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Step inside miłość (‘love’ in Polish), where each exhibition is curated to showcase both emerging and established artists in a welcoming, thoughtfully designed space. Founding director Aleksandra Moraś pays attention to every detail, from the artworks to the visitor experience. I’ve long admired her dedication to giving artists opportunities to present meaningful, distinctive work, and I spoke to her about how she started the gallery, her approach to curating, and what’s next for miłość.
Interview and profile picture by Brynley Odu Davies
Styling by Ioana Moisoiu.
Why did you decide to start miłość? Was having a gallery always something you wanted to do?
I wanted to have a gallery because I wanted to curate a programme. It’s a bit of a different approach to curating independently because it becomes something regular with a rhythm to it which also grows with you, and I wanted to have this sort of continuity – presenting personal, political, honest work, with each show creating space and time to engage with it. I like slow things, I like to focus on things, and I like to have space for nuance and unpacking layers and ambiguity.
How does your Polish background influence the gallery and your approach to the London art scene?
I was talking to Anna Choutova the other day about hosting and entertaining, about the pleasure that comes from this kind of comprehensive consideration and attention to detail. Like when you come over and there’s fresh flowers on the table, there might be candle light, good music, good food, dessert, coffee – and you can see the care and ritual that has gone into the presentation and it makes you feel welcome, good and relaxed.
I went to Anna’s dinner party a few weeks ago, she made beautiful cocktails, and she kept bringing out bowls of ice for everyone, because it was the hottest night of the year. I like curating to be more about hosting. And it’s this visible cultural, political divide between western and central-eastern Europe. In the UK, the visitor is not treasured. While we instinctually want to indulge and entertain and pamper, and so I think that’s the main influence.
What’s been your biggest challenge running a gallery at a young age, and how have you tackled it?
A year in now, I think what’s been hard is saying no sometimes and limiting ourselves to what won’t burn us out in the long term. The gallery wouldn’t be here without my wonderful friends and family who plastered and painted walls, advised, gallery-sat, handled and transported works, documented them, and trusted me to show their work. Also, delusion helps with challenges but, as my wonderful partner put it, it doesn’t always pay bills. On the rare occasion it does.
You’ve already put on amazing shows, how does it feel to showcase emerging talent and give them a platform?
Thank you so much! As a baby gallery, working with baby artists is a lot of responsibility, care and thinking in long-term big-picture goals and sustainable career growth. It is obviously totally rewarding and beautiful.
How do you balance running the gallery day-to-day with curating and planning exhibitions?
Christina Voulgari told me last week that creativity is a muse which visits you sometimes and sometimes she goes on holiday. I coordinate accordingly. She also said, ‘we are surrounded by decay, so let’s focus’ which I also think is good advice.
Why is it important for you to give representation in the art world, and how does that guide the work you do?
There is undeniable value in representation, but I don’t think the gallery is guided by it. I don’t like labels and policing, I find it very limiting and bias-prone. I think there is nuance to all experiences, and that nuance is what I’m interested in rather than representing a particular experience. The wide enough label I think describes the programme well is oppositional. And love, of course.
How has your life changed since opening the gallery, and how has the gallery been received in London and Poland?
I’ve worked with many Polish artists, but I never worked in galleries in Poland and I don’t have a huge network there, so when I went to Warsaw last May, it was quite surprising to me that people knew miłość and remembered shows we’d put up. In London, so many people have expressed this true belief in miłość and what we show, it’s been so very touching. I’ve been obsessing over cherries over the last few months, and after I told one of my local collector-turned-friends about the show, a week later he randomly brought me cherries to the gallery one day. We have regulars who come to every show and always check out new books. Another collector I met through the gallery is now one of my closest friends. The artists I admire come to me with ballsy projects because they trust miłość is the space for them. It’s a totally mad love affair.
Tell me more about Cherry Bomb!
Cherry Bomb! is this intrusive thought I’ve had for a while, when I saw Kate Burling’s cherry paintings and I said to her and Olivia Sterling, ‘oh my god, you guys should do a cherry show’. And then I pitched it to other artists, and they were really into it, and so Cherry Bomb! grew to be Kate Burling, Douglas Cantor, Anna Choutova, Nettle Grellier, Gosia Kołdraszewska, Lydia Pettit, Olivia Sterling and Sophie Vallance Cantor. Together, their interpretations of the cherry and its symbolism created this beautiful story about sweetness and rebellion, and the nausea and nostalgia that come along with them. The show also marks the first birthday of miłość, so come along to the opening (12 Sept, 6-9pm) to celebrate with us and have some Polish cherry vodka!
Looking ahead, what excites you most for the future of the gallery?
I adore this autumnal shift and the back to school season, and we have such exciting things planned for the weeks ahead. On the evening of 12 September, we’re opening Cherry Bomb! and – together with Alma Pearl, Loop, Final Hot Desert and Seventeen – premiering the Haggerston Gallery Map with coordinated late opening hours and private views (6-9pm). On that same weekend, we’ll be showcasing our artists’ books at the GLUE book fair at the ICA together with bruise studio from Berlin. I am also so, so excited for publishing our first gallery book, ‘A Rosa is a Rose’ by Douglas Cantor, which is a poetry book and will come out on 9 Oct alongside the opening of Douglas’s painting show at the gallery. And the week after, we’re going to be showing a multimedia presentation of Maite de Orbe’s work at Minor Attractions!