{"id":350156,"date":"2025-11-02T10:55:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T10:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/350156\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T10:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T10:55:23","slug":"london-gallery-project-native-informant-closes-after-12-years-citing-volatile-and-unsustainable-environment-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/350156\/","title":{"rendered":"London gallery Project Native Informant closes after 12 years, citing ‘volatile and unsustainable environment’ – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project Native Informant, the east London gallery whose wide-ranging and adventurous programme has included the post-internet art collective DIS, the Turner Prize nominee Sin Wai Kin, the musician Juliana Huxtable and the photographer and art critic Hal Fischer, will close after 12 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to wind down did not come lightly,\u201d its founder Stephan Tanbin Sastrawidjaja wrote in an Instagram post<\/a> today (31 October) announcing the closure. \u201cThe current global economic, political and social environment has shaped into an extremely volatile and unsustainable environment for a gallery such as ours.\u201d He added that \u201cpersonal factors\u201d contributed to the decision, too. <\/p>\n

Project Native Informant had not staged an exhibition across its neighbouring Bethnal Green spaces since July, when it closed separate shows by Sean Steadman and Anna Jung Seo. <\/p>\n

In April of last year, Sastrawidjaja emailed a public statement acknowledging the departure of Joseph Yaeger, one of Project Native Informant\u2019s most commercially viable artists, from the gallery\u2019s roster. Jaeger signed to both Modern Art and Gladstone later that year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Installation view of Joseph Yaeger’s 2023 solo show Silent Treatment at Project Native Informant<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Project Native Informant<\/p>\n

The American painter began working with Project Native Informant after graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2019. His solo shows of cinematically composed and psychologically charged paintings at the gallery helped position him as one of London\u2019s most coveted emerging artists. Yaeger\u2019s auction record was set at Phillip\u2019s in London last October, at \u00a3203,200 for the 2021 painting Sphinx without a secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the conclusion of such an intimate relationship must be viewed with great sadness, we are immensely proud of everything we have collaborated with Joseph: his first solo exhibition at a commercial gallery, his first solo institutional show, his first institutional acquisition, his first solo presentation at an art fair and his first comprehensive catalogue,\u201d Sastrawidjaja wrote last year.<\/p>\n

Project Native Informant was founded in 2013 by Sastrawidjaja in a windowless garage in Mayfair before moving to a larger space in Bethnal Green in east London, nearby the galleries Maureen Paley, Rose Easton and Herald Street. It regularly took part in leading art fairs, including Frieze London, Art Basel and Art Basel Hong Kong, as well as the gallery swap initiative Condo. <\/p>\n

News of gallery closures<\/a> amid a prolonged downturn<\/a> in the art market has come regularly<\/a> this year<\/a>. Earlier this month, the well-regarded dealer Nir Altman announced the end of his Munich space, which will be taken over by Paulina Caspari gallery.<\/p>\n