The commute

Laurie Barron joins gallerist Alison Jacques on her morning commute from Primrose Hill to Cork Street. As part of Plaster magazine’s guest editorship of CATALOGUE, the magazine of Cork Street Galleries…

On a crisp autumn morning, London’s Primrose Hill is one of the most picturesque spots to start the day, with panoramic views of London’s skyline and, at 8.30am, hundreds of dogs running around. But as gallerist Alison Jacques muses, the area also carries more sinister history: “It used to be called Greenberry Hill, after the names of two men [Robert Green and Henry Berry] who murdered a man at the top of the hill and were later exonerated.” Jacques learnt this after researching the name of her regular morning haunt, Greenberry Cafe. “Everyone thinks it’s a really beautiful, calm place, but it has an interesting, strange history.”

Shaking off jet lag, Jacques has just returned from New York where she presented the late American artist Lenore Tawney’s fibre-based woven sculptures at the Independent 20th Century fair. In London this November, she is planning an exhibition exploring the relationship between Tawney and the late Japanese-American ceramicist Toshiko Takasai, who was recently exhibited at the Noguchi Museum.

Pointing at the ground, Jacques directs me to a curious metal plaque, which reads ‘The truth against the world’. “A lot of people just walk over this and don’t notice it,” she explains. “It commemorates a Welsh Bard [poet] and was laid down on the summer solstice in 1826. I’m fascinated by this kind of history; we now represent the estate of artist Monica Sjöö and her work is all about solstice worship, Stonehenge and Avebury circle – so it was a nice coincidence.” Jacques then leads the way on her daily commute from Primrose Hill to Cork Street, promising to point out some of her favourite sights en route.

We are speaking exactly two decades on from Jacques establishing her namesake gallery, which represents major artists and estates like Jane Dickson, Sheila Hicks and Dorothea Tanning. It’s now also a year since her gallery moved from Fitzrovia to a new, larger premises on Cork Street. Jacques has notably worked with the estate of the trailblazing, controversial artist Robert Mapplethorpe for 25 years, over which time she has invited unlikely guest curators such as the Scissor Sisters and Juergen Teller to curate the transgressive photographer’s oeuvre. Alongside working with in-demand living artists including Sophie Barber, Graham Little and Erika Verzutti, Jacques has established a reputation for building the curatorial reputation of overlooked artists. Nicola L. and Lygia Clark – two estates in her roster – will receive solo exhibitions in London museums this year, at the Camden Art Centre and Whitechapel Gallery, respectively.

I ask Jacques about her beginnings in art. Dropping out of a home economics degree (due to a bout of appendicitis) Jacques switched to history of art and religion at the University of Leicester. Post-graduation, finding it difficult to secure any relevant work with an arts degree, Jacques worked odd jobs, among them a period as a telephonist at Coca-Cola Schweppes. After completing an intensive Italian short course, she moved to become an au pair in Italy. “I was terrible at it,” she laughs. “I had three families in about eight months, and I was fired from one of the jobs!”

It was during an internship at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice that Jacques realised her calling, impressing the director by instigating a multi-language guided-tour programme before ultimately coordinating the internship scheme herself. “It was very nice. Every morning, I’d stand on the terrace overlooking the Grand Canal and, quite frankly, felt like I was Peggy herself. In the evenings, we’d often sit with some students and drink prosecco on her throne.”

After a curatorial course at Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato, and a stint at the Kunstverein Dusseldorf, where she interviewed James Turrell for his travelling exhibition catalogue, Jacques wrote freelance articles before landing the role of news editor at Flash Art where she connected with figures such as curator Francesco Bonami and artist Maurizio Cattelan. She recalls teaching English to the latter. “Maurizio said, ‘I can pay you or I can pay you in art’. I was so broke and I needed to pay my rent so I accepted the equivalent of five pounds an hour! Obviously that’s a major regret, but look what a career he’s gone on to have.”

Alison Jacques photographed by Sophie Davidson, 2023

When Jacques returned from Italy to the UK, she was inspired by the contemporary curators and dealers of the time like Laure Genillard, Karsten Schubert and Joshua Compston as inspiring figures on the emerging scene. Keen to gain experience at an established dealership, she then worked for the late Leslie Waddington (whose gallery remains on Cork Street opposite Jacques’s new space) before setting up a gallery with collector Charles Asprey in 1998, later setting out on her own in 2004 on Clifford Street – adjacent to Cork Street.

As we cross into Regent’s Park, Jacques points out a bench near the Feng Shang Princess, a floating Chinese restaurant on the canal. “It frequently appears in [Apple TV’s] Slow Horses. Jackson Lamb and Diana Taverner (played by Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas) always go and sit on that bench for their secret meetings…” Jacques adds that an LA-based client produces the show, and gives her advance notice about when they’re going to be filming so they can catch a glimpse. “My daughter gets very excited!”

