This website is the archive of the gallery WW Contemporary Art, which operated July 2008 - October 2016.
The SOLO Award™ and other activities are now managed by Chiara Williams Contemporary Art
about WW
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This website is the archive of the gallery WW Contemporary Art, which operated July 2008 - October 2016.
Further information: history press exhibited artists exhibition archive publications news & reviews |
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history
WW Contemporary Art (aka WW Gallery, Wilson Williams or simply WW) was established in 2008, by artist/curators Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson.
WW quickly built a reputation as one of London’s leading contemporary artist-run spaces, curating consistently forward-thinking and innovative projects, totalling over 65 exhibitions and projects during its first 6 years, including collateral UK exhibitions at the 53rd & 54th Venice Biennales. During this time it represented 8 artists and supported the work of more than 300 artists, curators and writers through exhibitions, exchanges, collaborations, residencies, off-site projects, commissions, talks and publications.
From September 2008 - March 2012, WW was housed across two floors of Williams's Victorian terrace house in Hackney Downs, East London. From April 2012 - March 2014, the programme was based at 34/35 Hatton Garden, Clerkenwell, London, a former jeweller's workshop and showroom, housing the exhibition space, a shop, lounge, bar and studio. From April 2014 - October 2016 (Director's maternity leave), WW retained an office at 34/35 Hatton Garden, and focused on consultancy and a limited number of specialist off-site projects, such as the SOLO Award ™. Artists represented by WW during its 8 years, included: Ayuko Sugiura, Broughton & Birnie, Boa Swindler, Jarik Jongman, Phil Illingworth, Siobhan Barr, Sadie Hennessy
This website holds an - under construction - archive of all WW's exhibitions with images and texts, reviews and press and a list of all exhibited artists. For any further information, please contact us.
WW quickly built a reputation as one of London’s leading contemporary artist-run spaces, curating consistently forward-thinking and innovative projects, totalling over 65 exhibitions and projects during its first 6 years, including collateral UK exhibitions at the 53rd & 54th Venice Biennales. During this time it represented 8 artists and supported the work of more than 300 artists, curators and writers through exhibitions, exchanges, collaborations, residencies, off-site projects, commissions, talks and publications.
From September 2008 - March 2012, WW was housed across two floors of Williams's Victorian terrace house in Hackney Downs, East London. From April 2012 - March 2014, the programme was based at 34/35 Hatton Garden, Clerkenwell, London, a former jeweller's workshop and showroom, housing the exhibition space, a shop, lounge, bar and studio. From April 2014 - October 2016 (Director's maternity leave), WW retained an office at 34/35 Hatton Garden, and focused on consultancy and a limited number of specialist off-site projects, such as the SOLO Award ™. Artists represented by WW during its 8 years, included: Ayuko Sugiura, Broughton & Birnie, Boa Swindler, Jarik Jongman, Phil Illingworth, Siobhan Barr, Sadie Hennessy
This website holds an - under construction - archive of all WW's exhibitions with images and texts, reviews and press and a list of all exhibited artists. For any further information, please contact us.
press
"llingworth has taken a spanking new space and pathological terror and turned them into something witty, engaging and colourful, making this an auspicious start for WW Gallery mark two.'
Kate Weir, Spoonfed, April 2012
"if this exhibition is a taste of things to come, the WW glass is certainly at least half full, for this is a very successful and promising launch to their new gallery space."
(Anna McNay, Roves & Roams, April 2012)
"a new absolutely stunning gallery space in jewel belt Hatton Garden"
(Sandra Louison, Art-e-facts Blog, April 2012)
"On the horizon, one of Hackney's most innovative contemporary art galleries are also on the move to Clerkenwell, as WW Gallery bring their signature mix of glamour and edge to a 1,200 square foot ground floor space on Hatton Garden." (Tom Jeffreys, Spoonfed, February 2012)
"What also connects their artists is a sense of nostalgia and a notion of beauty - 'guilty pleasures'"(Michaela Freeman, State Magazine, November 2011)
"...by far the most enjoyable part of the 54th Venice Biennale involved having a cup of tea with the directors of WW Gallery...Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson are showing a careful selection of small-scale works on paper, while upstairs they serve tea and quite delightful home-made cupcakes to a small group of guests." (Tom Jeffreys on FAD, June 2011)
"An inventive show from two new and inspiring London curators, Debra Wilson and Chiara Williams."(Marta Crunelli on Renaissance Online & Flint PR)
"a slice of heaven - a moment of indulgent rest amongst the frenetic pace of the Biennale opening week..." (Alicia Miller on Axis)
"WW Gallery’s ‘art supermarket’ made a good impression at the London Art Fair..."
