Studio Voltaire, the not-for-profit art area housed during a former Victorian Methodist chapel in Clapham, south London, could be a tiny organization with an enormous impact. Since its foundation in 1994, Studio Voltaire has given early and often crucial exposure to artists from the UK and beyond.
Among people who have had specially commissioned shows at polar moments in their careers are Phyllida Barlow, Anthea Hamilton, Alexandra Bracken, Charlotte Prodger, Nicole Eisenman, and Nairy Baghramian. “I owe so much to Studio Voltaire,” says Barlow, who credits her 2010 solo exhibition there with “providing me with new prospects that have endured since that time”. it’s “super-fabulous”, enthuses the veteran United States feminist creative person Judith Bernstein, whose 2014 Voltaire commission, Rising, was her first United Kingdom solo show. “It is one of my favorite exhibitions—it gave me the opportunity to figure on-site during this extraordinary architecture,” she says.
Studio Voltaire reopens following the completion of a transformative £2.8m capital project designed by the architect Matheson Whiteley. Voltaire’s distinctive domed gallery has been fully restored with under-floor heating and a new roof. “When it rains, we don’t have water pouring in anymore,” says Studio voltaire’s director, Joe scotland. However despite its spectacular exhibition track record, there’ll be no increase in its gallery space.
“Studio Voltaire doesn’t want another gallery and London doesn’t need any more gallery areas. however what we do need is more artists’ studios—so this has been our real focus,” Scotland says. to handle this wide shortage of workplaces for artists, Voltaire’s new scheme provides affordable, high-quality spaces for 75 occupants, whereas previously there were solely facilities for 30 (and these were notoriously leaky, cold, and poorly insulated). “Not only have the studios massively accumulated by more than 42% in sq. ft, however currently they’re also very beautiful architect-designed, properly heated, self-contained, high-quality spaces,” scotland says.
Continued in its tradition of giving artists typically long-overdue exposure, Studio voltaire reopens with the primary solo exhibition of the yank artist William Scott outside the US. It also the first retrospective of Scott’s 30-year career and includes paintings, drawings, and sculptures that are each deeply rooted in Scott’s personal history and also address wider queries of citizenship, community, and cultural memory. These vary from portraits of predominantly Black figures such as Prince, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris to self-portraits and portrayals of family members, neighbors, and fellow churchgoers.