We then pass a monumental marble water fountain gifted to the park in 1869 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Cowasjee Jehangir, an industrialist of Bombay, India. Jacques concedes it is an important pit stop for Sassy, her pet chihuahua, to do her business. “I like to look at the history of [such] entrepreneurs because my father was one, and I similarly wanted to do my own thing,” she says. “Partly, because I don’t like being told what to do, but also because it’s very creative to just want to have ideas and realise them.”

Walking further south, we head past the site where the large Annabelle Selldorf-designed Frieze Art Fair tents are erected each October. Diggers and art technicians abound, making way for the outdoor sculptures soon to be installed. We glimpse a giant globular work by Ken Price being unwrapped. Jacques has participated in every iteration of the Frieze fair since its launch in 2003. “People forget the fair creates its own ecosystem. So many people are employed to build it and students are given this great opportunity to get experience – be it in the exhibitor office or on the VIP desk.”

I ask what she thinks when she observes the preparations begin each year. “Fear and dread,” she admits. “I then think: we’re not ready.” Jacques typically shows a group presentation of artists from her programme at the main fair, alongside a solo presentation of an artist’s estate at Frieze Masters. Her Dorothea Tanning presentation in 2012 contributed to a reevaluation of the late Surrealist’s practice and led to an acclaimed Tate Modern exhibition in 2019.

We grab drinks from the park’s Espresso Bar (sencha tea for Jacques; a builder’s brew for me) and Jacques laughs that the cutesy ‘gingerbread’ building, as it’s also known, was once home to a cannibal witch. “I’ve always been interested in folklore and fairytales,” she explains. “Similarly, in art, I’m drawn to this interplay between light and dark.”

We leave the park and head towards Mayfair, walking alongside the white stucco-fronted homes around the park, before passing the international embassies clustered along Portland Place. As we pick up the pace, weaving through the hectic morning hubbub around Oxford Circus towards Mayfair, I ask Jacques about the 6,000 sq ft gallery she moved into last October, designed in collaboration with architect Mike Rundell. The multi-room building includes a 23 ft high-ceiling, encouraging artists to realise ambitious installations that might usually only be possible in museum environments. The interior space isn’t visible from the street which, according to Jacques, creates “the whole mystery of an exhibition as the experience is revealed.” Instead, a wall displaying her artist’s publications and monographs is spotlit overnight to entice the curiosity of passersby.

The gallery is closed to the public as we arrive for the installation of her forthcoming solo exhibition with sculptor Alison Wilding, known for abstract sculpture in materials like alabaster, wood, steel, rubber, paper, copper and sand. “Wilding is an artist’s artist,” says Jacques. “People forget that she once had a solo show at MoMA in New York. But she fell under the radar. At that time she was amongst this group of white male artists known as the ‘New British Sculptors’. She wasn’t perhaps as domineering or bombastic as some of those characters. It was a white male world. Thank God things have changed.”

Since the move to Cork Street, Jacques’ visitor numbers have sharply risen. Her inaugural show with 90-year-old artist Sheila Hicks included a multicoloured mountain of soft woven fibre forms – which went viral with influencers on Instagram – received seven thousand attending its six-week run. “Sheila loved that,” says Jacques. “We welcome this increased footfall because we’re here to spread the word about our artists. You could say that nothing will come from 50% of visitors – they’re just enjoying what you do. But with the other half, you’re sowing seeds, hoping they will grow and become trees.”

“We’re in a time where newspapers report a decline in then global art market.” I mention to Jacques that many larger galleries seem to be safeguarding their businesses by poaching in- demand emerging painters from younger galleries – yet this doesn’t appear to be her model at all. Jacques says that she doesn’t consider her gallery a supermarket or shop.

“I think that in this economic climate, collectors want to look somewhere more intimate,” says Jacques. “I’m a one-man band and own 100% of my gallery. I don’t have a trust fund. I’ve had to make it a business, otherwise it won’t survive. I love discovering artists who haven’t had their dues. I’m very lucky to then show their work and build their curatorial profile and market, which is absolutely fundamental for success. In my opinion, you can’t have one without the other.”

Map of Alison Jacques’ morning commute from Primrose Hill to Cork Street

Map of Alison Jacques’ morning commute from Primrose Hill to Cork Street:

A. Primrose Hill Road, London
B. Prince Albert Road, London
C. Feng Shang Princess, Prince Albert Road, London
D. Broad Walk Cafe, The Broad Walk, London NW1 4NP
E. Griffin Tazza (Lion Vase), London
F. 14 Park Cres, London W1B 1PG
G. Portland Place, Marylebone, London
H. The Langham Hotel, Portland Place, London
I. Regent Street, Mayfair, London
J. 22 Cork Street, London

Find this article in print: CATALOGUE issue 7.0, guest edited by Plaster, and featuring one of 14 collectable artist posters, is out now