- Charles Asprey
-
Charles Asprey 
Charles Asprey (left) with unidentified manBorn 25 March 1971
London, Great BritainNationality British Charles Asprey is the publisher of the quarterly journal PICPUS[1] and a founder and supporter of various UK and international art projects and initiatives, including ArtSchool Palestine.[2] For many years he was the owner and director of aspreyjacques, a London art gallery, which introduced British audiences to young, emerging German artists.[3][4][5] These included Thilo Heinzmann, Manfred Pernice, Christian Flamm and the late Michel Majerus. Since 2005 he has concentrated on curating and collecting; in 2009, he was invited to show part of his own art collection at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.[6][7]
Contents
ArtSchool Palestine
ArtSchool Palestine (ASP), which Asprey co-founded with Sacha Craddock and Samar Martha, was set up in 2005 to promote and support Palestinian artists and aid their participation in international Contemporary Art exhibitions and biennales. ASP has held many events and exhibitions, including "As If By Magic", to which the British artist Damien Hirst lent his support.[8] In addition to this, Asprey personally put together a library of 1,500 art books with the help of the bookdealer and publisher Walther Koenig and his son Franz Koenig of Cologne, which he donated to Bir Zeit University near Ramallah in Palestine.
Artschool Palestine logo
ASP also offers exchanges with art schools and arranges exhibitions both in Palestine and other countries. In 2006, it launched a virtual studio project between students from Chelsea College of Art and Design (London) and young artists in the West Bank. Students and artists worked collaboratively over the Internet on an exhibition in each location, without leaving their homes.
Another aspect of its work is organising and financing artist-in-residences in other countries. Thus far these have included partnerships with Gasworks and Delfina Studios in London. As well as its work in Palestine, ASP is currently expanding its remit to include the Middle East region which remains relatively under-represented in the UK. An example of this was "IN FOCUS", a major exhibition about the Middle East in 2007 at Tate Modern, the Imperial War Museum, and the N4 Gallery.
Artschool Palestine is supported by, among others, the Arts Council England, the British Council, and Development, the Ford Foundation and the Karim Rida Said Foundation.
PICPUS
PICPUS is a free, quarterly journal with a focus on the arts, story-telling and criticism. Asprey and his co-founder and fellow editor Simon Grant claim it is part of a long tradition of small, independent British arts journals and periodicals that attempt to fill a gap left by mainstream arts publications. The pair cite as examples Coterie (1919–1921); Ray Magazine (1926–1927); The Apple (1920's) and ZG magazine from the 1980s.
The etymology of Picpus (pique-puce = flea-bite) comes from the region in Paris where many of the victims of the Reign of Terror in the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution are buried. This part of the French capital inspired the artist Ian Hamilton Finlay to produce a number of artworks and, as a homage to him, the first issue of the newspaper was perfumed, referencing the manner in which 18th Century Parisians placed their handkerchiefs over their faces to blot out the smell while walking in the notoriously rank 12th arrondissement.
Asprey and Grant recently entered into a debate with Eugene Lebedev, the son of Alexander Lebedev, the owner of London Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers, about the dearth of exciting new British artists in the pages of the UK journal The Spectator.[9]
Randolph Cliff residency
Randolph Cliff, Edinburgh, ScotlandRandolph Cliff is an artist residency programme established by Asprey and Dr Clémentine Deliss[10] in the heart of Edinburgh. Artists who have used the facility include Tom Burr, Marc-Camille Chaimowicz, Frances Stark, Manfred Pernice, Joseph Kosuth, David Schutter, Dexter Sinister, Sean Snyder, Christian Flamm, Thomas Struth, Mark Wallinger[10] and Anna Bariball.
Curating/Gallerist
Asprey has been an active curator since 1994. He co-founded Ridinghouse Editions,[11] a project space dedicated to the production of limited editioned works by mainstream artists, with Karsten Schubert and Thomas Dane. Its opening exhibition was with Jake and Dinos Chapman and was followed by shows with Keith Coventry, Peter Doig, Abigail Lane, Corban Walker, Alan Charlton and Michael Landy, among others.
In 1998 he co-founded the contemporary art gallery aspreyjacques. It is best remembered for its prescient introduction of young art from Berlin to the capital, giving many well-known German artists their first exposure in the UK. These included Daniel Pflumm, Manfred Pernice, Antje Majewski, Nader Ahriman, Christian Flamm, Thilo Heinzmann and Michel Majerus (1967–2002). Other notable artists represented included Paul Morrison, Graham Little, Ian Kiaer, Alessandro Raho and The Estate of Robert Mapplethorpe.
In 2006 Asprey and Kay Pallister curated “As If By Magic” at The Peace Centre in Bethlehem.[12] This show enabled world famous international artists to show in a besieged part of the West Bank by inviting each of them to produce an idea for an artwork that could be remade on site, thereby getting around the Israeli Army checkpoint controls and circumventing the need to ship valuable art work in and out of the country. Artists who gave work to this project include Damien Hirst, Douglas Gordon, Martin Creed, Wolfgang Tillmans, Isa Genzken, Michael Fullerton, Jim Lambie, Michael Craig-Martin, Gary Rough, Nathan Coley, Simon Periton, Andreas Slominski.
In 2008 Asprey curated the exhibition of new work by Alessandro Raho at Thomas Williams Fine Art on Old Bond Street, London.[13]
More recently he presented “Two Horizons: work from the collections of Charles Asprey and Alexander Schroeder” at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh in 2009 and curated “The Ground Around: idylls, earthworks and thunderbolts” at Vilma Gold Gallery in London (2010).[14][15]
Philanthropy (selected)
Tate Gallery - Benefactor; Studio Voltaire - Trustee; South London Gallery - Building Patron; Camden Arts Centre - Patron; Nottingham Contemporary - Benefactor.
Personal
Asprey is married to Justine, a sculptor. They have one son, Ivor (aka Badger). His family once owned Asprey, the jewelers.[16]
External links
- Artschool Palestine website
- Randolph Cliff Artist Residency
- Studio Voltaire
- South London Gallery
- Camden Arts Centre
Citations
- ^ [http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-11/where-bad-art-goes-to-die/ The Daily Beast February, 2010
- ^ [http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-art-group-exhibitions-artschool-palestine-2.htm British Council
- ^ [1] The Independent June 26, 1999
- ^ ArtNet October, 1998
- ^ Daily Mail Jaunary, 1998
- ^ [2]
- ^ The List April, 2009
- ^ [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/damien-hirsts-16350-masterpiece-416821.html The Independent September 2006
- ^ The Spectaor, May 11, 2010
- ^ a b [3]
- ^ The Atlantic Monthly September, 1998
- ^ The Independent September 21, 2006
- ^ Art2bank 2008
- ^ [4]
- ^ ArtSlant June, 2010
- ^ [5]
Categories:- 1971 births
- Living people
- British art dealers
- Palestine-related articles needing attention
- British activists
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
