ONLINE DISCUSSION SERIES #3: INSIGHTS FROM 99 LOOP GALLERY

Featuring Georgia Stonehouse from 99 Loop Gallery who joined Olivia Barrell & Mia Louw from the cur8.art team to discuss the effects of lockdown in South Africa on the primary art market and the shifts in the way galleries exhibit art going forward.

Mia Louw: Thank you for joining us today. We are excited to welcome Georgia Stonehouse from the much-loved Cape Town-based gallery, 99 Loop. In today’s conversation, we would like to chat about the day-to-day running of the gallery and how they have been affected during this pandemic.

Olivia Barrell: Welcome to our discussion today, it’s very nice to have you here Georgia. Maybe we could start with you telling us a little bit about 99 Loop as a gallery space, how the gallery was born and perhaps what type of artist the gallery looks to represent? 99 Loop has a reputation for being a dynamic gallery space showcasing the works of many new aspiring artists…

Georgia Stonehouse: The gallery was established in 2015. Over the years the physical space has changed quite a bit and the same can be said for our roster of artists. We offer a special place for emerging talent and contemporary art. Being more established now, we represent a larger range of artists and artistic styles. The gallery focused predominantly on painting at first but we’ve expanded into sculpture and prints as well as more experimental ideas of ‘painting’ I suppose. Something that has stayed quite central is the gallery’s desire to be more of a platform for artists to exhibit shows in their own vision, I guess this is at the heart of the gallery being less of a static space. We’ve also always aimed to be an approachable space in the art scene with a dynamic exhibition programme.

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Olivia Barrell: The past three months have obviously been very difficult for the South African art world, how has the gallery’s experience been of lockdown?

Georgia Stonehouse: We’ve had quite a range of experiences actually and it has been quite a challenge to deal with the unknown of it all, especially during the strict stage 5 lockdown when we were unsure when we’d be able to re-open. The gallery has had an online presence on Artsy, Instagram and Facebook but we had to rely more on these platforms during the lockdown. In some ways, it has provided an opportunity to rethink how our approach to exhibitions, particularly in making the online experience of them more holistic.

Olivia Barrell: How was the gallery able to interact with the artists you work with? What were some of the challenges you faced and what were some of the responses to lockdown from the artists?

Georgia Stonehouse: A lot of phone calls! No, obviously it was quite a challenge to be there for our artists when we didn’t have the answers they needed, particularly about the likelihood of upcoming exhibitions actually going forward. I think we just aimed to be flexible, present for them and as helpful as we could be.

Mia Louw: 99 Loop launched two solo exhibitions by Katherine Bull and Clare Menck right at the start of lockdown, what has the response been like? And please share with us what it was like to open a show digitally? What were some of the highlights and biggest challenges?

Georgia Stonehouse: Yes those two shows were planned to open right before South Africa went into lockdown. We had fully intended to physically put up the shows but had to keep it online only, making our catalogues available on social media and having the shows up on Artsy. It felt like we were thrown into it a bit. While we did have a good response from people, I think we didn’t have the time to fully flesh the shows out online, which was unfortunate. One of the major challenges would definitely be the shipping hiatus for clients. A highlight was seeing that people still wanted to reach out and engage with the works. We then had a fully online exhibition with Katrine Claassens who is based in Canada, that gave us an opportunity to really think through how we were presenting an exhibition online. We are now opening physical shows but we have become much more aware of the virtual/online aspects of a show.

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Mia Louw: Due to the fact that the artworks were only displayed digitally, did you find that the viewer struggled to appreciate the artworks to its fullest potential? Thinking, for example, of the texture and scale of an artwork…

Georgia Stonehouse: Yes, I definitely think that plays an important role – there’s nothing that can really compare to seeing an artwork in person. I always think people are brave to buy artworks online, but we are very grateful for people taking the chance on the artwork and on us as a gallery. Many clients request pictures of the artwork from different perspectives, installation shots or close-ups for example. That is always wise to better visualize the artwork. Online sales obviously played a large role in the art world before the pandemic so I really think it comes down to the individual client.

Mia Louw: So I know that most of the exhibition calendar is planned well in advance for a gallery, has the exhibition calendar changed drastically due to lockdown and are you delayed with the calendar now?

Georgia Stonehouse: We have definitely had to switch things around and really work with artists’ individual schedules to make a plan but I wouldn’t say that we are delayed as we are still working with the artists we had originally planned on exhibiting. Again, being flexible and understanding are really key principles to 99 Loop as a gallery.

Olivia Barrell: Are there any themes based around the shows presented by 99 Loop and how might this have been affected by recent circumstances?

Georgia Stonehouse: Well, it is really the artists themselves who present the themes of their exhibitions and bodies of work, which we then act as a platform for. In any given month we could have 2-4 shows about different, idiosyncratic things. For the rest of the year, we are mostly going ahead with their visions.

Olivia Barrell: Have you seen that artists are producing different types of works compared to before lockdown? In cur8.art’s previous webinar, we discussed the challenges around artists being able to source art supplies and access their studios and the consequences of that on the types of work they were producing. How has 99 Loop gallery experienced this?

