MOT International, formerly MOT Gallery, was a

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

gallery in east London run by Chris Hammond. It opened in 2002 and closed in 2016.

History

The MOT gallery was founded in 2002 by Chris Hammond, Floyd Varey and Mally Mallinson.Waddell, Heather (2006). ''London Art and Artists Guide'', 10th edition, p. 156. London Art and Artists Guide. , It was run as an "independent space and curatorial project". In August 2002, as the first of two projects taking place during that summer, Louise Harris showed new works, which addressed a subject via a particular medium, including watercolours of blondes, landscape images made from felt and abstract collages with paper on the theme of sex. In 2005, Hammond curated Shezad Dawood's ''Paradise Row''.Grimshaw, Chloe. ''

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'', "Interiors: Welcome to Paradise", 19 June 2005. Retrieved fro
findarticles.com
28 January 2009. Dawood bought a run-down Georgian house in Paradise Row,

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...

and renovated the property with the interior being white throughout. It was then put up for sale through an estate agent, Blake Stanley, the result being simultaneously an art exhibition and a conventional property vending. Hammond said, "Fantasy is really important, both in terms of architecture and where you want to live. Architecture is all about a projection of where you want to live, it's about imagining space that doesn't actually exist yet." Although the initial idea was a hoax to confuse the estate agent as to the nature of the enterprise, he took to it as a good marketing venture to local creatives and a novel way to enhance his new business. In July 2006, MOT invited Shai Ohayon to curate "The Real Canadian", a group exhibition featuring emerging Canadian artists Elizabeth Fearon, Jason Kronenwald and Robert Waters. In December 2006, the PM Gallery in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada, presented ''Bubble & Squeak'', curated by London-based Shai Ohayon, to showcase artists who had been exhibited at MOT. Also in 2006 the gallery was renamed to MOT International and was incorporated as a limited company"MOT INTERNATIONAL LIMITED"
"Companies House", Retrieved 2 September 2016 In 2007

Iwona Blazwick Iwona Maria Blazwick OBE (born 14 October 1955) is a British art critic and lecturer, and has been Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London since 2001. She discovered Damien Hirst and staged his first solo show at a public London art ...

chose Elizabeth Price's film ''At the House of Mr X'' (2007), shown at the gallery, for her most significant show and artist of the year for ''

Frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

'' magazine. The gallery's first location was at Unit 54/5th floor, Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Road,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

E8 4QN. It was housed in Regent Studios, which is also home to the Transition Gallery and Five Years Gallery. The nearest tube station is

. In September 2011 MOT International opened its first location in Brussels on Rue Vandenbrandenstraat 1. The gallery was subsequently concurrently located at Avenue Louise and Place du Petit Sablon from spring 2013 until 2016."Notice timeline for MOT INTERNATIONAL LIMITED (05865714)"
"The Gazette", 25 July 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2016 In April 2012 MOT International opened a new London location in Mayfair at 72 New Bond St. Curated exhibitions and projects continued at the original Regent Studios location which was renamed MOT International Projects. In early 2016 it was announced the gallery would be moving to a new central London location at 5 Babmaes St, St. James's that Autumn. Artists exhibited at the gallery include

Jeremy Deller Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the devaluation of artistic ego through th ...

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist who lives and works in New York City.

Martin Creed Martin Creed (born 21 October 1968) is a British artist, composer and performer. He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, ''Work No. 22 ...

Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction as well as his provocative, jocular and hard-drinking public persona. Kippenb ...

, Simon Patterson,

Sarah Lucas Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, collage and found objects. ...

Matthew Collings Matthew Collings (born 1955) is a British art critic, writer, broadcaster, and artist. He is married to Emma Biggs, with whom he collaborates on art works. Education Born in London in 1955, Collings studied at Byam Shaw School of Art, and Golds ...

Matthew Higgs Matthew Higgs (born 1964) is an English artist, curator, writer and publisher. His contribution to UK contemporary art has included the creation of ''Imprint 93'', a series of artists’ editions featuring the work of artists such as Martin Creed ...

, and

Mark Wallinger Mark Wallinger (born 25 May 1959) is a British artist. Having previously been nominated for the Turner Prize in 1995, he won in 2007 for his installation ''State Britain''. His work ''Ecce Homo'' (1999–2000) was the first piece to occupy the ...

. Artists represented by the gallery in mid 2016 were:

BANK A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

Ericka Beckman Ericka Beckman is an American filmmaker who began to make films in the 1970s as part of the Pictures Generation. Her films concern the relationship between people and images, and how images structure people's perception of themselves and of reality ...

Simon Bedwell Simon Bedwell (born 1963 in Croydon, Surrey) is an English artist based in London. Bedwell has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including solo shows ''The Furnishers'' at White Columns in New York City, ''Galleon and Other Stories' ...

, Pavel Büchler, Braco Dimitrijevic, Karl Haendel,

Susan Hiller Susan Hiller (March 7, 1940 – January 28, 2019) was an American-born artist who lived in London, United Kingdom. Her art practice included installation, video, photography, performance and writing. Early life and education Born in Tallah ...

, Seung-taek Lee,

Liu Ding Liu Ding (; born 1976, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province) is a Chinese artist and curator based in Beijing. Liu’s artistic practices range from installation, painting, photography, and theatre set design and production, whereas his professional skills ...

, Simon Mathers, Helmut Middendorf, Beatriz Olabarrieta,

Dennis Oppenheim Dennis Oppenheim (September 6, 1938 – January 21, 2011) was an American conceptual artist, performance artist, earth artist, sculptor and photographer. Dennis Oppenheim's early artistic practice is an epistemological questioning about the natu ...

, Katrina Palmer, Elizabeth Price,

Laure Prouvost Laure Prouvost (born 1978) is a French artist living and working in Antwerp, Belgium. She won the 2013 Turner Prize. In 2019, she represented France at the Venice Biennale with the multi-media work "The Deep Blue Sea Surrounding You". Career Pr ...

, Dan Rees, Clunie Reid, Florian Roithmayr, John Russell,

Marinella Senatore Marinella Senatore (born 1977) is an Italian visual artist. Exhibitions * 2011 – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Rome, IT * 2012 – Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, D * 2012 – Matadero, Madrid, ES * 2012 – Quad, Derby, UK * 2012 – ...

, Elisa Sighicelli, Ulrich Strothjohann, Amikam Toren,

Ulay Frank Uwe Laysiepen (; 30 November 1943 – 2 March 2020), known professionally as Ulay, was a German artist based in Amsterdam and Ljubljana, who received international recognition for his Polaroid art and collaborative performance art with long ...

, Stephen Willats, Nil Yalter."MOT International Artists"
, "Artsy", Retrieved 2 September 2016 It received funding from the

Arts Council of England The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both h ...

. In July 2016 MOT International Limited was voluntarily wound up due to insolvency and went into liquidation.

Notes and references

External links

* {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426070354/http://www.motinternational.org/ , date=26 April 2016 , title=Official website Defunct contemporary art galleries in London Media and communications in the London Borough of Hackney Art galleries established in 2002 2002 establishments in England Tourist attractions in the London Borough of Hackney