Collector and Patron Flavia Nespatti to Open Commercial Art Space in London

The Brazilian-born, London-based art collector and patron Flavia Nespatti will open a commercial gallery in London this October, reports the Art Newspaper. Located in a mid-century industrial building in the central London neighborhood of Fitzrovia, Antesala will focus on art and artists from Latin America.

The gallery will organize selling exhibitions of both primary and secondary market works in collaboration with galleries, artists, estates, collections, publications, and nonprofits, together with talks, screenings, and other public programming. As envisioned by Nespatti, the space will be a hub for exhibiting, discussing, and collecting contemporary art.

Antesala will not represent artists, but neither will it be a rental space, Nespatti told the Art Newspaper, though collaborators will be charged a combination of a flat fee and a commission on sales. Rather, she and her team will be “highly involved” in the decisions behind each show.

In addition to operating as an exhibition and gathering space, Antesala will offer curatorial and strategic advisory services for collections, from planning, through execution and management. Fees will vary according to client needs.

Nespatti is clear that Antesala is not a privately funded nonprofit. “This is a commercial project,” she told the Art Newspaper. “I must abide to a certain budget; it needs to pay for itself.”

Antesala will be co-run by senior director Laura González, formerly head of the Latin American department at Phillips auction house in New York. Its first exhibition, a show of drawings from Latin America titled “Assembly Lines,” will open on October 10.