Cab Gallery was an art project from 1999 to 2001 curated by London art dealer Paul Stolper of

Paul Stolper Gallery Paul Stolper Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Museum Street, Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is th ...

and art collector and London taxi driver Jason Brown. The concept was for art to be exhibited on the outside and inside of a working

London taxi A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common sight on t ...

rather than a traditional

gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: * Gallery (surname), a surname Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery ** Online art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ' ...

space. As stated by Brown, "It was important to me that when working, the artwork was incidental to the journey of the passenger. I hoped they would notice but it was part of their environment and unexpected. It was also interesting to me to learn which artworks they reacted to. But it had to be a natural discovery." Artists were provided the views and dimensions of the available spaces such as the bottom of fold-up seats (or "tip-up seats"), the exterior of the cab, and limited inside options for free-standing work. Because the cab was also a working London taxi, after each artwork was selected by the curators, approval from the Cab Advertising Committee of the

Public Carriage Office Taxicabs are available throughout the United Kingdom, and are regulated by local authorities. Types of cab * Hackney carriages (taxis) can be flagged down on the street or hired from a taxi rank. * Private hire vehicles ("minicabs") are pas ...

was also required. Artwork placed on the exterior of the cab was printed in vinyl the same as per usual advertising procedures. Special receipts were designed, listing participating artists and contact details. In addition to serving as gallery space during working cab hours, Cab Gallery would park outside galleries on their opening nights enabling the artists to exhibit more ambitious and experimental installation and sound pieces. Throughout the project Brown honored his commitment to the project's concept of never bringing attention to the art while operating as a working cab but rather allowing the passengers to discover it for themselves. When the cab was serving as a stationary exhibition space at art galleries and events, however, Brown would often act as de facto

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

for the collection.

History

In 1999, Brown approached Stolper with the idea of exhibiting art in the spaces reserved for advertising in his traditional London Black Taxi, and Cab Gallery was launched in

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digital and design) ...

on 24 September 1999. The first exterior was a text piece by

Bob and Roberta Smith Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Bob (surname) * Bob (dog), a dog that received the Dickin Medal for bravery in World War II * Bob t ...

, ''Taxy'' in red and yellow vinyl. On the fold-up seats were two text pieces by

Peter Liversidge Peter Liversidge (born 1973) is a British contemporary artist notable for his diverse artistic practice and use of proposals. Personal life Peter Liversidge studied Fine Art in Exeter at the University of Plymouth and film and photography at M ...

, who became a regular contributor to the project and whose collected proposals were later published in book form. Also on display at the launch were ''All the animals'', an embroidered cushion by Abigail Cohen, ''from Swiss Cottage to Soho and back,'' a book of drawings by

Susie Hamilton Susie Hamilton (born 10 August 1950) is an English artist. She lives and works in London and is represented by Paul Stolper Gallery. Early life and education Hamilton, born 10 August 1950, studied painting at St Martins School of Art and By ...

, and ''Cab Gallery Greeting'', a sound piece by

Jessica Voorsanger Jessica Voorsanger (born 1965) is an American artist and academic, living and working in London. She has worked on the "Mystery Train" project for the Institute of Contemporary Arts to make contemporary art more accessible to people with learnin ...

. Absinthe was served out of the rear boot of the taxi. The success of the launch led to other artists becoming involved and invitations by galleries and art event organizers to participate in their openings. On these occasions, the Cab was parked outside the entrance and artists had the opportunity to create more ambitious artworks as installations and sound pieces. In mid-2000, the Bob and Roberta Smith exterior artwork was replaced with ''Sunny'' by

Alex Katz Alex Katz (born July 24, 1927) is an American figurative artist known for his paintings, sculptures, and printmaking, prints. Since 1951, Katz's work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions and nearly 500 group exhibitions through ...

, the American figurative painter. The popularity of the project spread through wide media coverage and Cab Gallery participated in its first show outside London at the

Ikon Gallery The Ikon Gallery () is an England, English art gallery, gallery of contemporary art, located in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. It is housed in the Listed building, Grade II listed, neo-Gothic former Oozells Street Board School, designed by John Henr ...

in Birmingham. This was soon followed by From Space Gallery in Manchester and in 2001 the

Aspex Gallery Aspex Portsmouth (also known as "Aspex") is a contemporary visual art gallery located in the Gunwharf Quays area of Portsmouth. Formed in 1981 as the exhibitions arm of Art Space Portsmouth in a converted chapel in Brougham Road, Southsea, the g ...

in Portsmouth. In 2001 the final exterior of the cab became ''Out from Under'' by important American conceptual artist

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an artist born and raised in New York City. One of the central figures in the formation of Conceptual Art in the 1960s, Lawrence Weiner explored the potentials of language as a scu ...

