The Commercial Gallery /Commercial Too
The Commercial Gallery
The Commercial Gallery was an artist-led space, part of Spitalfields Arts Projects, set in pre-developed Spitalfields Market and ran from 1995 - 1999. The space offered a platform for solo shows by unrepresented artists.
Artists who showed there included Cedric Christie, Almuth Tebbenhoff, Jamie Wagg, Clem Crosby, Marion Coutts, and Martin Fletcher
In 1996 we hosted the sculpture section of the Whitechapel Open 96, selected by Keith Ball, Richard Wentworth and Alison Wilding across both The Commercial Gallery and Commercial Too at Folgate Street, including works by Terry Smith, Ana Genoves, Keith Wilson and Janette Parris.
Commercial Too
Commercial Too was the generic name for a series of large-scale offsite exhibitions in temporary unused office and warehouse spaces. These included the infamous WheNever at Commercial Too, Greatorex Street London E1, sited in the former offices of the Federation of Jewish Synagogues and Kosher Luncheon Club.
Artists were invited to create works throughout the different spaces, with a series of openings taking place during May – July 1997. A total of 58 artists exhibited work, including Heather Allen, Stuart Brisley, Keith Ball, Richard Ducker, Nicky Hirst, Tina Keane, Christiana Protto, Joshua Sofaer and Terry Smith,
Throughout 1998 Keith and I, as Commercial Too, concentrated on the production of ROOT, launched on 16 October 1998, with Jon Tye from Lo Recordings in association with Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth . The project involved an exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, London, and CD of work by leading contemporary artists and musicians including Angela Bulloch, Gavin Turk, David Bowie and Blur.
As well as the exhibition (which attracted 800 people to the preview and approximately 1,000 in the two week period that it was open to the public), ROOT also held a club night at the Spitz, E1 and The Art of De-Construction, an evening of live electronics at the Lux Cinema, N1.
Images:
Selection of promotional material rom The Commercial Gallery/Commercial Too exhibitions and projects.