About London's October Gallery
The Main Gallery
Founded in 1978, the October Gallery is an art gallery dedicated to the appreciation of art from all cultures around the world. The Gallery exhibits and promotes art of the transvangarde - or trans-cultural avant-garde - that is to say, the work of artists who, whilst working at the forefront of their own respective cultures, assimilate into their work elements from other cultures as well. During the past twenty-one years, the Gallery has shown the work of such transvangarde artists as: Gerald Wilde, El Anatsui, William S. Burroughs, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, Kenji Yoshida, Aubrey Williams, Ablade Glover and Sokari Douglas Camp amongst many others. As well as exhibitions by individual artists, the Gallery also mounts group exhibitions that concentrate on the art produced in one particular area or culturally continuous region. Amongst these regional exhibitions have been shows devoted to the art and culture of : Tibet (1991), Trinidad & Tobago (1992), Mongolia (1993), the Horn of Africa (1994) Haiti (1995) South Africa (1996) the Yoruba Diasporas (1997) Oceania (1998) and Peru (1999). Future exhibitions will comprise a series of shows highlighting the contemporary art coming from shamanistic societies around the world.
Named after the month in which the Gallery was founded, a season associated with ripeness and fruition, the October Gallery is a self-supporting charitable trust that, while it receives no core-funding still manages to resist the powerful commercial pressures of the fashionable art world. Support for the project comes from sales of art, rental of the Gallery's unique facilities, grants from various funding bodies and the active support of a growing number of dedicated artists, musicians, writers and many other such friends from around the world.
In the twenty-one years since opening its doors to the peripatetic artists, thinkers and scientists of the planet, the Gallery has hosted more than just exhibitions of the visual arts, holding concert performances by the Bauls of Bengal, performances of Balinese, Indian and Middle Eastern dance, Dervishes from Pakistan, evenings with writers and thinkers that include Lawrence Durrell, Brion Gysin, John Allen and John Lilly and readings by poets such as Christopher Logue, David Gascoyne, Ira Cohen, Johnny Dolphin, Taiwo Jegede, Kathleen Raine and many others.
The Gallery is situated in Bloomsbury, just a short walk from the British Museum and the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) with which it maintains close contacts and frequently liaises in the production of exhibitions. The Gallery is within easy walking distance of both the Holborn and Russell Square tube stations. A major part of the October Gallery's work is to do with public education at all levels, and to this end the Gallery maintains an active and flourishing Education Department.
For further information concerning forthcoming exhibitions, events, sales of paintings and books or the availability of spaces for hire, please contact the October Gallery.
