Is London Gallery Weekend a Flawed Model?

A week before London Gallery Weekend (LGW), Jonny Tanna is preparing to share the news that Harlesden High Street is closing up shop. 

Not really. But visitors wouldn’t know that. The artist Savannah Harris has transformed his gallery into a coffee shop called Gloria’s. It looks suspiciously like a Gail’s bakery, that ominous bellwether of impending gentrification. With their dazzling white paintwork and neatly arranged pastries, Gail's stores often resemble contemporary galleries more than Harlesden High Street ever has. 

When Tanna announced the "closure", the art world responded with an all-too-familiar wave of concern. In recent years, announcements of galleries shutting down have become so common that few people stopped to question whether this one might be a joke.

Tanna isn’t alone in trying out wacky ideas for LGW, which takes from 5 to 7 June. The city-wide event brings increased footfall from collectors, international curators and the public. And, while galleries spend much of the year trying to seduce the former, LGW is all about enticing the latter with imaginative exhibitions that showcase the best art that London has on offer. 

Thérèse Oulton, Holding Patterns, 2026 (installation view, Vardaxoglou). Courtesy the artist and Vardaxoglou

Unique Conditions

Conceived following the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020-21 by Jeremy Epstein of Edel Assanti gallery and Sarah Rustin of Thaddaeus Ropac, the aim of LGW was to boost London’s gallery ecosystem after months of closures. The programme set out a clear agenda for art lovers: don’t limit yourself to the blue-chips of Mayfair. Go east, go north, go south. LGW proved that there was no shortage of art all over the capital. 

While Covid brought with it all kinds of obvious challenges for existing gallery owners, it also created unique conditions that made opening a new space suddenly feel possible. Commercial units sat empty, rents came down and areas of the city that might once have been out of reach suddenly became accessible. Alex Vardaxoglou moved from running exhibitions out of his flat into a former office space in Soho; Ginny on Frederick took over a disused sandwich shop opposite Smithfield Market in the City of London. Vacant spaces became an unlikely incubator for a new generation of galleries. 

For participating galleries LGW delivers the kind of visibility it promises. Alice Amati, who opened her gallery in Warren Street in 2023 after working at David Zwirner, says they welcomed around 200 visitors in 2024 and more than 230 in 2025 during LGW. That compares with about 25 visitors through the door on a typical day.

LGW’s ambition to encourage visitors to explore beyond central London also appears to have worked. Hector Campbell, co-founder of Soup gallery in South London, says LGW has attracted collectors and curators who might otherwise never have ventured to the gallery. “We have had a lot of people who said that they don't usually go to South London or hadn't travelled south of the river to see shows for a long time,” he says. “I think LGW is useful for that.” 

Rafal Topolewski, Dusk, 2026 (installation view, Alice Amati). Photo: Tom Carter. Courtesy the artist and Alice Amati

Mood swings

It is five years since the launch of LGW and the mood in 2026 is decidedly less euphoric. Rents have risen, operating costs have increased, and the post-pandemic collector boom has cooled. While many of the galleries that emerged during this period remain active, others have closed, downsized or rethought their models entirely. 

Mazzy-Mae Green opened Sherbet Green in 2022 in an industrial space in East London. In 2025, the gallery relocated to Queensrollahouse in Acton, West London, a not-for-profit development in a former factory that includes a large project space and artists’ studios. This enabled the gallery to reduce its overheads. But now Sherbet Green is closing up shop. 

“There was definitely a sense of openness and possibility connected to the post-Covid moment,” says Green. “A few things were happening at once. There was a rupture in the normal structures of the city: rents were lower and the possibility of finding spaces that were conducive to experimentation was much greater. At the same time, there was a strong appetite to rebuild social and cultural infrastructure after so much isolation. There was a real desire among young curators and early-career artists to work together on exhibitions in unusual spaces.” 

But conditions now are significantly more difficult. “There has been a huge increase in operational costs across the board: rent, utilities, staffing, production, business rates, transport,” she says. “Galleries are navigating a much softer market and more cautious collector behaviour. If you're an emerging gallery working with early-career artists, you're among those most affected by that shift.” 

Ted Le Swer, Comrades, Sleep Faster!, 2026 (installation view, Soup). Courtesy: the artist and Soup, London

Facilitating Growth

Whilst it’s evident that being involved in LGW is still important, Green can see why some smaller galleries might forgo the opportunity. She believes that LGW charges galleries very fairly for the work it does in organising the event – fees range from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, depending on the number of staff a gallery employs. “But the issue is often one of financial reality rather than willingness,” she says. “For some smaller galleries, £600 is a significant amount of money. By the time you add VAT, that can be the equivalent of an entire exhibition budget.” 

Niina Ulfsak and Christina Hjortlund of Galerina opened a permanent space in Bloomsbury this year after spending nearly five years operating nomadically, staging exhibitions in bedrooms, apartments, borrowed gallery spaces and temporary venues across London and beyond. Galerina has become a fixture on the emerging gallery scene. But they won’t be participating in LGW. 

Their reasoning echoes Green’s opinion about the cost of participation for emerging galleries. “For a gallery our size, it doesn't really make sense at this point,” they tell The Art Journal.

They originally opened Galerina to provide a space for young and experimental artists. Since then, the gallery has grown of its own merit  and with the help of larger galleries and international curators. Ulfsak and Hjortlund both emphasise the international aspect of this support. “London doesn't facilitate the growth of emerging spaces unless people are from a specific background,” they say.

Mariann Metsis and Liina Siib, 2026 (installation view, Galerina). Courtesy: the artists and Galerina

A Flawed Model?

That success in the London artworld belongs primarily to the wealthy comes as no surprise. But, in an economic landscape where gallery space is increasingly expensive to rent or buy, it feels necessary to highlight arts projects taking a different approach. “Some of the most compelling cultural work is happening outside traditional gallery spaces and districts,” says Green. “I don't think the gallery model is irrelevant, but I do think it's becoming increasingly atomised.” 

Tanna also recognises this as one of LGW’s few flaws: “The only issue I have is that it only caters to galleries and not to project spaces or more experimental off-site initiatives,” he says. “Those are often the spaces I find most exciting.”

An unspoken promise to emerging galleries is that, by participating in LGW, they will benefit both from increased visibility and from contact with larger galleries. For many, this promise has been realised. Tanna speaks highly of the support he has received from galleries like Victoria Miro and Sadie Coles HQ, whose founder, Sadie, staged an exhibition at Harlesden High Street in its early years. "I do think we have a wonderful ecosystem," he says.

But emerging galleries are crucial to maintaining the health of that ecosystem, as they are often the places where new artists first show their work. “Many smaller galleries function as stepping stones,” says Green. “They give artists an opportunity to develop their practice before moving into a more commercial context. That relationship between emerging galleries and mid-tier galleries has been underestimated in recent years.”

Perhaps it’s time for LGW to start thinking beyond the gallery?

London Gallery Weekend takes place from 5 to 7 June