Old Friends, New Friends

Collective Ending HQ’s first exhibition of 2021 will shine a spotlight on the importance of community, collectivism and collaboration, following twelve months of repeated confinement and limited connection.
With the recent lack of gallery-going, shortage of exhibition openings and scarcity of studio visits - not to mention the impossibility of in-person performances, talks, tours and events - much of the interaction and exchange that we previously took for granted has been lost. However, buoyed by virtual viewing rooms, Instagram Live interviews and Zoom panel discussions, it is evident that our artistic community has shown itself to be remarkably resilient. Old Friends, New Friends is a homage to this shared perseverance and a celebration of the tentative return to physical exhibition-making.

For Old Friends, New Friends, organisers Hector Campbell and Billy Fraser began by inviting twenty artists who have previously exhibited with Collective Ending, these ‘Old Friends’, in turn, each introduced an artist who we haven’t worked with before, the ‘New Friends’. The aspiration of the show is to celebrate and highlight those artists who continue to support Collective Ending whilst expanding our endeavours to include an increasingly extended community of emerging artists. The exhibition is directly in keeping with our intention to support artists by providing opportunities to exhibit and develop their practice in ambitious and experimental settings.

As lockdown restrictions begin to ease and we can see light at the end of the tunnel, we look forward to welcoming you back to Collective Ending HQ for what promises to be an eclectic group exhibition, presenting artworks across many mediums and from a cross-section of the UK's most exciting emerging artists (alongside select international exhibitors).

Press

‘5 Stand-Out Spring Exhibitions in London’ in MutualArt (Sonja Teszler, May 2021)