Louise Fitzjohn is the founder and director of Liminal Gallery, an independent contemporary art gallery based in Margate. Having worked across the commercial gallery sector, progressing from intern to Gallery Director, Fitzjohn established Liminal in 2021 with a clear idea of the kind of gallery she wanted to create: one centred on distinctive artistic voices, close relationships with artists and a genuine sense of accessibility.
At just six square metres and triangular in shape, Liminal may be one of the UK’s smallest galleries, but its programme is ambitious. Fitzjohn works particularly with artists from underrepresented backgrounds, including working-class, female and queer artists, while allowing each practice to be considered first and foremost on the strength and individuality of the work.
Her approach to representation is rooted in trust, long-term career development and a belief that the relationship between artist and gallerist should be collaborative rather than prescriptive. Alongside commercial exhibitions, Liminal has become known for installation and experimentation, using its unusual physical space to create immersive exhibitions that encourage audiences to cross the gallery threshold and engage with contemporary art without intimidation.
In this interview, Fitzjohn discusses establishing Liminal, the importance of community in Margate, the responsibilities galleries have towards their artists, what meaningful career development can look like, and why a successful exhibition should never be measured by sales alone.
What led you to establish Liminal Gallery, and what did you want to do differently?
After working in many commercial galleries, gradually working my way from intern to Gallery Director, I had a very clear sense of what I wanted to see in the art world, yet I wasn’t seeing it reflected in many of the galleries around me. When I moved out of London to Margate in 2021, I suddenly had access to an affordable space and the opportunity to establish a gallery of my own.
With Liminal, I wanted to champion diverse and resonant voices, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. I deliberately work with working-class artists, women and queer artists, and I want to ensure that their voices are seen, heard and respected within the art world.
I also work very closely with my artists to develop their careers, build meaningful relationships and create opportunities with their individual ambitions in mind. I believe that is a fundamental part of the gallerist’s role. I hold my relationships with my artists in the highest regard, always.
How do you decide which artists to work with?
I’m very lucky to work with some wonderful artists. Ultimately, I select artists based on the work first. Each of them is making work in a way that I haven’t seen before, whether that is through their use of material, language, application or subject matter. Every artist has developed a completely individual visual language, and that is what excites me.
It also happens that all of my artists are wonderful people. Building a community is something I consider an important part of the gallerist’s role, so bringing these artists together to support one another, inspire each other or simply cheer each other on is hugely important to me.
What does meaningful career development look like for an artist beyond securing an exhibition?
I think that depends entirely on the artist and what their individual ambitions are. For some, making art full-time is the ultimate goal. For others, it might be seeing their work acquired by a museum, reaching a particular audience or simply getting their work out into the world. For some artists, it is about making the work and having someone else take care of everything around it.
There isn’t one definition of a successful career in art. It is for the individual artist to decide what is meaningful to them, and my role is then to facilitate that ambition and work out the steps needed to make it happen.
You have spoken about the barriers facing working-class artists. Which barriers do you think galleries can address directly?
The most direct way I address this is by exhibiting the artists. I don’t care whether they are able to make art full-time, who their parents are, what their educational background is or how many followers they have on social media. I allow the work to speak to me.
If an artist has a genuinely unique point of view, a visual language that is completely their own, and they are someone I want to work with, then I want to show their work, if they’ll have me!
How do you balance the commercial demands of running a gallery with your commitment to inclusion?
I think this question implies that underrepresented artists don’t sell their work, which is quite the opposite of my experience. A more relevant question for me would be how I balance the commercial demands of running a gallery with my interest in installation and experimentation.
The answer is in the question: balance. Liminal is the smallest gallery in the UK, at only six square metres and triangular in shape, so it lends itself incredibly well to installation. I’ve had some amazing artists take over the space and create completely immersive worlds within it. These exhibitions are often not selling exhibitions, but they play a huge role in another aspect of the gallery that is incredibly important to me: making the gallery feel accessible to everyone.
Coming from a working-class family myself, my family never felt as though they could simply walk into a gallery. My grandmother was a hobby painter later in life, and she was the person who took me to the one local museum that had a small gallery space featuring local painters. That introduction sparked a deep love of art in me.
It also showed me that the art world can be a flawed and intimidating place, and that we need people within it who find ways to bring people across the threshold and show them that it can be a friendly place where everyone is welcome. Installation can be a really powerful way of doing that. It gives people a reason to come in, talk to me and realise that it isn’t a scary place. They are welcome to browse, ask questions and have a chat, with absolutely no obligation.
