dialogue
Joséphine-May Bailey | Gallerist
March 2025
7 min read
Joséphine-May Bailey, Curator, Arts Writer, Art Historian and founder of 8 Vine Yard, brings her extensive expertise from roles at both large and independent galleries and institutions such as the Barbican, Christie’s, Gagosian and Timothy Taylor, to the forefront with the "Face to Face" exhibition. Located in central London, 8 Vine Yard serves as both an artist residency and exhibition space, fostering creative exchange and showcasing diverse artistic voices. The exhibition features works by nine artists, including Ellie Pearch, Georgina Odell, Lorena Levi, Nina Silverberg, Xingxin Hu, Elena Angelini, Scarlett Budden, Lavinia Harrington, and Harriet Gillett.
"Face to Face" explores the dialogue between small-scale, intimate paintings and large-scale sculptural installations, curated through collaborative processes with the artists. Highlighting Bailey’s curatorial vision, the exhibition challenges perceptions of scale, materiality, and the intersection of personal and public spaces.
Currently working as Director of Sales at Gallery Rosenfeld, Bailey continues to blend her commercial acumen with a passion for fostering artist development and innovative curatorial projects. For art enthusiasts and visitors alike, "Face to Face" promises a captivating journey into contemporary artistry. Experience this curated exploration at 8 Vine Yard, discover more about the exhibition and plan your visit to engage with these compelling artworks firsthand.
Hey Joséphine! For those unfamiliar with 8 Vine Yard, could you describe how it operates as part of your practice and what inspired you to create it?
“8 Vine Yard is an exciting and integral part of my practice, an artist residency and exhibition space in central London designed to foster creative exchange. Over the course of three months, we offer subsidised, spacious studios to four artists through an eleven-week residency programme, which culminates in a two-week exhibition. The studios connect to a large exhibition space, allowing for a dynamic interaction between the artists’ working processes and public presentations.
The current residents include Bahraini sculptor and draftsman Zayn Qahtani, the Turkish-language-focused Díl Collective, painter and photographer Sam Llewellyn Jones, and Iranian-Canadian installation artist and sculptor Ghazaleh Avarzamani. I was intentional in selecting a group with distinct practices, backgrounds, and career stages, some have upcoming projects at venues such as the Delfina Foundation, Hayward Gallery, Kristen Hjellegjerde Gallery, Teaspoon Projects, and Chilli Art Projects. My aim is to create meaningful bridges between artists and audiences, facilitating encounters that might not otherwise happen. Beyond providing space, I organise studio visits, residency exchanges, and openings, helping to foster long-term relationships.
The exhibition programme at 8 Vine Yard launched with At the Edge of All Things, which featured works by Anna Woodward, Vilte Fuller, and Annie Trevorah. The show envisioned a world on the precipice, where nature both resists and adapts to collapsing human systems. The works, spanning painting, installation, and sculpture, explored tensions of control and chaos, creation and destruction, imagining futures where balance could tip in any direction...
The current exhibition, Face to Face, takes a different approach. It brings together nine artists, juxtaposing small-scale, intimate paintings with large-scale sculptural installations, creating a dialogue between personal and expansive modes of making.
8 Vine Yard is inspired by models such as Gasworks and the Delfina Foundation, spaces that prioritise interdisciplinary exchange and artist-led discourse. This project will culminate in the residency exhibition (dates to be announced), and it has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I hope to continue building on this initiative, providing more opportunities for artists in the future.”
How did your experiences at Christie’s, Timothy Taylor Gallery, Gagosian, and other galleries shape your approach to working with artists today?
“Working at these galleries early in my career gave me a broad understanding of how different facets of the art world operate—from the commercial side to institutional and experimental approaches. These experiences have been invaluable in shaping how I work with artists today, ensuring that my curatorial projects strike a balance between fostering creative risk-taking and providing professional support.
Having worked at both large galleries and smaller independent spaces, I became very aware of where I wanted to position myself within the art world. After years of working in commercial settings, followed by time at institutions such as the Barbican, I found that artist-centric, curatorial roles are where my interests truly lie. I’m most invested in creating platforms that allow artists to experiment, connect with new audiences, and develop their practices in meaningful ways.”
As Director of Sales at Gallery Rosenfeld, you’ve maintained a strong commitment to fostering artist development. How do you balance these two aspects of your work?
“My role at Gallery Rosenfeld is focused on the commercial side, building artist markets, working with collectors, and developing exhibitions within a commercial framework. At the same time, my work at 8 Vine Yard is rooted in experimentation, residencies, and creating space for artistic development.
I see these two roles as deeply complementary. Art fairs and commercial exhibitions help to elevate an artist’s profile, while initiatives like 8 Vine Yard allow for process-led exploration without the immediate pressures of the market. In a way, they feed into each other, ensuring that emerging voices have both the time to develop their work and the opportunities to place it within wider artistic and commercial contexts.”
Could you walk us through your curatorial process for Face to Face and how it reflects your commitment to working closely with artists?
“Face to Face was curated through a deeply collaborative process, shaped by ongoing conversations with the artists. The exhibition explores shifting boundaries, between personal and professional, intimate and expansive, individual and collective.
At the heart of the show, Ellie Pearch and Georgina Odell’s works are in direct dialogue: Pearch’s modular, mass-produced sculptural forms contrast with Odell’s suspended metal fortune tellers, delicate yet rigid structures that explore the unpredictability of memory. Surrounding this central interplay, the exhibition’s painters, including Lorena Levi, Nina Silverberg, Xingxin Hu, Elena Angelini, Scarlett Budden, Lavinia Harrington, and Harriet Gillett, draw the viewer into their worlds with works that demand close attention. The result is an exhibition that moves between the micro and macro, creating a tension between interiority and public space.
What excites me about Face to Face is how it brings together artists at different points in their careers, some of whom I’ve worked with for years, others I’m exhibiting for the first time. The show’s curation is a reflection of my wider approach, building relationships with artists over time, while also bringing new voices into the conversation.”
What impact do you hope Face to Face will have on viewers, particularly in terms of engaging them with new artists and perspectives?
“I hope Face to Face encourages viewers to step outside their familiar frames of reference and engage with artists they may not have encountered before. By presenting a contrast between small, intimate paintings and large, spatially commanding installations, the exhibition is designed to challenge perceptions, of scale, of materiality, of personal versus public space.
More broadly, I want the exhibition to prompt reflection not just on the works themselves, but on the nature of exhibition spaces like 8 Vine Yard. Because this is a residency project as well as a gallery, the show emerges from an environment of active making, dialogue, and exchange. I hope that this context invites viewers to think about creative process in a deeper way, considering how art is developed, rather than just how it is presented.”
Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the future of 8 Vine Yard and your career as a curator working with emerging artists?
I see 8 Vine Yard as an evolving project, one that will continue to champion interdisciplinary practice, encourage exchange, and support artists at key moments in their careers.
Community has been central to this initiative. From the start, I encouraged both the exhibiting artists and studio residents to engage with each other, to meet, discuss ideas, and build relationships that will last beyond these three months. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see those connections develop, and I want to carry that ethos into future projects.
Looking ahead, I hope to expand on this model, offering more residencies, further exhibition opportunities, and continuing to create spaces where the intersection between making and showing is at the core. The dialogue between the studios and the exhibition space is what makes 8 Vine Yard unique, and I want to continue fostering that in future iterations. Stay tuned!”
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