Ten years after London dealer Vanessa Carlos launched the gallery sharing initiative Condo in the East End, the collaborative model has become a key survival strategy for galleries of all sizes, especially smaller ones. The latest edition of Condo London runs from Saturday to February 14. Brunette Coleman, a photography-forward gallery launched in 2023 by Anna Eaves and Ted Targett in Bloomsbury, exemplifies this trend: it has grown quickly through cooperative exhibitions rather than costly fairs, participating in Condo for the second time this year by hosting Milan’s Zero gallery. The gallery represents six international artists, and its artist Nat Faulkner won Frieze London’s Emerging Artist Award in 2024, with a solo show opening at Camden Art Centre.
This matters because Condo’s teamwork-oriented ethos has become foundational to London’s gallery scene, enabling an economy-defying number of emerging galleries to open in the last five years. Collaboration offers a sustainable, affordable alternative to the high costs of art fairs while still attracting international audiences. The model also breaks down hierarchies, allowing galleries of different scales to mingle. As London remains a magnet for galleries—with Berlin’s Heidi and New York’s Lehmann Maupin recently announcing expansions there—the success of cooperative networks like Condo underscores how community and shared resources are reshaping the art market’s survival strategies.