Of course, as a commercial gallery, I need to sell work to keep the lights on. But my overheads are small enough that at least once a year I can give myself the freedom to really experiment with an artist and play with the space. That sense of play is incredibly important to me. We shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously, and we should always leave room for creativity to take over.
What have you learned from building long-term relationships with artists?
I’ve learned that if I want to work with an artist, one of the most valuable things I can give them is complete creative freedom and the confidence that I trust them implicitly.
I trust their instincts as artists, particularly when it comes to the direction of their practice and the development of exhibitions. Too often I hear about gallerists micromanaging an artist’s output, and it makes my skin crawl. A strong, long-term relationship between an artist and a gallerist is built on an enormous amount of trust from both sides.
How has Margate shaped Liminal Gallery’s programme and its relationship with audiences?
Community is everything in Margate. It means sharing resources, supporting each other’s successes, turning up to exhibitions and lifting each other up. It takes a huge amount to shift attention away from London, and Margate is achieving that through the strength of the community that has been built here. Dame Tracey Emin is very much at the epicentre of that. What she is doing for Margate is phenomenal, and I feel incredibly lucky to be part of the art world here.
That sense of community extends beyond the art world itself and reaches our audiences, including the huge number of visitors who come to Margate from all over the world throughout the year.
I love talking to anyone who comes into the gallery. There is a very particular friendliness to Margate, and people here genuinely want to talk. That openness and informality have become a really important part of how Liminal operates.
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- Fipsi Seilern -Something About Etna © Liminal Gallery
Your podcast gives artists space to discuss their work in depth. Has hearing them speak changed how you present their work in the gallery?
For me, the podcast gives me an incredible insight into both the work and the artist behind it. I can then use that knowledge when speaking to visitors who come into the gallery. So perhaps it hasn’t physically changed how I present the work, but it has definitely changed how I speak about it and the insights I’m able to share directly from the artist.
There is something special about sitting down for an hour to record a podcast. It seems to open up something completely new, and very often we end up discussing things that haven’t come up when we’ve met in the artist’s studio or at the gallery. I don’t know exactly what it is, but whatever it is, I love it.
I haven’t recorded a new podcast for a while, although I have a backlog of recordings waiting to be edited and released, which I’m determined to get through this year. Watch this space…
What makes a successful exhibition for you, even when success cannot be measured by sales?
A successful exhibition is one that brings someone into the gallery who doesn’t usually visit galleries. It is also about the conversations it inspires.
I love talking to visitors about the work in an exhibition, and some of those conversations can be genuinely fascinating. There are so many different points of view, interpretations and points of connection. Sales are obviously important to the sustainability of a commercial gallery, but they certainly aren’t the only indicator of a successful exhibition in my eyes.
What do you wish more collectors understood about supporting emerging artists?
That it is incredibly important. Who will become the next generation’s household-name artist? We need to support emerging artists now: buying their work, sharing it, talking about it and helping to build audiences around their practices.
Artists need that support at the beginning of their careers in order to develop ambitious, sustainable practices and go on to build the careers they deserve.
How would you like the relationship between independent galleries and artists to evolve?
I would really like to see galleries stop paying their artists last.
We have seen the same formula repeated this year: a gallery experiences financial difficulties, artists are the first people to stop being paid, then the bills, then eventually the gallery itself, before bankruptcy is declared. The artists lose every single time.
I always pay my artists first. Without them, the gallery wouldn’t exist. They are always my priority, but somehow some galleries have allowed their priorities to become completely inverted. I don’t agree with that at all, and I think there needs to be greater protection for artists when galleries become financially unstable.
What advice would you give an artist approaching a gallery for the first time?
I always remind artists that working with a gallery is a two-way relationship. Rather than approaching every gallery you can find, take the time to really research them. Find out what their ethos is, how they work with their artists, what they show and how their programme aligns with your own practice. Finding a gallery with the same outlook as you is incredibly important. You have to trust them completely if you are going to allow them to become a custodian of your work and your career.
Once you have found a gallery that feels like the right fit, send the Director a portfolio of around 10 works that really summarise your practice. Choose work that you are proud of and that demonstrates the direction your practice is taking now. Include full details of the works, including prices, along with your biography and CV.
After sending it, if you are able to, pop into the gallery and introduce yourself. Show a genuine interest in the gallery, its programme and the artists it represents. Hopefully, a real relationship can grow from there.
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