Since 2021, London-based gallery Incubator has injected youthful, collaborative energy into the traditional gallery system. That’s not only because it showcases the work of the city’s emerging artists, giving them a platform it might otherwise take them years to achieve; but also because it proposes an entirely new model for presenting their works. Every spring and autumn, Incubator launches a solo show programme, with six artists each displaying their work in the gallery’s Chiltern Street space for two week-long stints. During the winter and summer months, the gallery unveils group exhibitions, featuring the work of emerging talents alongside established artists.
‘I’m drawn to artists who inspire a new way of looking or thinking,’ says Incubator’s founder, Angelica Jopling. ‘I like to curate the solo show programme in a way that each artist’s practice is radically different from the previous or the following one. Many people who come to the Incubator openings come every single week and so I want to ensure that they’re consistently surprised, intrigued and inspired.’
Six artists to see at Incubator in spring 2024
Lucrezia Abatzoglu, Milky Way, 2023. Oil on Canvas
In April, May and June, Incubator is exhibiting its latest solo show programme, Incubator 24, with a roster of artists from around the world who are currently London-based. First up in early April was Antrea Tzurovits, a Serbian artist who channels his childhood experience as a refugee into sculptures, paintings, installations and more that interrogate the mechanisms of memory and experiences of personal and collective trauma.
Until 28 April, there’s Leonard Iheagwam, a Nigerian artist known professionally as ‘Soldier’, whose vibrantly coloured and repetitively patterned works provoke questions about identity politics, family dynamics and the impact of war all intersect.
Iheagwam is followed by Lucrezia Abatzoglu (1-12 May), an Italian-Greek artist whose paintings bring monumentality to the female body.
Corbin Shaw (15-26 May) creates textiles that explore the notions of masculinity he was taught growing up in a mining town in Yorkshire.
Roman artist Elena Angelini’s hazy, vulnerable portraits will be on display for the fifth instalment of the show (29 May-9 June); and Paul Barlow’s abstract paintings (12-23 June), which draw inspiration from light waves, fractals, and halos will close out Incubator’s spring season.
Each of the solo shows is accompanied by an events programme that includes performances, readings and talks. ‘The events exist as an extension of the solo show programme,’ says Jopling, ‘and so it is a decision made between the exhibiting artist and myself about what would best complement or clash against their work in an interesting way. The idea is that these events can offer a new angle into the work that’s being exhibited and also introduce a different crowd into Incubator, who might not be inclined to view visual art but are more interested in poetry, music or dance. I find that this cross-pollination of people creates such a dynamic energy and fosters some of the most interesting conversations and, in some cases, future collaborations.’
Installation view of Antrea Tzourovits’ show at Incubator
Jopling, whose father is White Cube founder Jay Jopling and her mother is the artist Sam Taylor-Johnson (director of the recent Amy Winehouse film Back to Black), was well-versed in the workings of the art world even before starting Incubator. She has parlayed that knowledge into creating a gallery that supports artists in the early stages of their careers, creating a welcoming and collaborative space for them to display, and develop, their practice.
‘Watching the practices and careers of artists who cut their teeth at Incubator evolve and develop has been incredibly rewarding and exciting,’ Jopling says. ‘The community of artists, collectors, curators, art and art history students and friends that has formed around Incubator has also been surprising and beautiful to witness. It just shows how much desire there is to experience art in person and, in doing that, being among other like-minded individuals to discuss art and ideas.’
Up next for the Incubator project is a small London-based residency programme that, in Jopling’s words, ‘will make Incubator even more of an incubator in nurturing the growth of emerging artists’.
-
Own an early John Lautner, perched in LA’s Echo Park hillsThe restored and updated Jules Salkin Residence by John Lautner is a unique piece of Californian design heritage, an early private house by the Frank Lloyd Wright acolyte that points to his future iconic status
-
20 things that positively delighted us in and around Design Miami this yearFrom covetable 20th-century masterpieces to a tower made from ceramic pickles, these were the works that stood out amid the blur of Art Week
-
Montcalm Mayfair opens a new chapter for a once-overlooked London hotelA thoughtful reinvention brings craftsmanship, character and an unexpected sense of warmth to a London hotel that was never previously on the radar
-
Each mundane object tells a story at Pace’s tribute to the everydayIn a group exhibition, ‘Monument to the Unimportant’, artists give the seemingly insignificant – from discarded clothes to weeds in cracks – a longer look
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThis week, the Wallpaper* team had its finger on the pulse of architecture, interiors and fashion – while also scooping the latest on the Radiohead reunion and London’s buzziest pizza
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been a week of escapism: daydreams of Ghana sparked by lively local projects, glimpses of Tokyo on nostalgic film rolls, and a charming foray into the heart of Christmas as the festive season kicks off in earnest
-
Wes Anderson at the Design Museum celebrates an obsessive attention to detail‘Wes Anderson: The Archives’ pays tribute to the American film director’s career – expect props and puppets aplenty in this comprehensive London retrospective
-
Meet Eva Helene Pade, the emerging artist redefining figurative paintingPade’s dreamlike figures in a crowd are currently on show at Thaddaeus Ropac London; she tells us about her need ‘to capture movements especially’
-
David Shrigley is quite literally asking for money for old rope (£1 million, to be precise)The Turner Prize-nominated artist has filled a London gallery with ten tonnes of discarded rope, priced at £1 million, slyly questioning the arbitrariness of artistic value
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThe rain is falling, the nights are closing in, and it’s still a bit too early to get excited for Christmas, but this week, the Wallpaper* team brought warmth to the gloom with cosy interiors, good books, and a Hebridean dram
-
A former leprosarium with a traumatic past makes a haunting backdrop for Jaime Welsh's photographsIn 'Convalescent,' an exhibition at Ginny on Frederick in London, Jaime Welsh is drawn to the shores of Lake Geneva and the troubled history of Villa Karma
