Art Wednesday

This week, we sat down with Charlotte Jansen (an Art Wednesday contributor, no less) to discuss her new position as the director of No Way, a creative agency which deals with talented artists who are established, but who still need a helping hand in a world in which creatives aren’t supported as well as they used to be. In association with Huh. Magazine, the launch of No Way comes in the form of an exhibition called NOT, featuring the artists on the agency’s roster; this whole shebang is fairly incestuous, to be honest, because No Way’s launch party is taking place mere yards from AW HQ (or should that be metres? We’re awful at this stuff) tomorrow, at the Print House Gallery in Dalston, and it’s hard to be subjective when we know Ms. Jansen rather well, but what can we say? There’s an afterparty on the roof. When was the last time any of you guys partied on a roof? Exactly.

AW: So, let’s try and be professional about this, and start at the beginning – what is “No Way”?

CJ: Well, the serious answer is that it’s an agency, representing visual artists, musicians, creative enterprises – galleries, shops, publications – and so on. Currently, we represent a number of extremely talented individuals. The ones appearing in “NOT” are:

Hong-Kong born founder of the East London Art Company, illustrator, painter & designer, Hin; “one of Argentina’s rising stars” (Aesthetica) Gustavo Ortiz; the “mysterious and cult- like” (Dazed Digital) painter & performance artist JMF Casey; the “assiduously crafted creations” (Art Review) of Leonie Lachlan; Dawlish- based illustrator of D&AD New Blood, Philip Harris; and exhibiting for the first time from NYC, photographer Adam Ianniello.

In its essence, it offers to take artists that are admittedly already established, but who need a better platform for what they do, and to do what needs to be done to stop them from ending up, say, working part time in a cafe.

AW: Can we put that you’re suggesting that everyone who works in a cafe should go fuck themselves?

CJ: HA! Yes! No! God, don’t write that down (Ed: And yet, we did). It’s a situation that a lot of creatives understand, I think. Art funding is paltry at the moment, as I’m sure you know, so we’re looking to get creatives more funding from sponsors, from commissions, and so on. I’d just like to work with artists who have the intention to contribute to culture in a more long-term way – this isn’t about flash-in-the-pan art, or being part of a “scene”, so much as it’s about craft, talent, and dedication.

AW: And how do you choose the artists that appear on your roster? Do they have any one unifying characteristic?

CJ: It happened organically, really; through being friends with a lot of artists, and going to a lot of shows, and following the London art scene in general. I’ve also got to know quite a few people through my blog, The Art Journal -

AW: Nice plug.

CJ: Ha, thanks!

AW: Was the blog – ahem, The Art Journal – the impetus for getting more involved in the art industry?

CJ: In a sense. The blog connected me to art as an industry on a more personal level, but some of the inspiration also came from working at the Truman Brewery, and from meeting the artists there, and then being inspired by them in turn.

AW: Do you think the internet makes it easier to be an artist, or – given how easy it is for anyone to have an art blog – that it makes it harder?

CJ: It’s a double-edged sword, I’d say. On the one hand, it gives us access to some amazing artists, but on the other, there’s a proliferation of crap. Art’s becoming increasingly trend-led…

AW: Hasn’t art always been trend-led? An art movement is a trend in a sense, after all.

CJ: Yeah, but now it’s far more closely linked to fashion, and to pointless, moneymaking zeitgeist. And as I touched on a minute ago, art never used to be about the idea of making a quick buck. I was talking to the director of the Gagosian about this…

AW: (Adopting “get you” tone) Oh, you were, were you?

CJ: Yes! It was in a work, meeting, I hasten to add. But he was saying how sad it was that Vyner’s Street had become an entirely different crowd now – that it used to be about seeing exciting new art, and that now, it was more like a pub crawl.

AW: Do you think it’s Andy Warhol’s fault?

CJ: You know I do. Should we discuss this here?

AW: We don’t think we have the space. We’ve got to ask, though – why “No Way”?

CJ: I was going to just call it “No”, because it was supposed to be the opposite of the usual PR thing, putting this overly-upbeat spin on everything, and just boring everyone with it, but my friends said that I was being too negative. But honestly, it’s supposed to be an incredulous kind of exclaimation – “No WAY!” – and ultimately, a positive thing.

AW: Like a Valley Girl?

CJ: Definitely.

AW: We were quite hurt that you spurned our subsequent suggestion for an exhibition title, “Totes Modern.”

CJ: (Unconvinced) Mm.

AW: To finish, what would you like us to ask you about “No Way”?

CJ: Something that makes me seem witty, and that gets the point across. What do you think?

AW: Well, we want people to go to the show, so I think if I were you, I’d get us to ask you how much free booze there was going to be, and then we  - being you – would say “Oh God, tons.”

CJ: Oh God, tons.

AW: Thanks, Charlotte!

No Way launches at the Print House Gallery with NOT: An Exhibition, on Wednesday the 8th of June, at 6pm; the afterparty takes place on the roof immediately afterwards. For more information, check out the Facebook event here. No Way (Click Here)