Art project

The Wapping Project’s Bankside gallery, which focuses exclusively on photography, film and video, will celebrate its first birthday this October, and its first ten months have been a success. Founder Jules Wright, director and curator of The Wapping Project, puts this down to the limited number of exclusively photographic/film/video galleries in London and also to the reputation of the original Wapping Project in east London.

Those keen to make up their own minds can head to Bankside next month for a review of the artists taken on by the gallery since its inception.
It represents artists such as New York Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas, Finnish fine art photographer Elina Brotherus, New Yorker Deborah Turbeville and fashion photographer Lillian Bassmen, as well as some younger British photographers.

’I think each person has a strong personal voice, and with the older artists [each has made] a huge impact on the direction photography has taken,’ says Wright.

The media of photography, film and video speak of ’our times and the visual culture I’ve grown up with’, according to Wright. ’But their overwhelming presence has stopped us seeing them so clearly as fine art. I would like to play a part in asserting their metaphorical power and help to broaden their base beyond the accepted brilliance of, say, Bill Viola.’

Wright expects to double the number of artists on The Wapping Project Bankside’s roster in its second year.

She adds, ’I’m delighted with the number of younger people beginning to collect.’

Group Show is on at The Wapping Project Bankside, 65a Hopton Street London SE1 from 17 August to 4 September

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