From Spain to Japan, Italy to China, artists’ residencies have flourished all over the world in the last few years. Most of them offer stays of various kinds (from one month to one year) to visual artists who wish to leave their comfort zone, find inspiration or carry out a project in complete peace. Such schemes include the residencies of the Villa Medici in Rome, the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, the Villa Hegra in AlUla or the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto.

In addition, new private residencies sponsored by art market heavyweights are now emerging. Emmanuel Perrotin invited South Korean painter GaHee Park and American sculptor Genesis Belanger to stay at his second home in Cap-Ferret, France last summer, according to ARTnews.

There, they were able to practice their art on the shores of the Arcachon Bay and, most importantly, prepare for the “Finger Bang” exhibition held in September at the Emmanuel Perrotin gallery in Paris. Several artists whose work was exhibited in this collective showcase were also able to spend some time in the art dealer’s seaside home, reports the trade publication.

Other renowned gallery owners, such as London’s Thomas Dane, Brazil’s Nara Roesler and New York’s Catinca Tabacaru, have launched their own residencies to offer a golden opportunity to artists from diverse backgrounds. But the pioneers of the genre are none other than Manuela Hauser and Iwan Wirth, the Swiss art dealer couple, with outposts in around 15 locations around the world.

Since 2013, they have been temporarily hosting handpicked designers at an old farmhouse in the heart of the English village of Bruton. Rashid Johnson, Mark Wallinger, Pipilotti Rist and Christina Quarles have all stayed in this large building, located not far from the exhibition space that Hauser & Wirth opened in 2014 in Somerset. Canadian artist Allison Katz is the latest to have taken up residency.

For Hauser & Wirth and other gallerists, these residencies are mainly about finding new protégés to add to their stable of talent. With this in mind, in 2017, the Swiss mega-gallery launched an exchange program between students from the California Institute of the Arts in the United States and those from the Bath School of Art and Design in the UK. Chinese-American visual artist Sichong Xie was invited to take up the Hauser & Wirth residency in Somerset for three months, while British artist Fiona Haines temporarily took up residency in California.

For the selected artists, these residencies sponsored by galleries are a context conducive to creation and networking. Especially since the residents are often under no obligation to produce results. “Our residencies are usually very non-prescriptive. We don’t demand a finished fully formed exhibition or a defined end outcome. Our residents are welcome to come and reflect only,” explained Federica Sheehan, director of the Thomas Dane gallery in Naples, speaking to ARTnews.

But this does not prevent art dealers from highlighting the works that their residents have made during their stays. One such example is “Mettere al mondo il mondo”. This group show, which runs until January 28 at Thomas Dane’s Naples gallery, includes works created by visual artists Abbas Akhavan, Abraham Cruzvillegas and Ser Serpas during their residencies at Villa Ruffo. For its part, Emmanuel Perrotin has chosen to exhibit (and offer for sale) the pieces that GaHee Park made during her Cap-Ferret residency during the last edition of the Frieze contemporary art fair in London.

Whether they are sponsored by a gallery or through public initiatives, artists’ residencies are, above all, a tool for outreach in a sector that is increasingly competitive and in need of renewal. The benefits in terms of publicity and reputation are as important for the residents, who can add their art residencies to their CVs, as for their hosts. American artist Christina Quarles had just finished her residency in Somerset at Hauser & Wirth when her painting “Bit’s n’ Pieces” (2019) sold for $1.59 (S$2.18) million at Sotheby’s in New York. A few months before she left for England, her painting “The Night That Fell Upon Us Up On Us” (2019) sold for $4.5 (S$5.9) million at Sotheby’s. All of which adds additional prestige to the Swiss mega-gallery’s artists’ residency, even if its reputation in the field is already well established.

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