Charles Thomson had originally intended to buy a
Shoreditch warehouse building with his then-wife,
Stella Vine, but, after the arrangements had been made, she withdrew from the project. He subsequently made the purchase on his own. The Stuckism International Gallery opened July 2002 at 3 Charlotte Road,
Shoreditch, in a four-story Victorian warehouse, away from the
White Cube gallery, which represents
Tracey Emin and
Damien Hirst,
conceptual art which the Stuckists oppose. Thomson lived on the premises, using the ground floor and basement for a studio. He said: :The space was designed to fulfill the belief stated in our manifesto that the best space for art is not a white wall gallery but the more human space of a home (or a musty museum). The main space was my living room. It had sofas and normal home lighting, not gallery spotlights, which create a separation between the art and the viewer. People could come in, sit down, maybe have a cup of tea and experience the art as part of their environment, if they wanted to. The upstairs walls were either brick or painted maroon, and the downstairs a deep green. It was a small oasis in the greyness of the outside environment...
Stephen Howarth was a member of the Students for Stuckism group at
Camberwell College of Arts and in 2002 was "expelled from the painting course for doing paintings." He was given a show, before the official opening of the gallery, with the title ''I Don't Want a Painting Degree if it Means Not Painting''. To celebrate the opening of the gallery, the Stuckists carried a cardboard coffin round to the nearby
White Cube gallery to announce "The Death of Conceptual Art". gallery in
Shoreditch, 25 July 2002. This event also launched the first formal group show at the gallery which was
The First Stuckist International. The show had Stuckist art from around the world including Melbourne, Pittsburgh and the Ivory Coast. It ran till October 2002, reinforcing the Stuckist manifesto endorsement of content, meaning and communication through painting as the most viable contemporary form of art. David Prudames of 24 Hour Museum reviewed the show, "This exhibition of Stuckist work from around the world at a purpose built gallery lays the movement's foundations and states it is here to stay." In October 2002 the Gallery displayed a betting slip by Sean Hall. This was a bet that "Charles Saatchi, the renowned contemporary art collector, will purchase the original of this betting slip for pounds 1,000 or more on or before 31 December 2005." In December 2002 the gallery staged
The Real Turner Prize Show to protest that the
Tate's
Turner Prize should be for paintings. The four artists shown at the gallery—
Ella Guru,
Mandy McCartin,
Paul Harvey and
Charles Williams—shared the Stuckist prize. On 17 April 2003, when the
Saatchi Gallery opened in new premises at
County Hall with a display of
Damien Hirst's work, including
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (a shark in
formaldehyde in a vitrine), the Stuckism gallery displayed a stuffed shark in their window. This 148 kg (325 lb)
golden hammerhead shark had been caught off Florida in 1989, two years before Hirst's work was made, by Eddie Saunders, who displayed it in his Shoreditch shop, JD Electrical Supplies. Thomson asked: :If Hirst’s shark is recognised as great art, then how come Eddie’s, which was on exhibition for two years beforehand, isn’t? "Do we perhaps have here an undiscovered artist of genius, who got there first, or is it that a dead shark isn’t art at all? Not only did Eddie catch it himself — unlike Hirst — but it is also in considerably better condition. :We can’t see why Hirst’s shark was made so much fuss of when Eddie’s has been in a public London venue all this time. A lot of people admired it in his shop, but I doubt that anyone considered it a work of artistic genius. In September 2003, the gallery collaborated with the
Prince of Wales in hosting a charity show and auction with paintings including ones by
Judi Dench,
Jerry Hall and, said Thomson, "a painting from the
BritArt artist
Gavin Turk, who is normally somebody we would attack." The next month, the gallery's scheduled show,
The Real Turner Prize Show, was cancelled because of a dispute with
Gina Bold, one of the artists, over how it should be promoted. In February 2004, the gallery exterior was turned into a 1960s and 1970s sex shop frontage as a set for the BBC2 gangster drama,
The Long Firm (based on the book by
Jake Arnott). In May 2004,
Mounsi was presented with the inaugural 3AM Good Sex Prize at the gallery for his book,
The Demented Dance, after an event which included readings by
Tony White and
Colin MacCabe. Later that month,
Charles Saatchi and his wife,
Nigella Lawson arrived in a black cab to visit the gallery, but failed to gain admission, as Thomson was upstairs drinking coffee and Saatchi did not ring the bell. The last exhibition at the Gallery, in July 2004, was a solo show,
Hysterical Shock, consisting of 12 paintings by
Gina Bold from private collections and named after the title of one of them. It was curated by Louise Urwin and Tom Cowley. Bold was invited to participate in the show, but did not reply or attend it.
La Viande Thomson moved in 2005 and the premises were taken over by La Viande gallery, A large photo was displayed in the gallery window of
Paul Myners, who had made the remark, "Painting is the medium of yesterday", to the Stuckists during their
demonstration in 2004 against the
Turner Prize at
Tate Britain. He had also told them that their popular In February 2008, La Viande staged
Disney Heroines Committing Suicide, a show of two Stuckist artists,
Abby Jackson and
Mark D, the latter's work satirising
Stella Vine's paintings. La Viande closed in July 2008. ==List of shows==