London Gallery Expansions Signal a More Selective Market Strategy
Two London galleries are redrawing their footprints this spring, and both moves suggest a market that is becoming more focused rather than simply larger. Edel Assanti will open a second space in St. James’s, while Emalin is relocating its main premises from Shoreditch to Clerkenwell. In each case, the expansion is less about scale than about sharpening how exhibitions reach collectors.
Edel Assanti’s new address is 11 Bury Street, a 450-square-foot room near Christie’s headquarters. That is a marked contrast to the gallery’s 4,000-square-foot Fitzrovia space, where it stages four ambitious exhibitions a year. Co-founder and director Jeremy Epstein said the new venue was conceived as an intimate counterpoint, with room for about eight shows annually. Co-founder and director Charlie Fellowes described the format as one that allows the gallery to stay nimble.
The opening exhibition, Lonnie Holley: Coming Through the Doors, will present just three works by American artist Lonnie Holley (b. 1950), each priced at $55,000. The quilt paintings were made during a 2020-21 residency at the Elaine de Kooning House in East Hampton, New York. Their presentation also coincides with Holley’s recent commissioned installation at Castello di Rivoli in Turin, which includes two additional quilt paintings.
For Edel Assanti, the smaller room is part of a broader strategy. Epstein said art fairs remain important, but exhibitions have been the gallery’s strongest sales platform. Fellowes added that the gallery sees London as a deep pool of collectors and patrons, and that galleries have a role in cultivating new audiences close to home. The move also follows a pattern in the capital, where galleries including Sadie Coles and Maureen Paley expanded their London presence last year.
The new Edel Assanti space will have a soft opening at the end of the month, with its official launch set for June 5 during London Gallery Weekend. The exhibition runs through July 3.
Emalin’s expansion follows a similar logic, though on a larger scale. The gallery will move into the 5,000-square-foot Helmet Row space recently vacated by Modern Art, while retaining its second location at The Clerk’s House in Shoreditch. In a statement, co-founders Angelina Volk and Leopold Thun said their continued presence in London affirmed the city as an “unflinching epicentre for art,” adding that many of the gallery’s artists are receiving important institutional presentations this year.
Taken together, the two announcements point to a London gallery sector that is not retreating, but recalibrating. Smaller, more targeted spaces may be becoming one of the clearest ways to meet a more selective collector base.
