Gambia Castle was an artist-run gallery in Auckland, New Zealand between 2007 and 2010.

History

Gambia Castle was initiated in 2007 by a group of

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

artists and art writers. They were Dan Arps, Nick Austin, Andrew Barber,

Fiona Connor Fiona Connor (born 1981) is a visual artist from New Zealand, currently based in Los Angeles. Education Fiona Connor was born in 1981 in Auckland, New Zealand. In 2004 she graduated from the Elam School of Fine Arts with a BFA/BA. She has also ...

, Simon Denny, Sarah Hopkinson, David Levinson, Daniel Malone, Tahi Moore,

Kate Newby Kate Newby (born 1979) is an artist from New Zealand. Background Newby was born in 1979 in the Auckland region of New Zealand. She attended the Elam School of Fine Arts, receiving a BFA in 2001, an MFA in 2007, and a PhD in 2015. The title o ...

and

Tao Wells Tao Wells is a New Zealand Artist and a voluntary community conceptualist, whose work is known for its critiques of established systems of power and value. Early life & Education Wells was born in Colorado, United States and moved to New Zeala ...

. The gallery was initially on level one at the corner of Ponsonby Road and Richmond Road but after a year moved to the space previously occupied by

Teststrip Teststrip was an artist run gallery that operated in Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth larges ...

at 454

Karangahape Road Karangahape Road (commonly known as K' Road) is one of the main streets in the central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area – and subsequent flight of resident ...

. An artist-run gallery, with Sarah Hopkinson as the gallery manager, Gambia Castle was also active in making sales to the public and to institutions. One of the early exhibitions, a large installation by Daniel Malone, titled ''Black Market to my Name'' was purchased by the Chartwell Collection.

Exhibitions

Many of the exhibitions at Gambia Castle were solo shows of the artists involved or invited guests. There were also group exhibitions a number of which were curated by Sarah Hopkinson who also helped produced the texts for catalogues and publicity material along with David Levinson. Gambia Castle exhibitions included: ''Old Buildings'' a 2007 installation by Fiona Connor. Connor replicated the entire floor of the exhibition space and then installed it over the original floor noticeably raising its level and changing the ‘feel’ of the spaces. ''Explaining Things'', Dan Arps’ Gambia Castle installation of 2008, went on to win the prestigious

Walters Prize The Walters Prize is New Zealand's largest contemporary art prize. Held biennially since 2002, the prize aims to 'make contemporary art a more widely recognised and debated feature of cultural life'. The prize is named in honour of New Zealand ab ...

in 2010. The judge, former

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

director Vicente Todoli, said that Arps had managed to turn ''Explaining Things'', “into a revelatory multi-layered experience.” ''Three Ideas for the State''

' 2008 installation, of three ideas, written in pencil and glued to the wall, with one typed up price list, floating around, each on a single sheet of A4 paper: was reviewed by Mark Amery for the Dominion Post Newspaper. "The ideas were decent and achievable ... The clinch was that Wells put a price on putting these ideas into motion on your behalf as a buyer... to question the social function of the contemporary gallery space, the political role of the artist and the conflicting value placed on an art object's sale" ''Carry on or Stow Away'' featured Louise Menzies and Fiona Connor alongside six Mexican artists marcelaygina,

Eduardo Abaroa Eduardo Abaroa Hidalgo (13 October 1838 – 23 March 1879) was Bolivia's foremost hero of the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), which pitted Chile against Bolivia and Peru. He was one of the leaders of the civilian resistance to the Chilean ...

, Tania Perez Cordova, Adriana Lara, Joaquin Segura, Sofia Taboas and Australian Sanne Mestrom. This exhibition was developed from contacts made during a residency that Fiona Connor, Kate Newby and Louise Menzies had at SOMA in Mexico City.

Publications

The gallery also produced a number of publications including catalogues and artists' books. In 2008 Sarah Hopkinson edited a book about the gallery titled ''Gambia Castle.'' The contents included ''‘''excerpts from stories and conversations, poetry, notes, photographs, and drawings that, when read as a collection, accurately convey a picture of what it means to make art in the year 2007.’

References

{{Reflist

External links

Archived official website
- ''Gambia Castle was an early artist-run gallery to set up a website to distribute information, texts and visuals supporting its programme and includes a full archive of exhibitions. Defunct art museums and galleries Art galleries in New Zealand Culture in Auckland Artist-run centres

History

Exhibitions

Publications

See also

References

External links