Milanese art gallery OPR takes its name and origin from Office Project Room, an art space active between 2017 and 2020 and founded by collector Francesco Macchi and artist Matteo Cremonesi
OPR Gallery, Milan
Serving as an intermediary between artists and galleries, the project room was a crossroads for artists to produce and showcase their works, always supported by Office Project Room itself, which was financing the exhibitions projects. Gallery Director Giangiacomo Cirla foresaw an opportunity to grow in changing the Office Project Room status into a gallery yet configuring the space – which changed location in 2020 – as an emerging gallery based on research and solid relationships with the artists represented.
OPR: on the agency of commercial galleries
Ilaria Sponda: «From a project room to a gallery: how would you define the agency of a commercial gallery such as OPR nowadays?»
Giangiacomo Cirla: «A commercial gallery such as OPR has the role of grasping solid contemporary art practices to be supported for the production. In the Italian market, it is relevant to not only focus on art photography but on contemporary art at large – while Office Project Room was taking the cue from our deep understanding and interest in art photography and visual culture. A commercial gallery has indeed not much freedom to focus on a single medium such as photography as it must live up to economic imperatives. OPR Gallery does so but at the same time wants to give their represented artists the freedom to be the maximum experts in their micro-niche and topics, thus not limiting the utilized mediums. Nonetheless, representing multidisciplinary artists allows the gallery to be present in more art fairs and markets too».
Art photography in the wider art market: OPR’s perspective
GC: «The complexity of art photography lies in its difficulty to be understood as an artwork and thus bought by collectors. Non-profit and museum spaces do not have this obstacle so are freer to propose photography exhibitions and commission photographic works too. For a gallery it is not so easy as productions have to be financially supported by sales themselves. Sales are merely the finalization of a process for artists, also for the fact that sales generate money for further research and production to begin. In France and the Netherlands, the context is different: collectors are more and the perception of art photography is mature and so it’s easier to find galleries solely dedicated to photography. Due to its high production costs photography finds it hard to find a solid space in the art market. Collectors often question the fact that photography is reproducible and do not grasp the concept of multiples and unique pieces – something it has in common with video art. Being OPR multidisciplinary in its focus, we have the convenient asset of being sometimes able to invest money on photography small productions thanks to the sales coming from other mediums».
OPR Gallery: an emergent gallery in the mindset of growing together with their artists
GC: «It’s much more complicated vouching for art that is disconnected from market trends. Only when a gallery is solid can it give up some sales to maintain quality and stand out for its focus on research. OPR Gallery is willing to do so and avoids valuing artists depending on their sales rate. Artists need time and resources to bring out research and emergent galleries too – which puts both sides in a trusting and equal relationship. Hierarchies should be avoided in order to grow together».
OPR Gallery: valuing research-based art over trends-informed art
The eight artists currently represented by OPR Gallery have different approaches while having strong research-based practices in common. Italian artist and academic researcher Benedetta Panisson explores the topics of insularity, sexuality and gender, while Mexican artist Liza Ambrossio delves deep into social statuses and feminist studies between emancipation and traditions. They both work with the photographic medium without restricting their practices to it as it’s also in the gallery DNA to value research–based art and freedom of expression as long as it makes sense and allows an artist to grow as an expert in their own micro-field.
OPR Gallery and Materia Gallery: the case of a collaboration between two Italian galleries
GC: «Among the artists we represent, it’s worth mentioning Giuseppe De Mattia, whose work faces capitalist market logic in a critical and ironic way. De Mattia is also represented by Rome-based Materia Gallery, and this has allowed us to think of a collaboration between galleries, something which is not usually easy to bring forward, especially in Italy. This collaboration sees us – OPR Gallery and Materia co-financing the artist’s production, sharing collectors contacts and being able to cover the Italian territory fully if we consider Rome and Milan as two of the major art market sites in the country».
Representing Italian, mid-career artists today
GC: «The majority of artists we are representing is Italian by choice. Many galleries in Milan work with foreigners – something which is understandable as each gallerist has their own focus, competence, and background. OPR is mainly representing Italian artists as it’s our will to have a close dialogue with the artists we work with and being able to meet them frequently is key to do so and work the way we want. The non-Italian artists we are representing (Liza Ambrossio and Ukrainian duo Synchrodogs) have crossed our path before the gallery was open: I came across their works though my research brought about on PHROOM, a visual culture platform which I’m still working on with artist Matteo Cremonesi and collaborators worldwide. Anyway, the focus of OPR is to bring Italian artists abroad and represent the quality and peculiar language that Italian artists are capable of expressing. There’s no lack of Italian artists, but of mediators able to support them».
On the homologation of art in the after the global era
IS: «Supposing we live in an after the global era, there’s still a lot to think and critique on when considering art homologation as a consequence of globalization, mainstream movements and art market trends. What’s your perspective on this matter?»
GC: «Homologation and globalization in the arts are still a consistent matter. Local, national languages are getting lost. Young artists are educated to believe results should arrive immediately, thus preventing them from taking time to reflect and find their own language to express, especially in connection with their local context and tradition instead of a global one. On the other hand, we live in a context that is highly global, so homologation is part of the world we live in. Nowadays it is sometimes hard to understand the provenance and background of an artist by simply looking at their art. Italian artists, for example, are not always recognizable as they look for affirmation abroad and consequently change their languages accordingly».
OPR Gallery
OPR Gallery was born as an evolution of Office Project Room (2017-2020). From 2021 the Gallery presents works of mid-career artists through experimental and research exhibition projects. The gallery is located in the Co99 Art Building in Viale Corsica 99, Milan (Italy).
