Art market
Sofia Hallström
Portrait of Hannah Watson. TJ Boulting courtesy.
Exterior of TJ Boulting. TJ Boulting courtesy.
“I feel like I got everything I wanted with TJ Boulting and that’s why it’s time to move forward.” Hannah Watson told him the art. Fitzrovia gallery for 13 years has been closed.
The gallery was known for the platforms that are emerging artists, especially artists based on lenses. It was tasty in the Scene of Contemporary Art in London, assured of the museum shopping and took part in fairs around the world.
After gallery closing this year, Arty sat with Watson to discuss his heritage, challenges to run a gallery in the current market, evolving London, in London and what happens.
Becoming a tasty Fitzrovia
Portrait of Gigi Giannuz and Hannah Watson. TJ Boulting courtesy.
The story of TJ Boulting is not Fitzrovian, but in the east Shoreditch district of London, Watson and his late business partners, Gigi Giannuzzi will open the trolley books in the early 2000s. Shoreditch became a rapid hotspot for emerging galleries, such as 52 Museum, Chain Macgregi and Studio 1.1 galleries to open galleries.
2010. For years, rentals and gentrification took many of these galleries, Watson and Giannuzzi would be required to search for a new location. At the time, Fitzrovia, northern London, was the underlying Radar neighborhood for galleries. “We found this beautiful Edwardary building, and everything fell into place,” Watson remember. “After the building we appointed the gallery, he was publishing as a trolley book.”
TJ Boulting was born in 2011, designated by the original brass casting of the building (names decorates the exterior of the building). But while opening a new space and worked in an alighier Boetti solo exhibition, Giannuzzi was diagnosed with cancer.
“You can never predict what will happen in life,” Watson said. “I remember the Boetti show, and came through the connection of Gigi. They were friends with the widow of the artist. It was a very amazing quality show. In two weeks, he was diagnosed with Gigi.”
Gianuzzi was unfortunately deceased in 2013. It remains to manage gallery and publishers, Watson followed and gradually format the TJ Boulting program.
Putting women at the forefront
Watson has never explicitly sets the women’s focused gallery, but his programming was naturally bent to women artists. “He never decided consciously,” he said. “But if you look at my list, they are primarily for women.”
Artists like Juno Calypso, Haley Morris-Cafiero, Poulomi Basu and Maisie cousins received TJ Boulting at the beginning of their careers, achieving a lot of recognition in the process. Group exhibitions were commissioners like Katie Hessel and Charlotte Jansen, and explored birth issues, women’s gazes and textile art, such issues spread in institutional spaces.
“I feel proud that we were before the curve in certain senses,” Watson reflected. The galleries collaborated with Manchester profit risk arts, Bary Anthony Finn, won the Paul Hamlyn Award. “That was one of the most rewarding pieces,” Watson explained. “The artists help the decisive phase of their journey.”
Current Art Market in London
Exterior of TJ Boulting. TJ Boulting courtesy.
“London is very innovative. The harder things are achieved, the more interesting things happened,” Watson said. While London continues to be a city with endless chances for new galleries, Watson see important challenges, especially in Art Education and Financing. “There is a greater concern that young people do not enter arts because of the costs,” he stated. “It affects the whole ecosystem.” However, he remains optimistic in his view: “London will continue … it is a creative force.”
Although the decision to close TJ Boulting may suddenly seemed, Watson had long been. “It was a feeling, I got that sense that things were changing a little, and I should change,” he said. “I thought about 2025. I thought about how I should do things. I started evaluating a bigger photo, and where you were going to question everything. It’s hard to talk about.”
The desire to change the view about posting Watson was a key factor to close TJ Boulting. Last year, he offered months to produce Siân Davey’s book photography GardenTraveling to New York for Art Book Profit and supervision of its printing in Italy. “That meant that the gallery didn’t have an exhibition for two months, which didn’t make sense commercially,” he said. “A gallery requires constant feeding.”
However, he also had the role of the wider conditions of the market, he said. Lifting rentals, scaling shipping and storage costs, and the financial burden of art fairs has been increasing galleries. “Everything is more expensive, to send it from the warehouse,” said Watson; “Medium-sized galleries take more economic risks to their size. It is challenging to provide more artists. Another jump is a gallery, but medium-sized galleries have less security network.”
TJ Boulting’s heritage and looking
Daisy Collingridge, View of TJ Boulting’s “Dirt”, 2023. Courtesy of TJ Boulting.
Fitzrovia has grown in one of the locations in the Gallery of London, and Watson is proud of the role that shapes the scene that shapes the scene that continues to change quickly. “Seeing maps of the old gallery, half of the galleries don’t exist,” he said. “But that is part of the cycle. We lasted 13 years and we did what we did. The presence, we have helped artists and helped the conversation.”
As for the next, Watson keeps his plans open. “I still want to do books, and I want to continue working in ways I am excited, without a structure of a commercial gallery,” he said. “The best part of TJ Boulting was not space, it was the community we built. This does not disappear because the doors close.”
Watson is working on a new publication 150 iconic stores. Anniversary with historian art and commissioner in an exhibition and publication that studies socihistoric brand.
By announcing closing on Valentine’s Day, Watson ended the end of TJ Boulting than the end. “People told me,” you built a community, “and that’s it,” he said. “This is not sad. It’s just the next chapter.”
