There's a revolution occurring in London's commercial art world; a revolution and a repopulation. Fitzrovia is becoming home to the highest concentration of new commercial art galleries. It's happening right on Because's doorstep and we bring you the news as it becomes fit to print.
For the first time since the 1950s, when the roads of North Soho were being tread by writers and artists alike, beatnik Fitzrovia was the stepping stone from the artsy Bloomsbury of the 1940s and the Swinging Sixties in Soho proper. One of the leading lights of this new chapter in London's contemporary art history has been Diemar/Noble, the gallery that is Fitzrovia and proud. Holding an annual open submission exhibition, the Fitzrovia Photography Prize. The concept is simple: Anyone is free to submit a photograph taken within a one-mile catchment zone of Fitzrovia, and the past years have seen some of the most innovative street photography put on display in the city - amateur, professional and semi-professional alike.
This year Diemar/Noble have gone one better, and in collaboration with partners Exemplar, developers of Fitzroy Place, and Aviva Investors, have created Fitzroy Place Open Air Gallery, one of London's largest outdoor exhibition spaces, on Mortimer Street, right in the heart of Fitzrovia. A selection of work is on display from the forty-four artists selected for the Fitzrovia Photography Prize across the 114 metre canvas hoarding the wraps around Fitzroy Place. The organiser say that this exhibition is a celebration of the spirit of the Fitzrovia area. The ambition is simple, the execution is flawless, and the ideal is wonderfully realised.
Fitzroy Place Open Air Gallery is on display on Mortimer Street until 30 May.
