Author: The Auction Collective
Published: 04 Oct 2022
The artist-led gallery and studio, Dept.con.temporary, was founded in 2021 by artists Karolina Glusiec and Jamie Temple to create supportive opportunities for artists and makers from South East London.
This September they are launching ‘It's Real Outside’ an exhibition and auction of selected works with proceeds going to support artists and dept.con.temporary’s programme of exhibitions, screenings and discussions.
Ahead of the auction, we caught up with them to hear more about their incredible artist-led gallery.
How would you describe dept.con.temporary in one sentence?
Jamie - I would say, it's a flat and a gallery. It's where we live and work and we just want to keep making stuff here and living.
Karol - It's a group of people that is important to us to keep us going and the connections between us that just makes us all make things that we love. It's the community that we sort of made without aiming to.
What inspired you to create the gallery?
Karol - We never meant to create the gallery. I think that's the thing that came out naturally when I started living with Jamie and when I moved in the middle of a pandemic when he lived here on his own. I lived in the big room where I had too much space and I thought that would be an ideal space for a studio. So we chopped up a sofa that was taking too much space and took the springs out without even thinking they would be our logo, simple and something important to us. I think that's what inspired me to like running the gallery.
Jamie - We never set out to start a gallery. We had this space and we just wanted to show all of our friends and everyone that we knew around this part of Southeast London and what we'd been making in this space. And it was just so great that we carried on doing it. And yeah, it's just kind of turned into what it is now quite naturally.
What are your aims for the gallery?
Jamie - We always have so many ideas for stuff that we want to do. We have like tons of crazy ideas and we just kind of take everything each step as we go. And we just kind of do what we can when we can, and then just keep pushing on with that. So our aims are just to keep going and include more people to build what we're doing and just try and create more supportive opportunities for as many people as we can.
What has been your biggest achievement to date?
Karol - I think the biggest achievement to date is making this show happen. We're both incredibly thrilled that so many people come back here because they find it an important space to be themselves. And as I mentioned before, it’s always natural for us to reach out to people that we know that we admire and value. We want to give them shows because they're great. So the biggest achievement for me is hearing back from them that they feel great here and they want to come back here and bring friends.
What continually motivates and influences you both?
Jamie - It's the people really. We wouldn't be able to do this, or I wouldn't be able to do this without Karol. Having her as a flatmate and a collaborator just kind of keeps us going. Definitely the artists, the people that we share our studio with Francis and Josh, we see them all the time and see their work and it inspires us. We see all these amazing people and all the stuff they do and the communities that they're part of the community that we're trying to build. And yeah, it's just really wonderful to see these people.
Who are your top artists of today?
Karol - I can say that my top artists of today are skateboarders, the anonymous ones and art enthusiasts, everyone that wants to take up drawing or painting or whatever. My top artists of today are the 19 artists that are in our show. Joshua Armitage, Helen Ashton, Nathalie Coste, Tom Dowse, Ian Goldstone, Jack Greeley-ward, Lily Holder, Martin Jackson, Clara Kelly who's gonna have the next show with us. Charlie Mann, Peter Millard, Lily Pearmain, Edwin Rostron, Frances Stanfield, Jamie Temple and Fredrix Vermin.
Jamie - For me, like, absolutely like Anselm Kiefer and David Nash and artists like that, they're just making really big mad works that I really want to be able to make.
What are your top picks from the upcoming auction?
Jamie - There are so many to choose from, I mean there are 74 lots in the auction, not all of the artists have work in the auction. So it's about 15 artists. Definitely, Karol's works are amazing and people should buy them. Also Charlie Mann's painting of a cat. It's been really good too. I've known Charlie for a long time. It's been really nice to kind of watch her grow as a painter and be more confident. She didn't really even think that we would've chosen that painting when we saw it. So I hope it sells. And also Martin Jackson, because his works are also just beautiful and I hope they sell.
Karol - I would add a couple of more things that would be works of Nathalie Coste and Lily Pearmain because as you can see in the auction, we have ceramics and some of them are household objects. Some of them are sculptures, but they're made of different materials that obviously like the pictures we've told that are great and feel incredibly special. So I would mention these artists and obviously Jamie's big prints. They're great. If you want to, you should see them in person and then buy them.
What is next for the gallery and how can our readers follow what you are up to?
Karol - So the next thing for the gallery is, well, officially the show for Clara Kelly. She's gonna have a residency with us at the beginning of the year, which will allow her to make work and take some time out of her day job. Clara is an amazing artist that makes embroidered sculptures representing identity and some sort of approach to womanhood that I would feel really special in her works. So it's obviously Clara's show at the beginning of the. And unofficially, it's the award ceremony of contemporary artists of the year.
Jamie - Oh yeah. I mean, that's still not confirmed, but yeah, there may be a Deptford contemporary artists of the year award. Around Christmas time, but not sure.
Karol - So if you want to follow up on that, you can visit our website and sign up to our newsletter or simply go to our Instagram, that's easier. Follow and sign up to our newsletter because we write really good newsletters. And we also feature the artists that we love and want to exhibit. So you should just do that.
Jamie - Also we're gonna after this show take a long break and maybe have a holiday somewhere outside of London for a bit. Yeah and then come back and do Clara's residency and show.
Jamie and Karol, thank you so much for all your time and this wonderful insight. This has been an absolute delight.
The auction 'It's Real Outside' ends on 7 October at 2.00 pm. View the auction.