LONDON — “I met her on a dating app … I met her in a pub,” said Ellie Pennick, 24, director and founder of Guts Gallery, recalling on Friday how she had discovered some of the young artists whose work she was selling from a pop-up space near Carnaby Street during the debut edition of London Gallery Weekend. Unable to afford the fees to study sculpture at London’s Royal College of Art and frustrated by the art world’s prevailing systems, Pennick said she decided to become a nomadic dealer who uses pop-up shows and the internet to promote edgy new talent. “I looked at the business model and saw that the main expense was space. So I thought I’d take that out,” Pennick said. Her participation in Gallery Weekend was supported by the renowned London dealer Sadie Coles, who lent her a small retail unit in Soho.

Source: International New York Times June 07, 2021 15:45 UTC