PayneShurvell

PayneShurvell is a contemporary art gallery based in Curtain Road in the East End of London. It shows Andrew Curtis, Aidan McNeill, Wrik Mead, and Margaret Harrison whose first show in 1971 was famously closed by the police for public indecency, and who has seven paintings in the Tate collection. As well as Margaret Harrison, PayneShurvell shows many other internationally recognised artists along with artists such as Anka Dabrowska who was described as one of the most exciting new artists.

The policy of the gallery is to bridge the gap between an artist-run space and a commercial gallery, showcasing emerging UK and international artists and featuring work from all media. Many of the artists shown have international reputations but are little known in the UK.

PayneShurvell is owned and run by artist and curator James Payne who has shown work at Transition Gallery and is also a writer for Garageland and Arty and a columnist for The Huffington Post and Joanne Shurvell who was previously head of communications for the Institute of Contemporary Arts. The gallery opened in 2010 with a well received group show.

The Hoxton/Shoreditch area has been popular with the Young British Artists (YBAs) since the 1990s, at which time it was a run-down area of light industry. More recently it has undergone extensive redevelopment with clubs, restaurants and media businesses. Hoxton Square is a prime site with a central area of grass and trees, which the vicinity is mostly lacking.

Payne Shurvell also offers artists' editions.

The starting point for this exhibition was the concept of mapping and the ways in which artists explore the notion of mapping and cartography in their work. The artists are linked together by work that explores the purpose of mapping as a social construct and the use of measuring or navigating; work that explores our 'place'. Some of the artists’ work is not only about specific fixed points in space and time but in stark contrast, deals directly with displacement and states of flux. Most of the artists featured were not from one "place" or even based in one "place". This is common for artists with their peripatetic lifestyles. It is this complex circuit of movement that inspires many of the artists in this show. The title of the exhibition, "A Bright and Guilty Place", is taken from Orson Welles’ Lady of Shanghai in which the classic hall of mirrors climax sequence intertwines the virtual and the actual. "A Bright and Guilty Place" was curated by Dermot O’Brien and James Payne and featured the artists, Andrew Curtis, Anka Dabrowska, Dan Hays, LEO, Aidan McNeill, Wrik Mead, Dermot O’Brien, Derek Ogbourne, Frank Selby, Jeni Snell, Ian Whittlesea, Lucy Wood and Mary Yacoob.

...
Wikipedia