Regina Gallery’s London outpost to close in April

The London branch of the Regina Gallery, Russia’s largest commercial art gallery, will be closing its doors at the end of April, after three years in the capital. Vladimir Ovcharenko, owner of Regina, told RIA Novosti: “The reason behind is the closure is because we want to focus more on the Russian sector. There’s lots of potential here.”

Since opening in Mayfair in central London in April 2010, Regina has exhibited a number of prominent artists including Pavel Pepperstein, Alexei Kallima and Oleg Kulik.

The gallery will also be parting ways with two of its most high-profile artists, Arseny Zhilyaev and Evgeny Antufiev. Although both artists told Artguide.ru that there were no hard feelings behind the decision to leave, Zhilyaev added that the gallery had not succeeded in selling his work.

Zhilyaev said: “I always considered myself in the category of artists for the sake of Regina’s image, the ones who create a certain kind of publicity for the gallery. I am well aware that my works are very difficult to sell and that today, in principle, nothing is going to change this situation … Still, when an artist agreed to work with this or that commercial gallery, then he rightly expects that they intend to sell his work. And so far this hasn’t happened. I need a gallery that will attempt to work with the type of art that I make.”