(Paul Carey-Kent Feb 2011)
"WW Gallery is carving out a reputation as one of Hackney's most forward-thinking and consistently innovative contemporary art spaces." (Spoonfed, 2010)
"...since its opening in September 2008 it has been running a series of fearless and ambitious shows, featuring an eclectic array of work that runs from the beautiful and ornate to the grotesque and unsettling. Breaking away from the tendency of their East End counterparts to show work with a dry and introspective concern with theory, concept and the politics of the art industry, WW looks outward by staging shows centered around wider social and cultural themes. The result is often dark, frequently humorous and at once democratic and challenging. WW’s curators make full and imaginative use of the unique architecture of the space, which is flooded with natural daylight from both the front and back. More than just a sterile display case, the gallery is a hub of creative energy, where both works and visitors spill out on to the street and into the back garden at openings, and which has so far borne witness to everything from music and performance to pagan feasting."
(Sophie Dodds, 2009, writer and curator at Paintings In Hospitals)
"As Frieze focuses attention on art as business, could there be a new model for the art market, one which places less emphasis on putting on exhibitions, relying rather on the Internet and Art Fairs to sell work? Maybe so, though we’re not there yet: for the most part the online market operates in a different commercial zone, and it’s a physical programme which secures entry to fairs. Yet there is a growing tendency for galleries not to simply close if that considerable commitment stops suiting them, but to embark on a different existence. ..WW have sub-let most of their Hatton Garden space, but retained an office there from which to run such initiatives as their Solo Award leading to a show at the London Art Fair...Those approaches have all evolved on the back of the credibility earned from running a more conventional space, but it will be interesting to see both whether they work, and – if they do – whether art businesses might be founded, rather than rebooted, on such models."
(Paul Carey-Kent 'After the Gallery', October 2014)
Kate Weir, Spoonfed, April 2012
"if this exhibition is a taste of things to come, the WW glass is certainly at least half full, for this is a very successful and promising launch to their new gallery space."
(Anna McNay, Roves & Roams, April 2012)
"a new absolutely stunning gallery space in jewel belt Hatton Garden"
(Sandra Louison, Art-e-facts Blog, April 2012)
"On the horizon, one of Hackney's most innovative contemporary art galleries are also on the move to Clerkenwell, as WW Gallery bring their signature mix of glamour and edge to a 1,200 square foot ground floor space on Hatton Garden." (Tom Jeffreys, Spoonfed, February 2012)
"What also connects their artists is a sense of nostalgia and a notion of beauty - 'guilty pleasures'"(Michaela Freeman, State Magazine, November 2011)
"...by far the most enjoyable part of the 54th Venice Biennale involved having a cup of tea with the directors of WW Gallery...Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson are showing a careful selection of small-scale works on paper, while upstairs they serve tea and quite delightful home-made cupcakes to a small group of guests." (Tom Jeffreys on FAD, June 2011)
"An inventive show from two new and inspiring London curators, Debra Wilson and Chiara Williams."(Marta Crunelli on Renaissance Online & Flint PR)
"a slice of heaven - a moment of indulgent rest amongst the frenetic pace of the Biennale opening week..." (Alicia Miller on Axis)
"WW Gallery’s ‘art supermarket’ made a good impression at the London Art Fair..."
(Paul Carey-Kent Feb 2011)
"WW Gallery is carving out a reputation as one of Hackney's most forward-thinking and consistently innovative contemporary art spaces." (Spoonfed, 2010)
"...since its opening in September 2008 it has been running a series of fearless and ambitious shows, featuring an eclectic array of work that runs from the beautiful and ornate to the grotesque and unsettling. Breaking away from the tendency of their East End counterparts to show work with a dry and introspective concern with theory, concept and the politics of the art industry, WW looks outward by staging shows centered around wider social and cultural themes. The result is often dark, frequently humorous and at once democratic and challenging. WW’s curators make full and imaginative use of the unique architecture of the space, which is flooded with natural daylight from both the front and back. More than just a sterile display case, the gallery is a hub of creative energy, where both works and visitors spill out on to the street and into the back garden at openings, and which has so far borne witness to everything from music and performance to pagan feasting."
(Sophie Dodds, 2009, writer and curator at Paintings In Hospitals)
"As Frieze focuses attention on art as business, could there be a new model for the art market, one which places less emphasis on putting on exhibitions, relying rather on the Internet and Art Fairs to sell work? Maybe so, though we’re not there yet: for the most part the online market operates in a different commercial zone, and it’s a physical programme which secures entry to fairs. Yet there is a growing tendency for galleries not to simply close if that considerable commitment stops suiting them, but to embark on a different existence. ..WW have sub-let most of their Hatton Garden space, but retained an office there from which to run such initiatives as their Solo Award leading to a show at the London Art Fair...Those approaches have all evolved on the back of the credibility earned from running a more conventional space, but it will be interesting to see both whether they work, and – if they do – whether art businesses might be founded, rather than rebooted, on such models."
(Paul Carey-Kent 'After the Gallery', October 2014)
