthonyreynolds.com/richard_billingham.html

Sophy Rickett: https://www.parafin.co.uk/artists/artists-sophy-rickett

Melanie Manchot: www.melaniemanchot.net

https://www.galerie-m.com/artist_info_en.php?aid=170&aname=MelanieManchot

Dexter Dalwood: https://www.simonleegallery.com/artists/dexter-dalwood/

Hew Locke: www.hewlocke.net www.halesgallery.com

Jordan Baseman: www.jordanbaseman.co.uk www.mattsgallery.org

Richard Slee: www.richardslee.com www.halesgallery.com