Ed Cross Fine Art works with emerging and established artists across and beyond the African diaspora. The gallery seeks to stage conversations – between practitioners, international audiences, and as guided by its artists to amplify voices historically silenced, and to create space for their independent development. Since launching in 2009, Ed Cross Fine Art has held exhibitions across the world: from New York to Paris, and London to Lagos, the gallery continues to build on its values of cooperation and curiosity. Occhi had the pleasure to speak to gallerist Ed Cross about the gallery and the sector trends, particularly in light of the COVID 19 lockdown.
Please tell our Occhi Readers how the Ed Cross gallery started.
Way back in 1988 I left my London publishing job at Heinemann to live in Kenya to pursue a career as an artist and continue my publishing interests as an independent agent for UK and American Educational publishers – so whilst Ed Cross Fine Art was formed in 2009 after I had returned to London, my connection to Africa long predates that. In Kenya, I collected some contemporary art just for the love of it and later worked as a sculptor myself for seven years but from the beginning, I was enthralled by the diverse creativity and energy that I experienced in East Africa and later the West and the South as I traveled the continent on business. In many ways, I liked the fact that the boundaries between art and life that I had known in the west were far less in evidence.
At around 2006, whilst still in Kenya, I had an idea that would change my life – and this was simply the notion that “African Contemporary Art” was a hugely undervalued asset – undervalued culturally as well as financially. I saw this as both a business opportunity and a “mission” that, it transpired, would define my life. At that time there were very few artists from Africa who were on the world stage, El Anatsui had had excellent shows with October Gallery in London but it was at the Venice Biennale in 2007 that the magnificence of one of his great tapestry works overwhelmed the defenses of the Western art world and changed forever the perceptions of contemporary art from Africa. By then I was already embarked on a journey towards raising the profile of artists from Africa. My decision to return to my home country was much to do with a desire to take the battle to the Western institutions and collector base and shortly after I arrived in the UK I was pleased to learn that the Tate Modern who had previously shown little or no interest in African Contemporary art were embarked on a process of establishing a proper African contemporary collection.
Back in Africa, I had focussed on collecting contemporary works with some UK based friends but I soon found myself making friends with the artists whose works I was buying and realized that I could use the marketing skills I had acquired from publishing to help them sell their work – thus I accidentally became a gallerist. The fact that I had studied History of Art at Cambridge as an undergraduate helped too.
How would you describe the gallery’s program and what’s your USP, particularly for artists and art collectors?
A young curator who went on to hold one of the most important art jobs in the country once was kind enough to describe me as a magician because ECFA “does all the things that a bigger gallery does without any of the usual infrastructures”. In Kenya there is a term Jua Kali “hot sun” in Kiswahili covering the “informal sector” and I have always had a bit of an affinity with that way of doing things – we travel light.
Our resources go into wonderful and highly skilled colleagues, art fairs, pop-ups, and online platforms, and the development of materials that throw light on the artists we represent. We had a space very briefly when I first started the company but since 2010 we have not had a physical space and since 2018 we have been lucky enough to be part of the Somerset House Exchange project which provides office space for creative businesses linked to its core mission of supporting the arts. This is a blessing in the current crisis.
Our USP is our relationship with our client artists and our commitment to the integrity of them as people and their work. We are always in search alchemy. It is all about the artist and their work, less about the gallery. We are not a gallery that tries to mold artists in any way but we are very much there for them – we are on the journey together and are often friends as well as business partners. We are also open to new “talent” and will take risks with new artists because we can and because it’s core to what we do. Many of our artists come to the art world via unconventional routes and we absolutely embrace that.
I am also only interested in artists that have something that I sense is profound and important to say – I am not interested in artists that try to game the system unless that is part of their practice. I have worked as an artist myself and my mindset as a gallerist is similar in many ways – in the end, you go with your intuition.
The gallery represents African artists and has garnered a great following due to its record of showcasing art from the diaspora. Is it fair to say African artists and African art has become more attractive or even ‘fashionable’ for art dealers?
I have been in this area of the art market for a long time and I’ve seen a huge transformation – from a very few flashes of interest in the ’80s and ’90s to what is happening now with specialist art fairs on three continents and a whole African contemporary Art industry spawned, from museums to residencies to fairs to galleries, collectors and academics, not to mention artists! Having said that it is easy to overestimate the share of the global art market – it is still small but it has grown exponentially and it will continue to grow as African economies get more powerful, which I believe they certainly will.
