Search

EDITOR'S LETTER: After Nyne Magazine Issue 9 Out 8th March, 2016.

clairemeadows
Mar 7, 2016
2 min read

Welcome to my first letter of 2016 - and for the After Nyne devotees, my first letter as Editor in Chief. In stepping into the role at the end of 2015, I did not anticipate the lull of the artworld ahead of the New Year. Nor did I anticipate the uncontainable roar when the work week resurrected - from London Art Fair as the first major art event of the seasonal calendar, to celebrating the 10th anniversary of Urban Art’s Zeus, Steve Lazarides, since opening the Lazarides gallery in 2006.

The latter, for me, held a particular significance. The excellence of all art lies in its intensity. Bold in gesture and fervent in intent, my admiration for Steve Lazarides stemmed from my interning days - we sourced art working from a mini cubicle in hopes of achieving 3 yearly pop-up exhibitions across spaces in London. As a young aspiring curator, Lazarides Rathbone was one of my first encounters with an environment that rejected the white-cube space, unbolting the iron gate imposed on art as exclusive to the elite. I often observed the on-goings at Lazarides, slowly grasping the importance of the curator as a creative ally to the artist. I also observed how Steve imparted a strong sense of the artists’ pleasure in the process of art’s production, dispelling all modesty of art as spectacle. Frankly, his ‘unconventional’ methods of display were a welcome relief from the stiff and sterile spaces in central London’s surrounding galleries.

Five years later, ahead of JR’s Crossing my S/O would comment:

“You, Laz and I have had some great moments.”

At the time of this issue’s conception, I had also just returned from a week in Morocco. I recall having left selfishness in the air on the flight into Marrakech, and quickly learned that peace was a relative thing there: this was what it meant to be CHARGED. People were not going to stop asking you questions, but you soon realise that if they weren't questioning you, it meant you weren't welcome. Issue 9 focuses on this fuelled desire to find truth, emphasising intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience. Whether you flip forward to our Tyler Shields exclusive or reminisce in our Francesca Woodman retrospective, you can bet drama in artistic virtuosity will take centre stage.