The Art Newspaper

New non-profit space for Russian and Eastern European art in London

By Georgina Adam | Web only
Published online 13 May 09

Leonid Tishkov, The Knitling, 2002

LONDON. The UK’s first not-for-profit art space dedicated to Russian and Eastern European contemporary art opened on 13 May in London’s East End. Calvert 22, a 500 sq. m space in a converted warehouse in Shoreditch, is the brainchild of St Petersburg-born financier and economist Nonna Materkova, who has lived in London for the last ten years.

Ms Materkova originally planned to run the space as a commercial operation, in association with a partner also from the financial sector, and held a first selling exhibition in the space last year. However, when her partner dropped out of the project, she decided to change the focus. “This way gives me much more freedom. It is not my profession to sell art, and I feel more comfortable with a non-commercial operation,” she says. “It gives me much more choice of artists and curators.” Her artistic director is critic and journalist Jane Neal, whose special focus is the art scene in Central and Eastern Europe. The first show, “Pastfutureperfect”, features five Russian artists, including Alexander Brodsky, Leonid Tishkov and Stanislav Volyaslovsky, and is curated by David Thorp, former director of South London Gallery.

“I felt there was a gap in London, there was no gallery specialising in artists from Russia and Eastern Europe, but there was serious demand to learn more about them,” says Ms Materkova. In addition to the exhibition programme–four a year–Calvert 22 will also host debates and forums. It will use its basement area for a monthly dinner-debate on cultural issues through its association with Intelligence2, a debating forum whose owner, John Gordon, is a partner in Calvert 22. The space will also have a library for Russian art.

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