Colin Gleadell reports on developments in London's contemporary art scene
Published: DAILY TELEGRAPH
Contemporary market
January 3rd, 2004

The contemporary art scene in London's East End is due for a facelift this spring with the arrival of Kenny Schachter, one of New York's more unconventional art dealers, who is relocating his business to Hoxton Square. Schachter is planning to transform the landscape currently dominated by Jay Jopling's White Cube Gallery, home of the YBAs.

On one side of the square, he will open a gallery designed by the former performance and video artist turned architect, Vito Acconci. The interior, with its steel mesh walls - part architecture, part sculpture - will be radically different from the cool, minimal look of most contemporary art galleries.

At the same time, on the opposite side of the square, Schachter will start work on a new building, which will be designed by renowned architect Zaha Hadid. Part gallery and bar, part residential development, it will be, says Schachter, Hadid's first permanent building in the UK.

Schachter, who is also an artist and writer, made a name for himself in the early '90s as a roving art dealer making exhibitions for undiscovered artists in disused spaces in New York. He was one of the first to show work by now established artists Janine Antoni and Cecily Brown. He operates outside the strict confines of the art world, his curatorial activities ranging from architecture and fashion design to dance and music, as well as art.

He settled down only two years ago when he commissioned Acconci to build a gallery in his home in Greenwich Village. One critic described it as "like the Guggenheim in Bilbao, only inside out". An electric punk band played at the opening, which was attended by an A-list of art and fashion celebrities.

Now he's on the move again. "There's more happening here than anywhere else in the world," explains 42-year-old Schachter. But don't expect any of that insidious art-world snobbery. "The trouble with so much of the art business is that it's all about money, elitism and trendiness - nothing to do with art. My gallery will not be directed at the 'right' people with money to buy."

Only one thing makes him nervous. On his last visit to London, he was looking after an exhibition in Shoreditch when two men, professing interest in the art, suddenly turned on him, put him in a headlock and shoved him into the cupboard, making off with all his valuable video equipment.

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