JUST WHERE DO THE DAYS GO?

From one small room with a store cupboard under the stairs, it  is hard to believe that Lemon Street Gallery is now in its tenth year. Now the region’s largest
commercial gallery with four floors of exhibition and installation space, LSG is ideally placed to draw on Cornwall’s rich modernist tradition as well as supporting up-and-coming artists with solo and group exhibitions, not to mention tours at public art institutions nationwide.

Lemon Street Gallery opened its doors on 4 June 1999 with a solo exhibition of my great uncle Carlo Rossi, and if that was not pressure enough, the person supervising  my ‘hang’ was my father, Scottish painter Hamish MacDonald. For me this was the baptism of fire that marked the start of my career, yet ten years down the line I still feel insecure, privileged and extremely lucky still to be here doing what I love most. Indeed, a decade after its launch, it could be said that LSG is heading for something of a bumper crop as around sixty of the UK’s foremost artists line up for this exhibition to help celebrate and cement LSG's position as one of the country’s leading contemporary galleries.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my gallery artists who have dedicated their time working for all the exhibitions here. They have trusted me to represent them well, and without them the gallery would not exist. Additionally I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to all of  my clients who have supported the gallery through the years, but especially during the past year which has been a particularly dark time for me personally. I now consider the gallery to be a tribute to my late father and hope that he knew that I not only would exhibit his work, but I did it best!!!

The coming months will see solo exhibitions from Anton Nickson, Stephanie Dees, Breon O'Casey, Kurt Jackson, Barrie Cook and my most recent recruit, John Brown. There will be new hardback publications from Kurt Jackson, ’The Avon Project’; Breon O’Casey, ‘A Decade’, and Barrie Cook who celebrates his eightieth birthday this year. I am also very excited about our recent deal with publishers Lund Humphries who are publishing Jackson's first monograph in spring 2010. It is also after much deliberation that Kurt Jackson has decided to resign from his London gallery. As a result there will be no Messum's show during January 2010. His exhibition at Lemon Street Gallery, Truro will continue as planned from 5 September – 4 October 2009, and again in 2010. Jackson's solo exhibitions will continue to be organised by LSG until another London venue is decided.

It is my hope that Lemon Street Gallery continues to offer the viewer new inspiring and exciting exhibitions, and myself, Nikki, and Kate look forward to welcoming you at the gallery sometime soon.

Kindest regards
Marie Louise Jones, Director
May 2009