EB&Flow - an interview with Margherita Berloni and Nathan Engelbrecht

EB&Flow - an interview with Margherita Berloni and Nathan Engelbrecht

08 March, 2011
by: Tom Jeffreys

A new contemporary art gallery is opening in Shoreditch. Tom Jeffreys meets the directors.

There's always something fun about visiting a gallery before it opens. Although it can be hard to visualise what the actual space is going to look like, you can often get a sense of the kind of gallery it'll become. Back in February I interviewed Polly Stenham and Victoria Williams ahead of the opening of Cob Studios and Gallery. It was just a week before the gallery was due to open and the place was still a bomb-site. But it all came together just in time and the opening night was a triumph.

This month I'm at EB&Flow, the latest addition to the already fairly congested Shoreditch gallery scene. It's at least three weeks before launch night but already the massive two-floor space (that used to house the Vice offices) looks almost like a gallery, and is alive with possibilities. These guys must be seriously organised. Like Polly and Victoria, Margherita Berloni and Nathan Engelbrecht are also both first-time gallerists, but whereas it felt like Cob Studios would thrive on a kind of spontaneous energy, EB&Flow seems a much more market-savvy operation.

Margherita (Italian, but born in Canada) and Nathan (from Cape Town) met whilst studying Art Business at Sotheby's and according to Margherita, “one day after class we were in the pub, and I was just like, 'who wants to start a gallery with me?' Nathan was clearly the first one to put his hand up, and EB&Flow was born. “We love a pun,” Nathan explains of the name, “and Englebrecht Berloni Gallery just doesn't flow off the tongue quite the same!”

With the initial idea idea cemented, the two went off and did their separate things (Nathan at Phillips de Pury and then ArtTactic; Margherita at Aicon Gallery and the Impressionist Department at Sotheby's) but still met up once a week to discuss ideas, in the Snooty Fox in Islington. The two now live practically as neighbours just nearby, but that's another (less relevant) story...

So what sets EB&Flow apart from all the other galleries taking up valuable bar-space in this neck of the woods? Well the main thing is the level of support they're looking to offer their artists. As Nathan puts it, “we want to be a platform for young artists. We want to provide support to a level that's almost like a professional salary. We don't provide a stipend or anything, but in the future we want to be able to help with studio rental, and give that kind of level of support.” “Our artists should come to us for anything,” Margherita adds.

Unusually, the gallery is launching with a rosta of eleven contemporary artists on their books (including a designer and a musician). They admit that it's something of a leap of faith for both parties (“Absolutely,” says Nathan, “we're trusting each other here.”) but they clearly have confidence in what they're doing: “We're taking this young group of artists and growing with them. They'll move from emerging artists to established artists just as EB&Flow moves from an emerging gallery to an established gallery.”

And the art itself? “The choices were based first of all on personal taste,” explains Margherita: “that's always our first criteria. As time went by we actually found that we had a coherent them in our choice of artists – they're all very stimulated by their environment and their surroundings.” The opening show, Since Tomorrow, features work across a whole range of media, but a sense of curatorial narrative should tie it all together nicely. Many of the artists involved have already been tipped for big things and it looks EB&Flow are going to take them, as a group, to the next level. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the installation work of Katie Louise Surridge.

The other unique element to the gallery – and one that ties in the idea of providing a genuine support structure for their artists – is the plans for a regular programme of events. This will include a career development programme for young artists, a guide to art collecting (right down to the fundamentals of transport and storage), and a programme about curatorial practice. “The last thing we want,” says Margherita, “is a sterile environment.” And with these two at the helm, that sounds like the last thing EB&Flow will be.

Since Tomorrow is at EB&Flow from 2nd April to 26th May 2011.

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Image credit: Shannah Bupp, Walker, courtesy the artists and EB&Flow

Tom Jeffreys