“Football and art have mixed for decades, centuries, because artists can use the sport as a reflection of countless facets of society. ”

Interview by Richard Starbuck

An interview with Co-curator/Director of OOF Gallery Eddy Frankel

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background? How did OOF start?

I am a critic from London and have been writing about art for years. I'm Time Out's art and culture editor and a football fan. I had the stupid idea of combining those two apparently disparate facts to create a magazine about five years ago. At the same time, Justin Hammond from J HAMMOND PROJECTS was thinking along similar lines, so we teamed up and made OOF. Now there's three of us, with Jennie Hammond doing most of the work while Justin and I mainly argue over tiny details no one will ever notice. 

After three years of curating exhibitions across London, you opened your first permanent home in a townhouse within the grounds of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2021. You being a Spurs fan this must be a dream come true for you, how did this come about?

It's pretty amazing to come to work in the stadium of the team you support. We had the idea of opening a gallery in Tottenham a while back. Originally we wanted to have a window gallery, something fans would walk past on their way to the game. Someone suggested we ask Spurs if they had any properties we could use, and it turns out they did, and it was a hell of a lot fancier than some old kebab shop. Now our permanent home is in this big beautiful listed building in the stadium. Dreamy.

Football and contemporary art rarely mix, bridging these two worlds must have had its challenges, could you tell us about these challenges and how you have overcome them?

I'd disagree that they rarely mix - if that was true we wouldn't currently be working on our ninth issue, or curating our sixth exhibition. Football and art have mixed for decades, centuries, because artists can use the sport as a reflection of countless facets of society. There's enough art that uses football out there to keep the mag going, and because we now run a gallery, we're constantly commissioning new work. We're creating a future body of work on the subject we care most about. 

What is your process of discovering new artists and the selection process? (apart from being football-related of course)

Football has to be at the heart of what we do, because that's our thing. But that doesn't mean the art has to be strictly about the game - it can be about movement, or passion, or belief, as long as its narrative thread leads back to football. Every time we find a new artist they always say oh I've had this football idea I've wanted to work on for ages, and we say well guess what, now you can, champ. Now you can.

What is a normal day for a contemporary gallerist?

65% worrying about budgets, 15% telling people not to touch the art, 7% telling artists they're brilliant, and 3000% arguing. 

What artwork/show have you seen recently that has resonated with you?

Mike Nelson's installation at Matt's Gallery is the best thing I've seen for ages. Claustrophobic, intense, weird, direct. He's excellent. 

Is there anything new and exciting in the pipeline you would like to tell us about?

Are we going to be working on an exhibition with one of our favourite modern footballers? Are we? Could we be? Is it? I can't say.

Current show: EN-GER-LAND, closes on 20th Feb 2022. Artists: Beatrice Lettice Boyle / Mattia Guarnera-MacCarthy / Evie O’Connor / Conor Rogers / George Shaw

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All images are courtesy of OOF Gallery
Date of publication: 18/02/22