Interview with gallerist Christine Xuereb Seidu

Christine Xuereb Seidu has been running her own art gallery, Christine X Art Gallery, located in Sliema, since 2004. ARTZ ID spoke with Christine about her experience as a gallerist.
ARTZ ID: Can you tell us how Christine X came about? And can you share with us some of the most significant challenges and successes that you experienced along the way?

Christine: In 2004, just before I was going to give birth as a single mother, my father offered me a space to start up. He knew I had a dream of opening an art gallery and the opportunity arose at that time. The gallery name was ‘Artitude’ then. I must say, I was very unprepared – I knew much about art through my art studies but I knew nothing about running a business, especially an art business.

It all came too soon and it was harder with a newborn baby. Over the years, I began to understand what the market was and with hardly any galleries around, I had to cater for the demands. The name ‘Christine X Art Gallery’ came about in about 2009, after some students did their study on the gallery and upon learning that people knew the gallery more as ‘Christine X’ (Christine X was my social media name)’s gallery, they thought it better to change the name. And I did. I had started organising a few art exhibitions but the gallery seemed to work more when I had a big selection available as that is what clients were after.

When I just focused on a variety and more on commercial work, that’s when success hit. This is quite challenging for me as the art I love is not what I display most of the time. As long as I exhibit what is of good quality and value, I feel I am at least providing my clients with what they deserve.

ARTZ ID: What are the factors that determine your choice of which artists to represent at your gallery? What is your relationship with the artists that you represent?

Christine: At first, I go for artists whose works I feel may fill in the gap in the market, with reasonable pricing and most importantly, of good quality. Eventually, I look at our working relationship. Artists I enjoy working with are constantly busy working on bettering their work and interested in knowing how customers are reacting to their work. I try very hard to sell their work and I appreciate an artist’s loyalty.

Christine curated 'Friezed...Continued' in 2012, a solo exhibition by Norwegian artist Unni Askeland that took place at the then National Museum of Fine Art.

My top selling artists are those who work hard at their painting and those who leave the rest to me. When I suspect artists using me to better their image and obtaining customers and then going behind my back, I realise they are not forward lookers – not what I need. The main artists I work with now I am happy with, as we have a good relationship. They give me what I need, I sell for them and they are happy. Any serious artist prefers to focus on their work rather than deal with sales.

ARTZ ID: Can you share some insight about the Maltese art market? What type of art are local buyers interested in acquiring and has this changed at all over the years?

Christine: Abstraction and abstracted Maltese landscapes are what have worked best at the gallery. I do sell other works, like figurative paintings, but abstracts and abstracted landscapes sell the best. I believe it is changing over the years but people need to see new works for a while before they come to appreciate them.

ARTZ ID: How do you make sure to keep your finger on the pulse of what local art buyers are interested in and can you share with us something about what we should expect to see at Christine X in the near future?

Christine: I keep tabs on what local art buyers are after by what they ask for and by what I see at exhibitions. I do look at works by upcoming artists and sometimes, I try out new artworks to see how they respond to it. I have also started sending out artist calls for artworks I feel I need and setting up exhibitions. For example, recently I felt the need for smaller artworks which can also be more affordable as gifts so I made the artist call for ’20×20′ art on paper.

Christine's entry about Senegalese art in ArtPaper n.6.
Works on paper is what I am looking for now and this is for another project I am working on. I want to promote the art of draftmanship, printmaking and darkroom printing so I have started collecting drawings, etchings, lithographs, silver gelatin prints and contemporary art on paper. I believe that part of my job is educating people so this is what I plan to do. Long term projects would be to invest in African art but that’s not for now.

Learn more and keep in touch with Christine X Art Gallery on ARTZ ID.

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