What Makes a Gallery Weekend Good?
Artnet News columnist Margaret Carrigan reports on the opening of the sixth edition of London Gallery Weekend, which launched with a panel at Frieze’s No. 9 Cork Street space and includes more than 120 participating galleries running through Sunday. Dealer Thaddaeus Ropac argued that “London needs some lobbying” and said the event should become more international, citing Berlin’s gallery weekend as a former “gold standard.” The article notes London’s challenges—Brexit, a cost-of-living crisis, dwindling arts funding, and political instability—despite the U.K. remaining the world’s second-largest art market, while Paris and Milan benefit from friendlier tax regimes and new foundations. It also questions the weekend’s commercial necessity given London’s year-round art infrastructure and its timing between New York auctions and Art Basel, though gallerist Kate MacGarry said it attracts regional curators and can build long-term institutional relationships amid a more regionally fragmented global market.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Gallery Weekends Under Pressure, Painters in Focus