Founded in London in 1997 by Sadie Coles, Sadie Coles HQ is a contemporary art gallery that presents the work of established and emerging artists with a diverse range of practices.
Read MorePresenting a critically respected programme, the gallery is particularly noteworthy for its contribution to the development of contemporary art in Britain over the last two decades, representing many of the Young British Artists (YBAs). Sadie Coles has also been recognised for her influence on the art world generally, with The Guardian in 2014 listing her as one of ‘the most powerful people in the art world’.
Coles spent six years working for important art dealer Anthony d'Offay, before branching out to open her own gallery in London. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition featured American painter John Currin, and ran in parallel with Sarah Lucas’ solo exhibition The Law, presented in an empty office space in Clerkenwell, setting the tone for Sadie Coles HQ as an international gallery working with provocative artists both inside and outside of the white cube.
Since then the gallery has moved and expanded several times, operating in a range of distinctive spaces. Sadie Coles HQ today occupies two permanent London locations: on Kingly street, Soho, and Davies Street, Mayfair. Recently, the gallery has begun to explore the Asian art market, participating each year in fairs such as West Bund Art & Design, Shanghai.
Representing more than 50 artists from various disciplines, Sadie Coles HQ draws attention to new talent while sustaining long-standing relationships with artists such as Sarah Lucas, Elizabeth Peyton, Urs Fischer, and Richard Prince. Coles has worked with Sarah Lucas since the founding of the gallery, one of several YBA artists in a long-term relationship with the gallery. The gallery also represents the estate of Angus Fairhurst.
Representing a newer generation, in 2018 Sadie Coles HQ took on new artists such as Alex Da Corte, Borna Sammak, Kati Heck, Martine Syms, and Lawrence Lek. The screening of Lek’s film AIDOL (2019) at Sadie Coles HQ’s Soho gallery marks a step further into the realm of digital conceptual art for the gallery.
In 2017 Sadie Coles HQ highlighted its ongoing feminist and conceptually innovative credentials with the exhibition Room (13 January–18 February), which examined the domestic sphere exclusively through female artists old and new. On a smaller scale, the gallery creates a link between this diverse range of artists with the formula for the exhibition invitations; for every exhibition since the first, the artist has been given the chance to choose their own colour feature for a blank block that represents the gallery space.
Operating on the international art scene, Sadie Coles HQ regularly participates in major international art fairs including FIAC, Paris; Frieze London; Artissima, Turin; and Art Basel in Hong Kong, Miami Beach, and Basel.
Ocula Insight Art Basel Viewing Rooms: Advisory Highlights By Ocula Art Advisory, Basel Lucia Laguna, Paisagem n. 122 (2020) at Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel In Lucia Laguna's 'Paisagem' (Landscapes) series we see the blending of exterior and interior worlds, with Brazil's abundant vegetation on full display. Plants and flowers rendered in bright tones are set against a rough, grid-like structure that suggests architectural...
Ocula Insight Art Basel Hong Kong Online Viewing Rooms: Ocula Advisory Selections By Sam Gaskin, Hong Kong Over 2,000 artworks are being uploaded to Art Basel Hong Kong's Online Viewing Rooms, which open to VIPs from 18–19 March, and to the public from 20–25 March. In constant correspondence with galleries, Ocula's Art Advisory team selects the best works to seek out.
Ocula News Art Basel Launches Online Showrooms After Cancelling HK Show Hong Kong, 21 February 2020 With tens of millions in China confined to their homes, galleries and institutions have likewise pivoted to online events.
Ocula Conversation Equitable Vitrines: Public Art and Contested Space By Jareh Das, Los Angeles Ellie Lee and Matt Connolly, founders of the non-profit Equitable Vitrines in Los Angeles, discuss site-specificity, expanded formats for exhibition-making, and the nuances of commissioning public art.
Related Press British artist Hilary Lloyd on fusing textile, sound and video in her practice 26 November 2019, Wallpaper* When she talks about her practice, Hilary Lloyd is always quick to point out that she is 'not a filmmaker'. And yet, video footage always makes its way into her works, shot in her singular style and identifiable for its repetitive movements, jump cuts and sweeps. It's a frenetic rhythm that's been related to the restlessness of the contemporary...
Related Press A Sculpture/Chair That Asks "Who Is Going to Grab My Booty?" 13 November 2019, Garage The chair sculptures are comprised of a steel frame that has been painted black with the seat and back upholstered with woven, text-adorned polyester straps. The writing on the chairs ranges from 'WHO IS GOING TO GRAB MY BOOTY?' to 'ACID WEED XANAX MUSHROOMS MDMA COKE K' and 'STOP PROTECTING YOURSELF.'
Related Press Review: Redoubt Beautifully Stares at the Boundary Between Nature and Myth 12 November 2019, Slant Magazine Matthew Barney 's Redoubt is attuned to the grandiose and the spectacular. With its sweeping aerial shots of vast landscapes, homages to mythic narrative, and use of broad archetypes in place of three-dimensional characters, the film suggests something George Lucas might produce if he ever got tired of having the script explain his films'...
Related Press ‘Redoubt’ Review: Diana the Huntress Manifests in Idaho 12 November 2019, The New York Times But the beauty of the imagery, and the specificity of what we are shown–the precision with which Diana measures her gunpowder, the care with which Engraver sets up a tripod and easel in the snow, the quiet joy with which Electroplater mixes the chemicals of the baths into which she submerges etched plates–build an emotional power that's unusual in...
Related Video & Audio Sarah Lucas in conversation with Don Brown, film by Julian Simmons: UK at the Venice Biennale 12 May 2015, Film by Julian Simmons Sadie Coles HQ is delighted to announce the release of a new film — specially commissioned by the British Council - marking Sarah Lucas's representation of Britain at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Shot and produced by Julian Simmons, the thirteen-minute documentary will be broadcast by The Guardian from Wednesday 6th May, to coincide with the...
