Ryan Hitchcock is an art entrepreneur and promoter and marketer. He owns The Art Room, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Recently, he was in Nigeria for the first time to attend ArtMiabo International Art Festival where he represented about twenty-two different artists in his purvey. He speaks to EDOZIE UDEZE on how he establishes working relationships with artists across all ages and colours. And lots more.
RYAN Hitchcock is a well-known art gallery owner in Johannesburg, South Africa. With his outfit: The Art Room, renowned as a centre to explore, market modern and traditional art, he also uses the avenue to promote, sell and project artists and their works. Two weeks ago, he was in Lagos, Nigeria, as one of the participants at the just-concluded ArtMiabo International Art Festival Exhibition which lasted for three days with artists from all the world in attendance.
Hitchcock, a British-Dutch-South African is passionate about the promotion of African art. Incidentally, he also gets involved with mostly arts produced from discarded objects and wastes. Over the years he has done this and it has been a fantastic experience for him and for all the artists he has been able to help and project. “Yes”, he began, in an encounter with this reporter, “this is my first time in Nigeria. The weather is good, warm, welcoming. It is very cold in Johannesburg now and so being here now in this warm weather, is a fantastic experience. So far, I have been treated well by Nigerians and when you are in a foreign place for the first time, the first impression you get matters. So, it has been good, yes”, he said.
He went on; “I was invited to Nigeria by Miabo. My gallery is in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is there that I met Miabo and I sell some of her arts in Johannesburg. Based on the relationship we’ve formed over the years, she invited me to be a part of this show, here in Lagos”.
He explained that there are some top Nigerian artists he is familiar with. These artists have always exhibited in top galleries in South Africa. “And through these few top artists I have come to know or view some of the Nigerian art pieces in South Africa. Nigerian art is not well-known in South Africa. I think also that African visual art is not well-known in South Africa. It is only a few people who come to appreciate their importance and values. There are however a few galleries that exhibit and market works where people come to show interest. In some art fairs, we have been able to present our works. But in general, South Africa is yet to be exposed fully within the circle of African works outside South Africa”.
As a gallery space The Art Room focuses primarily on fine arts. “Yes, I focus more on young artists, but that does not exclude older ones. We do not even focus on whether you went to a university or not. We focus more on the contents of your work and what you have to offer as an artist. Over there, the lady artist is 69 years. And she is exhibiting for the first time in her life. This is one of the things we do, we engage in”.
For this, Hitchcock tries to give artists the rare and singular opportunity to exhibit, to be exposed in the art circle. For this and more, The Art Room has come to occupy an impressive place in the life of art business in South Africa, in the overall practice of fine arts by artists.
He went on: So, we give them the very first opportunity to exhibit with us. And then other galleries will come and scout from us and the show goes on. Often, these artists will then be taken out internationally to exhibit. So this is my first international show. Previously, I had not been able to take my artists out of South Africa. So, this poses a big excitement to us, to some of my artists who came with me and have been able to mix and mingle with other artists”.
Hitchcock was not only excited to come out of his South African artistic cocoon for the first time, he was also impressed with the rich repertoire of some of the Nigerian art pieces he encountered. He said: “We love
to look at the merit of each art work. There is pretty good art market in South Africa, yes. For artists there are many galleries open to them. The opportunities to showcase abound. Even young Black artists have seen it as an opportunity to expose and express themselves, to earn a living; to show wider interest in arts. You know life is very difficult these days. The covid 19 situation never even helped matters. But then there are institutions that train young people in the art. I do not mean Universities. Some of the artists we took from their younger years in the business, they’ve grown to be very big in Europe, in America and so on”.
Once some of these artists are taken to participate in international art fairs the tendency for them to outshine others is guaranteed. And Hitchcock is always optimistic that more young artists will be produced and exposed in due time. For him, this is one of the best plausible ways to prosper arts in South Africa whether with or without formal university education. And it is quite encouraging as well to notice how young Black South African boys and girls have plunged themselves into this art milieu.
According to Hitchcock, the establishment of The Art Room is to essentially fill this vacuum to show that it is not just only through tertiary education that art can be learnt and perfected. Even then, there have always been great artists who were self-taught and who have risen to dominate global art scene with exquisite art pieces in all spheres of the usual art. It is unfortunate however that Nigerian and African art is not fully represented in South Africa. This is so because not too many promoters or art entrepreneurs have taken it upon themselves to do so. So, the business is open, the country is ready to experience more of African arts out of South Africa.
With many group artists studios also involved in the training of young artists, it is good to see how prosperous the business has indeed become. “For this exhibition, I have twenty-two artists fully represented. Their works are what you see here on the wall. You see how the works glitter in different shapes, forms and styles. The experiments very just as the contents also vary. But in total I work with may be a hundred
different artists. Generally, I work with anyone that brings me good work. Once the work is well executed, with beautiful creation, I do business with you;, I collect your work and so the relationship begins”.
He also likes works that have impressive stories to them. “I do not just take any work. There must be a story to it; a fantastic story from which others will learn. The pictures have to come out pretty good with good colour splashing and excellent background. We need generally to be involved in art that is quite impressive, good to behold”. He also loves works that have excellent concepts.
He believes however that South African artists can learn a lot from Nigerian artists. “That is why I am excited to be here to see how the Nigerian public actually appreciates art. There are many Nigerian artists who do excellently well in the world. So, from South African artists who are rather isolated can pretty well learn from their Nigerian counterparts when they come here and intermingle. Unfortunately coming out of South Africa is very costly. Shipping the works outside South Africa is equally costly. This is a very big problem for us.
“We can’t just jump into an aeroplane and begin to come over. The cost of everything is high all over the world right now. I am excited to also see how Nigerians receive our works. So, we are quite a little bit isolated. But sure, definitely we can learn a lot from our Nigerian counterparts.”
Away from that, Hitchcock confessed that Lagos is a vibrant city where life is agog; where people smile a lot and receive visitors with unbridled warmth. “I have been here for about a day now, and I have been well-received. It has been good, yes, so, so good”, he said. Over the years, South African visual art has been an admixture of Western civilization and what the local people have been able to assemble from their bitter past. In the midst of Apartheid, it was difficult to really sieve the local South African art forms from what the Europeans had tried to make it look like. Nonetheless, as time opens up to new ideas, with plenty of mixing with other African artists, some of the traditional African norms will begin to seep into South African art.
Gradually, the imperialistic and neo-colonial artistic tendencies will give way to deeper African pure art concepts that look deeper into the nuances of the people. This is one of the reasons why this idea of international art fairs as occasioned by ArtMiabo and others matter.