COURTESY VILMA GOLD
In a vaguely worded email sent yesterday, London’s Vilma Gold gallery revealed that it would close and begin what it called “a new model of collaboration” with its artists. The news came from Rachel Williams, the gallery’s owner and director, who opened the space with Steve Pippett in 2000.
Williams noted in the letter that the gallery’s office will “continue to work on behalf of the gallery artists,” which include Charles Atlas, Trisha Baga, Rochelle Feinstein, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Luther Price. The estates of KP Brehmer and Stephen Dwoskin will also continue to be overseen by the gallery.
Williams’s note follows in full below.
The nature of the art world has changed significantly in recent years. Where a gallery was once centred around a physical space where artists, collectors and curators could engage directly with the exhibition programme, the focus has now shifted towards an endlessly accelerating global cycle of fairs which has impacted on the relevance of this traditional model.
I feel the time has come for me to step off this path, spend time with my family, and begin working towards a new model of collaboration with both living artists and estates- in the meantime, the office will continue to work on behalf of the gallery artists and the estates of KP Bremer and Stephen Dworkin for the foreseeable future.
Although this new direction is to some extent a walk into the unknown, I am also very excited about the possibilities presented by this new chapter, and I hope that I will continue to collaborate with the many friends and colleagues I have had the pleasure of working alongside for the past 18 years.
Rachel Williams
Vilma Gold