. The project expanded to include a website featuring a project by Layla Curtis which traced the routes made by Brown in his cab over a specific week. The project came to feature regular new pieces by Peter Liversidge, the "house artist," as well as new artists and artwork to keep the project fresh. By the end of 2001 after media coverage as wide ranging as the magazines Top Gear, The Art News and Art in America and daily papers from Finland to Australia it was felt that the project should end at its height. File:Exterior (detail) - Bob & Roberta Smith.jpg, ''TAXY'' (detail) by Bob and Roberta Smith File:Cab Exterior - 'Sunny' Alex Katz.jpg, ''Sunny'' by Alex Katz File:Cushions 'Home' Rachel Beckett and 'Mind The Gap' Peter Liversidge.jpg, ''Home'' (cushions) by Rachel Beckett and ''Mind The Gap'' (mat) by Peter Liversidge File:'Mutilates' Susie Hamilton.jpg, ''Mutilates'' by Susie Hamilton File:'Drive-By Random Inner-City Material Colour Space Phenomenon' Donald Smith.jpg, ''Drive-By Random Inner-City Material Colour Space Phenomenon'' by Donald Smith File:'Stone Cold Sober' Fiona Banner and 'Sid Vicious' Peter Harris.jpg, ''Stone Cold Sober'' by Fiona Banner and ''Sid Vicious'' by Peter Harris

Retrospective

The curators arranged for a retrospective exhibition immediately upon discontinuing the project, held as part of the opening of the Essor Gallery, which occupied the main gallery as well as a project space nearby. The Cab Gallery Retrospective ran from 15–22 January 2002 and included the "Cab Gallery" itself, which was parked up inside. All previous artworks were on show along with films and sound pieces.

After Cab Gallery

Paul Stolper continues as a leading London gallery owner and publisher. Jason Brown collaborated with Chelsea space at

Chelsea College of Art & Design Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further and higher education courses in fine art, graphic design, interior design, produc ...

to use the same taxi, renamed the Chelsea Cab, to exhibit new exterior artwork on the cab by

Bruce McLean Bruce McLean (born 1944) is a Scottish sculptor, performance artist and painter. McLean was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1961 to 1963, and at Saint Martin's School of Art, London, from 1963 to 1966. At Saint Martin ...

, Stephen Farthing RA and

David Shrigley David John Shrigley (born 17 September 1968) is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. Shrigley first came to prominence in the 1990s for his distinct line drawi ...

. In 2012 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee and continues to curate art shows including exchanges between London and Nashville. In 2012 Brown donated the entire Cab Gallery archive including artwork, correspondence and ephemera to the Special Collections at the Library at the Chelsea College of Art & Design.For a description of the materials available, see http://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/library-services/collections-and-archives/chelsea/#CAB_Gallery_Archive. Retrieved 1 October 2013.

Exhibiting Artists

APE Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

( Adrian Corker and Paul Conboy) *

Fiona Banner Fiona Banner (born 1966), also known as The Vanity Press, is a British artist. Her work encompasses sculpture, drawing, installation and text, and demonstrates a long-standing fascination with the emblem of fighter aircraft and their role within cu ...

* Rachel Beckett *"Bono & Sting" (

David Mackintosh David James Mackintosh (born 2 April 1979) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Northampton South from the May 2015 general election to the 2017 general election. Prior to his election to Parliame ...

and

Graham Parker Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour. Life and career Early career (1960s–1976) Parker was born in Hackney, East L ...

) * Brian Dawn Chalkley * Christo & Jeanne-Claude * Thomas A. Clark and Laurie Clark * Abigail Cohen * Nick Crowe * Layla Curtis * Die Kunst ( Martin Vincent,

and Richard Hylton) *

Rose Finn-Kelcey Rose Finn-Kelcey (4 March 1945 – 13 February 2014) was a British artist, born in Northampton. Finn-Kelcey grew up in Buckinghamshire as part of a large farming family, and went on to study at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, and later C ...

* Peter Harris *

* Tanya Ling *

* Jess Mallock * Mike Marshal * Jim Medway * Rob Menzer *

Claudia Reyes Claudia may refer to: People Ancient Romans *Any woman from the Roman Claudia gens * Claudia (vestal), a Vestal Virgin who protected her father Appius Claudius Pulcher in 143 BC * Claudia Augusta (63–63 AD), infant daughter of Nero by his secon ...

* Ray Richardson * Si Sapsford *

* Donald Smith * Jon Smith *

Sarah Staton Sarah Staton (born 1961) is a British sculptor. She is head of the sculpture programme at the Royal College of Art.Royal College of ArtSarah Staton , Royal College of Art accessdate: 30 August 2014 Sarah Staton was born in 1961. Her work is in ...

* Jemima Stehli * Martin Vincent *

*Simon Wood

References

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Notes

{{Reflist

External links

*http://www.cabgallery.com/ *http://www.chelseaspace.org/archive/chelseacab.html *http://www.paulstolper.com/ *http://www.laylacurtis.com/work/project/31 Conceptual art Installation art Contemporary art exhibitions Young British Artists Art exhibitions in London 1999 in art 2000 in art 2001 in art 1999 in London 2000 in London 2001 in London