Pilar Corrias will open a vast new London gallery in Mayfair in October, replacing her longstanding premises in Eastcastle Street, Fitzrovia.
The new gallery, at 51 Conduit Street on the corner of Savile Row, will open during Frieze Week in London with an exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Christina Quarles (October 10-December 22).
“Finally I can talk about it, I kept it quiet until all our ducks lined up,” Corrias says The Arts Journal. “It’s really a big step for us to leave Fitzrovia. I had been looking for a long time, but when I entered this space, I saw that it had fantastic volume – the ceilings are really high, about 17 feet, and it has great proportions.
The 500m², two-story space is currently undergoing renovation – the new design overseen by Cowie Montgomery Architects – and will contain two public gallery spaces, a private viewing room, a library and offices.
Corrias opened her Rem Koolhaas-designed gallery on Eastcastle Street in 2008, when she set up her business, with an exhibition of the work of Philippe Parreno. Corrias went on to work with a handful of artists, including Parreno, Keren Cytter and Tala Madani. She now represents 34 (two-thirds of whom are women) including Quarles, Tschabalala Self, Shara Hughes and Shahzia Sikander.
Corrias says moving “was a step that had to be taken” and that she was getting “very anxious” about finding space in Mayfair. “I had been in Fitzrovia for a very long time, but I also wanted a bigger, better and more central space. We grew with the artists we represent and as they became more successful the gallery should reflect that.”
Christina Quarles’ 2018 exhibition, Always Brightest Before Tha Dusk, at Pilar Corrias
Courtesy of the artist and Pilar Corrias, London
Do artists want a gallery with a Mayfair address? “Absolutely,” Corrias said. “It’s about the artists but also about the gallery itself, and as a gallery I want to be able to grow and improve.”
The move, says Corrias, has been on the cards for some time: “Because of the pandemic, I thought I could find a new space very easily, but that was not the case. It took two and a half years. . This is how 2 Savile Row was born [the premises taken on by the gallery in 2021), because I couldn’t take it any longer and I wanted somewhere in Mayfair. Obviously, that [relatively small] gallery wasn’t going to be enough, but it came out of my frustration at not being able to do it fast enough.
This gallery will remain open, while Eastcastle Street will close. Savile Row, a smaller, more traditional space set in a townhouse, is quite different from the new Conduit Street gallery, which will be “large and contemporary, all concrete floors and high ceilings” – ideal for artists” use and abuse,” says Corrias. “The Savile Row Gallery will not be a lesser, just different project space – we may show large paintings by a young artist in Conduit Street and smaller works by a more established artist in the smaller gallery. .”
Many Corrias artists, including Quarles, have become highly sought after in recent years, inevitably increasing competition from other galleries. When asked if the move is driven by a need to keep up with multinational mega-galleries, Corrias replies, “I don’t see it as a matter of competition, more of a natural progression as a gallery. I don’t want to stay in that Eastcastle Street gallery forever. The gallery has reached another level and we don’t have room for all our staff, for example.
Quarles joined the gallery in 2017 and this will be his fourth solo exhibition with Corrias. “Christina grew up with us,” says Corrias, citing recent institutional solo exhibitions at Hepworth Wakefield (2019-2020), South London Gallery (2021) and, currently, Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (until September 17). “I’m going to Los Angeles to see her soon,” Corrias says. “I’m excited to see what she’s going to produce.”