Georgia Stonehouse: Yes this was a huge reality I think every artist faced over the last few months. We did have a few artists turn to smaller-scale works, a lot of works on paper and more affordable pieces. We’ve seen these artworks do well over the last few months. Just thinking of Oda Tungodden’s paintings on paper and Clare Menck’s monoprints.

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Mia Louw: Perhaps we can talk a bit about Loop Editions, when did you launch this and what has the response to this been like? Did the launch of Loop Editions benefit you in any way?

Georgia Stonehouse: We launched Loop Editions at the end of 2019 as a change to the gallery’s physical space as well as an offshoot of our online presence. Loop Editions is catered to collectable and editioned artworks. We’ve focused on fine art prints, original works on paper, ceramics, photography and even embroidery. People seem to really enjoy visiting the space itself and experiencing the a-typical shows and we are really happy to provide accessible artworks for first-time buyers or young collectors. I think Loop Editions has allowed us to open up the sort of art we work with which has been really refreshing. We still have a way to go with the online side of it and building the follower base, but we look forward to the challenge.

Olivia Barrell: Another topic that I find very interesting and would like to discuss in more detail is that of the gallery as an exhibition space and how this identity has perhaps had to shift recently?

Georgia Stonehouse: Yes this is interesting because when you put on fully online exhibitions you begin to question the role the physical gallery actually plays, especially with programmes that replicate a virtual gallery space. I do think though that nothing can really replace physically engagement with the artworks in the gallery.

Olivia Barrell: Can you tell us a little bit about your clientele base, what sort of age bracket predominantly and what percentage of the art collectors buying through 99 Loop are South African?

Georgia Stonehouse: We experience quite a range of clientele actually, it kind of has a lot to do with the shows at the time as certain artists generate interest from different collector bases. We aim to have a little bit of something for everyone really. Percentage-wise, I would say it would be about 70-30 with 70% being local collectors.

Olivia Barrell: Just as a comparison between the last few months and this time last year, how have you found sales online? And how do your sales breakdown between online purchases, off the street walk-ins, regular or first-time buyers etc.

Georgia Stonehouse: I think we’ve definitely had an upturn in online sales compared to last year. Entering winter, this time of year is always difficult for sales as there simply isn’t the same amount of foot traffic, with the pandemic that is now, even more, the case. Usually, we have a lot of sales from walk-ins but regular buyers approach us online based off what they see us promoting and the materials we send them in previews for example. During the lockdown, it did feel like we lost the spontaneity of in-person sales but online sales take place year-round so I suppose it does balance itself out somewhat.

Olivia Barrell: Did a large portion of the gallery’s sales come from opening exhibition nights and how can we potentially start to rethink events in the art world and showcasing exhibitions?

Georgia Stonehouse: I wouldn’t say a large portion, but there are outliers of course. For us, opening nights have always been more focused on celebrating the artist and what they’ve achieved through the show. They are often family and friend orientated events. The new realities of the pandemic mean we do have to re-think how these events take shape, we are going to be opening our current shows in a low-key way on a weekend and limiting the number of visitors but I don’t think we will have the answer until we experience openings and events in different forms. We are focusing more on promoting visitors for the duration of the show rather than just on the opening event.

Mia Louw: Recently, cur8.art has been talking a lot about the importance of Instagram in today’s art world, especially with the current circumstances as it offers a way in live time for galleries and artists to connect with collectors and art lovers. How important does 99 Loop consider their Instagram to be and have you seen a shift in the role this platform plays during the course of the past few months?

Georgia Stonehouse: Instagram and social media have always played a large role for the gallery in terms of promoting our artists and shows but also connecting with our audience. I think the pandemic and lockdown has made us think about how we can make our social media more engaging for our audience and provide insight into the background of exhibitions – a type of contextualising them more or fleshing them out. We are definitely going to be playing around more with a look into the artist’s studio practices, Q&A’s, that sort of thing.

Mia Louw: Which artists should we be on the lookout for, perhaps name a few emerging artists that collectors should be adding to their collections?

Georgia Stonehouse: A few names that come to my mind are Rory Emmett, Oda Tungodden, Mashudu Nevhutalu and Cow Mash. They are a mixture of emerging and established artistic talent that we’ve been very fortunate to work with.

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Mia Louw: What upcoming exhibitions does 99 Loop have in store and maybe you could tell us a little bit about them?

Georgia Stonehouse: We actually have three new exhibitions opening tomorrow! They are solo shows by Mashudu Nevhutalu (who I mentioned earlier), Paul Wallington and Richard Ketley. It’s quite exciting having physical shows opening again. Nevhutalu’s ‘Matriarchs’ presents figurative oil paintings depicting members of the artist’s own family caught in nostalgic snapshots. Ketley’s ‘Rust and Freedom’ presents abstract paintings on canvas, pleather and paper responding to the Tazara Railway in Eastern Africa and Wallington’s ‘Information Gap’ presents figurative oil paintings exploring his internal experiences of the painting process and the studio. We would love people to come into the gallery and experience these different paintings, the exhibition closes on the 25th July 2020.

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