Career profile: Steve Lowe, aquarium director

  

Steve Lowe is the director of London's aquarium gallery. The gallery's forthcoming activities include a campaign for the Mayor election (The Assistant campaign) an auction for Ken Livingstone, with artists such as Banksy, Bob and Roberta Smith, Jaime Reed, Marc Quinn, amongst other, a music performance on Valentine’s Day and a Billy Childish new works exhibition.

Steve talks to Arts Hub about why he doesn't have a favourite artist, and how he got to be director of the gallery.

Job title?
I’ve never really given myself one. I could be described as the owner/director of the aquarium but I’m also a practicing artist and collaborator with the artists I represent at the gallery.

Who do you work for?
I’d like to say myself and the artists I work with, but as I spend a lot of time collecting VAT for the government through selling art, I guess I work for them.

What do you do all day?
I try to focus on making things for the aquarium, but spend a lot of time plotting and planning with the artists and making sure things get done in time for various exhibitions and projects. We’re an incredibly productive gallery and are known for making very affordable art that’s presented in imaginative and entertaining ways. It keeps me very busy.

What are you doing today?
Lots of things. I started by printing out a new 4ft x 8ft image by James Cauty that will also be displayed as a billboard on Old Street, patched up and repainted a skirtingboard frame on a Billy Childish painting that we sold and is being collected tomorrow, spoke to Jamie Reid about an interview with the Guardian in regards to the Bid for Ken auction we’re hosting, spoke to Jimmy about closing down his CNPD website, destroying the aquarium, and a proposed project from the Culture Show that involves a car…. sorted out some images of Geraldine Swayne’s exhibition for our website, spoke to Neal Brown about proof reading the critical study he’s written about Billy Childish, sold a Geraldine Swayne painting, designed a new policy poster for our own Mayoral candidate THE ASSISTANT, and popped into the bank.

The aquarium is known for subverting the typical gallery experience – does this make your job more interesting than working in a typical gallery?
I’d like to think so, although I’ve never worked in a typical gallery. I did some part time work for Matts Gallery when I was an art student but I don’t think that’s a typical gallery either. The nearest I’ve got to working for any other art institution was for the Tate (now Tate Britain) I first worked on the exhibition desk from which I got sacked for poor attendance, and then I got a job in the regular bookshop… from which I got sacked for poor attendance. They should really cross reference their employment records.

In terms of subverting the typical gallery experience, all we do is provide a plentiful supply of vibrant, intelligent and imaginative work in a warm and inviting environment. To some in the art world that might seem revolutionary, but it’s not.

What's the best thing about your job?
Being continually creative and working with other like-minded artists.

And the worst thing?
I don’t get enough time to spend with my wife and 2 year old daughter.

How did you get into it?
I studied fine art, but left my MA with a strong distaste for all aspects of the professional art world. I opted for music as an alternative creative path and played in bands. I ended up dealing in rare books to make money, but as the music making lost its energy I became increasingly bored and knew that I needed to find something else to do. It took a long kayaking trip to the arctic and a cataclysmic emotional upheaval that included the loss of my home, my girlfriend and my lover all on one day that made me decide to open a gallery though. Even then, I was slightly embarrassed about having a gallery, which is why I tried to insist on the place just being called the aquarium and not The Aquarium Gallery.

Who's been the biggest influence on you, career-wise?
In terms of what I’m doing now and how I’m doing it, it has to be the artists I work with, and out of those predominantly James Cauty, Billy Childish, Jamie Reid and The Janitor out of STOT21stCplanB. The aquarium has grown around them and reflects their ideas as much as my own.

Tell us a little about your latest project?
We’ve just opened an exhibition by Geraldine Swayne who’s a fantastic painter and a very good person. She also recorded a 10” record for us live in the basement with an amazing line-up of musicians that included John-Herve Peron from Faust / ArtErrorist and James Johnston from Gallon Drunk. They’ll also be performing a live set on the 14th Feb. We’re also very busy with our candidate for the Mayor of London and are hosting an art auction for Ken Livingston with top artists donating art for it. These include Anthony Gormley, Banksy, Jeremy Deller, Mona Hatoum and Mark Quinn as well as some of our own artists. Our own candidate THE ASSISTANT and his ideas are a direct response to hosting this auction and are presented as a subvertised clash between art and politics. It’s also very entertaining. Along side that we’re also publishing three new poetry books by Billy Childish, and a study on him by Neal Brown. These will all be ready in time for an exhibition of brilliant new paintings and text based works opening in March.

What's been your biggest professional achievement so far?
To have created an ongoing collaborative relationship with some very special artists and finding ways to give good art some genuine appeal without compromising its integrity. I think.

Who is your favourite artist?
I don’t have a favourite artist. That’s like having a favourite child. They’re all equal in my eyes, even the ones I can’t stand.

Where would you like to go from here, career-wise?
I want to close THE AQUARIUM L-13 and it’s website down and open “The L-13 Studio Workshop, and Private Ladies and Gentleman’s Club for Art, Leisure and the Disruptive Betterment of Culture”.
After that I want to have a smallholding somewhere remote and raise rare pigs.

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing small arts galleries today?
Idiocy or the lack of it.