Photo by Dane Sponberg, courtesy the Savannah College of Art and Design

British artist Yinka Shonibare opens his own not-for-profit gallery August 7.

Courtesy Martin Creed

Turner Prize–winning artist Martin Creed opened his Work No. 160 gallery in Shoreditch, London, in June.

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British artist and 2004 Turner nominee Yinka Shonibare [see Art+Auction's "In the Studio: Yinka Shonibare"] will become the latest in a string of artists to do so when he launches his own not-for-profit gallery on August 7. The space will be housed in a 2,750-square-foot east London warehouse Shonibare recently acquired with the intention of converting it to studios for himself and other artists in a substantial renovation project, the timeline for which has yet to be determined. In the meantime, Shonibare will stage bimonthly exhibitions for which three guest curators will each select three works. “Selectors will simply choose the art that they like,” Shonibare told ARTINFO, adding that he wanted “to avoid the need for themed exhibitions.” The first show, curated by Ann Marie Peña, Reza Aramesh, and Ian Monroe, features the work of nine less established artists, including Mandy Lee Jandrell, Neil Hamon, and Lewis Amar. Should any of the works sell — although that is not necessarily the point for these alternative spaces — the artists will keep the entire sum.

Martin Creed, the 2001 Turner winner who currently has an installation on view at Tate Britain, embarked on a similar endeavor in June when he opened a space bearing the simple name Work No. 160 in Shoreditch together with his studio manager of two years, David Southard. 

Southard points out that artists keep the overhead costs for such undertakings relatively low by opening spaces within their existing studio buildings, or, in Creed’s case, his former home. Work No. 160 is modeled after Wolfgang Tillmans’s Between Bridges space in the neighboring east London district of Bethnal Green. Tillmans, the 2000 Turner winner, opened the gallery, housed in the entrance hall and stairs of his workspace, in 2006 to host exhibitions with a political bent. Featured artists have included the likes of Isa Genzken and the late David Wojnarowicz.

If the artists-turned-gallerists aren’t in it for the money — they don’t charge commissions, and the spaces themselves eschew the traditional commercial framework and are exempt from charity status and accompanying tax breaks — why are they doing it? “Primarily because it’s fun, but also to show artists we like and give a few young ones the chance to show without commercial restrictions,” said Southard, who notes that he and Creed cover all the gallery expenses themselves.

Work No. 160 is currently showing Creed’s own most famous, Turner-winning installation, Work No. 227: The lights going on and off (2000), an empty gallery with, as the title suggests, lights flashing on and off. But there’s a twist. Rather than entering the second-floor gallery, viewers are meant to look to its windows from the street below. Come fall, however, the gallery will reopen to the public with a new group show promoting several young, unestablished painters, who will be chosen by guest curator Tessa Jayray, an artist herself.