
October Gallery Staff |
Founded in 1978, the October Gallery is
an art gallery dedicated to the appreciation of art from all cultures around
the world. The Gallery exhibits and promotes art of the transvangarde
- or trans-cultural avant-garde - that is to say, the work of artists who, whilst
working at the forefront of their own respective cultures, assimilate into their
work elements from other cultures as well. During the past twenty-one years,
the Gallery has shown the work of such transvangarde artists as:
Gerald Wilde, El Anatsui, William S. Burroughs,
Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, Kenji Yoshida, Aubrey Williams, Ablade
Glover and Sokari Douglas Camp amongst many others. As well as exhibitions
by individual artists, the Gallery also mounts group exhibitions that concentrate
on the art produced in one particular area or culturally continuous region.
Amongst these regional exhibitions have been shows devoted to the art
and culture of : Tibet (1991), Trinidad & Tobago (1992), Mongolia (1993),
the Horn of Africa (1994) Haiti (1995) South Africa (1996) the Yoruba Diasporas
(1997) Oceania (1998) and Peru (1999). Future
exhibitions will comprise a series of shows highlighting the contemporary
art coming from shamanistic societies around the world.
Named after the month in which the Gallery
was founded, a season associated with ripeness and fruition, the October
Gallery is a self-supporting charitable trust that, while it receives no core-funding
still manages to resist the powerful commercial pressures of the fashionable
art world. Support for the project comes from sales of art, rental of
the Gallery's unique facilities, grants from various funding bodies and the
active support of a growing number of dedicated artists, musicians, writers
and many other such friends from around the world.
In the twenty-one years since opening
its doors to the peripatetic artists, thinkers and scientists of the planet,
the Gallery has hosted more than just exhibitions of the visual arts, holding
concert performances by the Theatre of All Possibilities and the Bauls of Bengal, performances of Balinese, Indian
and Middle Eastern dance, Dervishes from Pakistan, evenings with writers and
thinkers that include Lawrence Durrell, Brion Gysin, John Allen and John Lilly
and readings by poets such as Christopher Logue, David Gascoyne, Ira Cohen,
Johnny Dolphin, Taiwo Jegede, Kathleen Raine and many others.
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The Gallery is situated in Bloomsbury,
just a short walk from the British Museum and the University of London's School
of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) with which it maintains close contacts
and frequently liaises in the production of exhibitions. The Gallery is within
easy walking distance of both the Holborn and Russell Square tube stations. A major part of
the October Gallery's work is to do with public education at all levels, and
to this end the Gallery maintains an active and flourishing Education
Department.
For further information concerning forthcoming exhibitions, events, sales of paintings
and books or the availability of spaces for hire, please contact the October Gallery.
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