Saturday 20th January 2024
2.15 - 3.15pm
Talks Theatre, Business Design Centre, Islington
Chair
Pryle Behrman, Encounters Curator
Paul Stone, Artist and Director of Vane Gallery
Virginia Damtsa, Founder of VirginiaVisualArts
Domo Baal, Founder of DomoBaal
Building on the themes of this year’s Encounters section, this panel talk brings together an international group of gallerists who will discuss the narratives that continue to be excluded from mainstream art discourses. Which geographic locations, social communities, and artistic styles remain marginalised in the art world? And who are the artists and arts organisations that are at the forefront of challenging these omissions?
Book your ticket to London Art Fair to register your place for the free Talks Programme.
If you have already purchased your ticket to the Fair, click here to register for talks.
Paul Stone is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he studied at Northumbria University, receiving a BA and MA in Fine Art. Having exhibited as an artist since 1990, he has also curated exhibitions for many organisations, written published reviews and catalogue essays, and undertaken a number of mentoring/professional development activities with visual artists. He is also a Director of Orbis Community (www.orbiscommunity.com), an organisation that provides creative workspace in the Newcastle-Gateshead area.
Since 1997 he has been a Director of Vane (www.vane.org.uk). Having staged the majority of exhibitions and events in temporary venues until 2003, Vane opened a permanent gallery space in Newcastle city centre in 2005, moving across the River Tyne to its current Gateshead base in 2021.
Vane represents a group of critically engaged artists from the North East of England, across the UK, Europe and the USA through projects at the gallery and elsewhere. The gallery exhibition programme also provides a platform for the work of invited artists at all career stages, often working in partnership with other regional, national, and international galleries, festivals and guest curators, with a focus on enabling projects developed by artists themselves.
Beyond the gallery, Vane has participated in art fairs and other projects across the UK and internationally, including in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA.
Stone has previously undertaken various roles (editorial and artists’ professional development) for a-n The Artists Information Company and Axis, and numerous UK artist-led initiatives and creative businesses (curatorial and advisory) including Bath & North East Somerset (Local Authority), Birmingham Arts Trust, FESARS (First European Seminar on Artist Run Spaces, Konstakuten, Stockholm), Hart (Hull Art), Leeds City Council/f.k.a.a (Formerly Known As Art), Mart (Manchester Art), National Artists Association, RAID (Regional Artists in Derby), Showroom Gallery (London), Cardiff European Capital of Culture 2008 bid, and various organisations in the North East of England.
VVA VirginiaVisualArts Ltd
With a wealth of experience spanning more than two decades, Virginia Damtsa, Director of VVA VirginiaVisualArts Ltd., stands as a seasoned and respected Art Dealer, Art Gallerist, Curator, Art Strategist and Artist Agent, bringing a unique and invaluable perspective to the art world.
At the age of sixteen, Damtsa entered the art market to help her uncle to open the Museum of Alekos K. Damtsa, in The Art Centre Giorgio de Chirico. While studying her Master’s degrees in Arts, she converted her apartment into a gallery showcasing emerging artists and curated several exhibitions in her space, other galleries and pop-up spaces. From 2003-2017, she co-owned with Tot Taylor the gallery Riflemaker London, curating exhibitions with artists such as Judy Chicago, William S. Burroughs, Gavin Turk, Martin Kippenberger, Yoko Ono, Takis, Penelope Slinger, Chris Levine, Christopher Bucklow, Liliane Lijn, Stuart Pearson Wright, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz and many others. She facilitated some important art deals with museums and art institutions and taught and lectured at Christie’s. Recently Virginia Damtsa worked with legend musician Peter Gabriel on an art and music project for his new album, i/o.The project features renowned artists such as Annette Messager, Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, Tim Shaw, David Spriggs, Nick Cave, Cornelia Parker, Barthélémy Toguo and many others. The album is the number one album in the UK. Damtsa is currently planning to tour the project in various museums.
She manages fifty artists, has her own art school teaching professionals about art history and the art market, mentors Artists and Creatives, writes about art in major financial newspapers, features on TV as an Art World Expert and creates links and sales between artists, galleries, major collectors and museums.
She also helps artists to break into the art market with introductions, exhibitions and by creating new opportunities. She works closely with the artist as a strategist, mentor, advisor, consultant, PR and also assisting on sales and promotion.
For exhibitions, Virginia uses a few art spaces, in Marylebone, Fitzrovia, and Notting Hill in London where she mainly shows mid-career and emerging international contemporary artists. She runs more than twenty art exhibitions a year and participates in art fairs. This year, she plans to open a new gallery in Mayfair and has also been appointed director of a new cultural center in the center of London.