Addis Fine Art has announced the closure of its gallery, which opened in 2021 in Fitzrovia, London. Co-founder Rakeb Sile attributed the decision to “overhead costs” and “market uncertainty.” The gallery, however, will continue to operate its flagship location in Addis Ababa. On the 29th of June, Addis Fine Art’s London gallery closed its final show, “Ward El Juri,” a solo exhibition by Sudanese artist Amel Bashier. The gallery will continue participating in two London-based joint exhibitions this September, including a presentation of Tadesse Mesfin at Vigo Gallery, as well as a group exhibition at John Martin Gallery. Moreover, the gallery will participate in London’s 1-54 fair this October.
When the gallery opened in 2021, the plan was to have a grounded place in London where the gallery could host eight or ten shows a year while continuing to grow their digital sales. The gallery is a member of London’s Cromwell Place and had been hiring space for occasional exhibitions, so with ten shows a year it made financial sense to open it permanently.
According to Sile, niche galleries like Addis Fine Art have extremely low margins, especially in light of the increased cost of shipping artworks and cost of fairs, and so on. Sile believes it’s vital for small galleries such as Addis Fine Art to thrive and not just survive as thdy are in many ways the lifeblood of the industry, as they continuously uncover and invest in new artists.
Addis Fine Art’s closure announcement follows a recent closure announcement from VITRINE, which was founded in 2010 and ran two spaces in London and another in Basel. In a statement, VITRINE’s founder emphasised the challenges for more established galleries too specifically touching on the resources and staffing that are required to stay afloat and the growing expectations on mid-sized galleries to compete with much larger operations.