What is fascinating to witness is the gradual acknowledgment of the Western art establishment of the influence of African art not only historically via Picasso and the cubists but also via the enormous power of black culture in all the arts, and then the steady absorption of diaspora artists into the establishment. I think this is very heartening and is as it should be. The issue of credibility is simple – if you are looking for mainstream credibility the museums are key. Increasingly museums based in Africa will carry more weight but for now, its the Western institutions that really grant artistic respectability. Not all artists care about this though, I am pleased to say.
African Contemporary Art has indeed become “fashionable” and with that comes inevitable dangers of the hype taking center stage, of artists being swept along by a current of commercial hysteria and the kernel of the message getting lost in the process. But then all artists have to contend with the potentially corrupting nature of “ success”. My main worry is that some artists will get promoted beyond their abilities and that will be a disservice to global perceptions of African art. One can already see in my view, too many artist talks and curator conversations that aren’t as scintillating as they should be. The danger is overkill.
How distinct is African art from any other?
Abe Odedina, one of my most prominent artists, once said to someone who asked this question at one of our shows “Well I can tell you it’s not a look”. My personal opinion is that African and Diaspora art tends to start from the principle that the artwork, however, undefinable and ambiguous, is an instrument for good. In the same way that African stories from across the continent share a commitment to enlightening or empowering the listener and traditional art from Africa was created to empower the person performing or commissioning a ritual.
What do you look for when you’re considering representing an artist?
Brilliance, originality, and sincerity of vision, accessibility as well as a commitment to directly or indirectly making the world a better place. There must also be a sense of trust and chemistry – I look for artists with whom I can work long term and grow with and with whom I can collaborate in a mutually satisfying way.
There are a number of galleries changing their business models and providing more online services, in part due to COVID 19. Will the current pandemic permanently change the dynamics of the sector, purpose of the physical gallery, and appeal of art fairs?
The pandemic has provided an opportunity to do more online and to take more time to focus on producing materials be they printed (we are embarking on a book on Abe Odedina for example) or online. By using Zoom etc skilfully galleries can become program makers involving academics and curators and the wider public in discussion with artists – one of the few gifts of this terrible virus will be the fact that online presentations will no longer be viewed as marginal – discussions that involve people from all over the world are in many ways superior to the usual gallery talks. We have subscribed to the ArtLand platform which gives us the ability to do virtual tours of all our shows pretty much wherever they are and for us, Instagram has been our eyes and ears for many years now and this will only grow. Since the onset of COVID, my gallery manager Emily Watkins and I have established CONVERSATION PIECE a regular “deep dive” into specific works by ECFA artists and I recommend anyone who is interested to check these out on our website. Last week we launched a screening of Shiraz Bayjoo’s brilliant Searching for Libertalia film via our website (until June 3rd). The potential for giving viewers illuminating insights into works via new technology is enormous but must be handled with discrimination.
Many working in the creative industries understandably fear the worst is yet to come. Many may not survive the COVID 19 lockdown. What are your views and what are the solutions to the problem?
All galleries will face a fight to survive in the coming months and years. But this is not a business for the faint-hearted or those just motivated by money. We will have to be tenacious, flexible, and creative in the way that we collaborate with our artist partners to develop their audiences and make livings. We are fortunate that our model which avoids costly real estate puts us in a stronger position than some.
Where can readers learn more about Ed Cross?
WEBSITE www.edcrossfineart.com
INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/edcrossfineart/
TWITTER https://twitter.com/edcrossfineart
FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/edcrossfineart/
ECFA BLOG (CONVERSATION PIECE) https://www.edcrossfineart.com/blog/
Featured Images, courtesy of Ed Cross
- Main image Tiffanie Delune Do TheWork and You’ll be Gold (2019) acrylic, oil, oil Pastel, tissue paper, embroidery gloss and glitter on stretched cotton canvas 50 x 50cm
- Photograph of Ed Cross by Dola Posh (2019)
- Abe Odedina, 2020 Vision, 2020, acrylic on sterling board, 94.5 x 119cm
About Author
