We can all agree that January in the UK is a bit… meh. The art market is sluggish too, so events like the contemporary gallery-sharing exhibition Condo London, which starts on Saturday and runs until 15 February, help pep things up a bit. As the local dealer Kate MacGarry puts it, Condo “brings energy and conversations to London at what is generally a quiet time”.
Established in 2016 by Vanessa Carlos, the co-founder of Carlos/Ishikawa gallery, Condo—which returned last year for the first time since the pandemic—features 49 galleries in its latest edition, including some travelling from China, Guatemala and Lebanon, across 22 venues.
“Collaboration is key in a more challenging market,” says MacGarry, a proponent of the format who has previously hosted the Hong Kong gallery Kiang Malingue (2018), Berlin-based Trautwein Herleth (2019) and, last year, Bureau from New York.
But this year the Los Angeles-based dealer Tanya Leighton—whom MacGarry was due to host for Condo—has been unable to travel due to the catastrophic wildfires in her home city. “Our thoughts are with Tanya and all our colleagues and friends and the wider community in Los Angeles,” MacGarry says.
Despite the wildfires, the young LA gallery Ehrlich Steinberg will still take part in Condo, presenting a joint show of Los Angeles-based T.J. Shin and London-based Abbas Zahedi. Ace Ehrlich, the gallery co-founder, was able to travel to London to take part but his business partner Tabitha Steinberghas cancelled due to the devastation the fires have caused. She tells The Art Newspaper: “The situation right now is incredibly tough and shocking. Entire neighbourhoods have been levelled. There are many artists and art workers who have lost their homes, studios or places of work. However, there has been an intense outpouring of community rallying and support.” The gallery is supporting the fundraising initiative Art World Fire Relief LA (Grief and Hope).
Ehrlich Steinberg will be hosted by Phillida Reid, in the West End, but generally the Condo venues skew to the east of the capital—the most westerly venue being Arcadia Missa on Duke Street, St James’s—reflecting London’s contemporary art topography. Here are a few of our highlights.
Jimmy DeSana, Coat Hanger (1980), Vintage C-print
Courtesy The Estate of Jimmy DeSana and Amanda Wilkinson, London
Jimmy DeSana at Amanda Wilkinson
Amanda Wilkinson is working with the estate of Jimmy DeSana (1949-90) to present works from the American photographer’s Suburban Series (1979-80)—think sexed-up suburbia with a twist of the absurd. DeSana's work will be shown alongside paintings by Greek-born Sevina Tzanou, shown by the Glasgow gallery Kendall Koppe. “Tzanou is a burlesque performer as well as a painter, so both her and DeSana share an interest in nightlife culture, DeSana very much being a part of the punk/no-wave underground culture of 1970s and 80s New York,” says Amanda Wilkinson gallery in a statement. Tzanou “plays with images of exaggerated, playful and performed femininity and femme beauty, providing a fruitful dialogue with DeSana's defamiliarising and queering of the nude body.”
Lewis Hammond, Untitled (2025)
Photography: Joanna Wilk; Courtesy the Artist and Arcadia Missa, London.
Lewis Hammond at Arcadia Missa
Arcadia Missa is hosting three galleries for Condo—Roland Ross and 243 Luz, from Margate, and Veda from Florence. “Arcadia Missa has participated in Condo since its inception and we are always excited to be a part of it,” says the gallery’s founder Rózsa Farkas. “Building on our longstanding relationships with Roland Ross and 243 Luz, presenting a section of the growing arts scene in Margate felt instinctive. Likewise, with Dominique White's gallery Veda, we have envisioned an exciting dialogue between her art and that of Lewis Hammond.” London and Berlin-based Hammond’s darkly disturbing paintings dwell on our anxiety-ridden modern world, while White (based between Essex and Marseille) makes nihilistic multi-media sculptures that reflect her preoccupation with our maritime past—and future.
Aslan Goisum, Move #2 (2025)
Courtesy the artist and Emalin, London
Aslan Goisum at Emalin
Emalin has taken part in Condo since 2017 and this year will collaborate with the Shanghai gallery Antenna Space, showing a joint exhibition of works by the Chechen artist Aslan Goisum (represented by Emalin) and the Chinese artist Peng Zuqiang (represented by Antenna Space). “Both artists have often used the mediums of photography and video and share some conceptual concerns in terms of subjectivity, effect, or the right to opacity,” says Tosia Leniarska, the assistant director of Emalin. “They both graduated from the Rijksakademie [in Amsterdam] and they’d never shown together before.” Leniarska adds: “Condo was popular from the start, so we’ve always seen crowds come in for the opening weekend—but each year there are more galleries participating in London, which is exciting as it comes with more introductions to the galleries they invite from around the world. The horizons broaden every year.”
A still from Being John Smith (2024)
Courtesy of the artist, and Kate MacGarry and Tanya Leighton galleries
John Smith at Kate MacGarry
Kate MacGarry and Tanya Leighton’s shared representation of the London-based artist and filmmaker John Smith led the gallerists to join forces this year. Their presentation centres around the London premiere of his short film Being John Smith (2024), described by MacGarry as “a personal work in which the artist reflects on the ordinariness of his name and its profound impact on his sense of self. Through a mix of humour and melancholic self-reflection, Smith navigates his lower middle-class roots and his rise to prominence as an influential avant-garde filmmaker.”
Joanne Burke, Festival 2 (2023), 925 silver
Courtesy of the artist and ADZ Gallery, Lisbon. Photography Vasco Stocker de Vilhena
Joanne Burke at Soft Opening
Soft Opening took part in Condo for the first time in 2024 and this year it is hosting the New York gallery Derosia. Soft Opening’s Condo exhibition, titled Oes with Works Like Esses, features a new group of metal sculptures in bronze and silver by the London-based artist Joanne Burke, presented within a glass vitrine. Burke’s alchemical process starts with hydromancy, a 17th-century divination technique whereby molten wax is dropped in cold water and allowed to form unpredictable shapes. Those shapes are then cast in bronze or silver to form the basis of Burke’s intricate sculptures. Derosia, meanwhile, will exhibit dyed fabric works, largely canvas, by the US-based artist Kern Samuel. A mutual interest in craft and process can be seen between Burke and Samuel’s work, says Antonia Marsh, Soft Opening’s founder. For example, “the connections to craft techniques from the past in their work—Samuel works with hand dyeing and quilting while Joanne works with techniques gleaned from basketry, costuming and weaving.”
Georges Binda Celeste Alexandrino Gabriel Ferreira Da Silva (2024)
Courtesy the artist and The Sunday Painter.
Georges Binda Celeste Alexandrino Gabriel Ferreira Da Silva at The Sunday painter
The Sunday Painter has taken part in Condo since 2018 and since then, the increasing participation of younger galleries has injected fresh perspectives. “This organic growth has not only reinforced London's position as a global hub for contemporary art but has also pioneered a more collaborative model for gallery presentations,” its associate director Lisa Modiano says. The Sunday Painter will present an immersive installation by the self-taught Copenhagen-based artist Georges Binda Celeste Alexandrino Gabriel Ferreira Da Silva, his first solo show. Modiano says: “This site-specific work will transform our main gallery space through the artist's manipulation of everyday materials… meticulously crafted replicas of domestic objects to examine family history, inheritance, and self-discovery through an autobiographical lens.” The gallery will host Proyectos Ultravioleta from Guatemala City, “the culmination of a long-standing admiration for their innovative programming” according to Modiano.
- Condo London, 18 January-15 February
- For a map of all the venues, see Condo London’s website
