Where I had my studio in Barcelona for a few years is a spot called Bien Cuadrado. It's in the gothic quarter. A really central and down a little roman looking alley. Basically from the outside it looks like just a little gallery, at the entrance there is a little room and a long hall, and that’s where they do exhibitions. At the far back of the hall is the access to the art studios, where I work.  

My fellow artist Ash, who also runs the space, asked if us Bien Cuadrado studio artists, would like to put on a collective pop up exhibition in the gallery section and show-case a few pieces each and make an event out of it.

It sounded like a great idea to me, a good chance to show what I have been working on lately (portraits) and meet new people in the art world. It also just seemed like something fun to do all do together – we are all friends at the studio too so I thought it should be fun.

The only issue is that the idea came up for the exhibition about 4 days before the date set – Saturday 19th January.

I was quite busy during that week and couldn’t get to the studio to finish off the pieces I wanted to show until the day before, Friday 18th. I left the studio at about 12:30 am that night. As I was about to leave Andrew arrived to the studio, to also finish off some pieces. The next day i heard he had stayed working there until 5 am.

The next day, before the event, I still had to write and print out the descriptions of each painting and a bio about me. I thought I had plenty of time before the exhibition opened at 6 30 pm to do this and also hang up (the still drying) paintings onto the wall.

However, my causal, easy breezy idea of what exhibition day would be was not how it happened. Below is a chronological and detailed timeline of what actually happened. What you should take from this timeline is not to be like me if you ever have an exhibition, or like my fellow artist friends. Please.

Saturday

1 pm

Because my laptop keyboard broke, I decided to see if I could use the local library on the Ramblas to type up my art bio and print it to have it on the wall so people knew my name and info about the portrait series.

However, I arrived outside the library at 1pm and because its Spain (really no other explanation) it was very much already closed. Panick started to sink in a little. I walked around a bit to a very ghetto Gotico computer shop but it was closed too. I sat down in Plaza Real to google where I could go to get this done asap, I didnt want to present my work without even my name next to it…

By the way, because the library is just a few blocks from my house I had gone down in sweatpants and a man’s tshirt, thinking I would go there and then straight back. So, yes, yes I had my manly pijamas on. Zero makeup, shitty hair.

1 30 pm

Too scared to waste more time going to closed internet cafes I decided to go to Ciarans (my lovely boy) to use his computer and printer. I phoned him and he was lovely as usual, he said he was very happy for me to come use his things then leave. I said I’m on route to the metro and hung up.

1 45 pm

Rushing, so mess up getting the metro and go the wrong direction like a dick. Because I change rail sides my metro ticket then didnt work again. I had to ask a guy if I could sneak in behind him while he went through the barries. This metro scandal set me back about 15 unnecessary minutes.

2 30 pm

Arrive to Ciarans, panick writing and printing. Get it done though! Ciaran cooked a lovely breakfast in the meanwhile I typed away, so got fed too which was great. Used his stuff a bit more, ate his food, gave him a kiss and ran off. He said he would come by later to the exhibition, I was happy.

430 pm

Arrived to studio to set up and organize.

4 55 pm

Cannot get nails into the wall to hang my paintings on. Andrew keeps telling me to go buy thinner nails but I literally have an hour and a half before people arrive and I am in pijamas with no paintings on the wall. Panick. Also, below is how the gallery looked still an hour before the door opening to the public. It was still a mess.

5 15pm

Finally I give up trying to find other nails around the studio or to hammer the fat thick stupid ones that did not want to work, and decide to sprint next door (which is another art studio space) and see if they have any nails I can have. I really didn’t have time to go all the way to the shop.

I speak to the owner next door, he does not say what I would like to hear in this moment of chaos, instead he says with a curling smirk on his face “This is what happens when you leave putting up an exhibition to the last minute”. My eyes are literally rolling into the back of my head while I snatch the nails out of his hand and run away, no time for lectures here Pablo, or Juan. Whatever your name is, prick. “Get the nails and go” I think and do. Bye Pedro. Thanks, for not much.

5 30 pm

Nails and paintings are finally up on the wall. Not perfect, Andrew is not very happy with my hanging skills. I don’t care.

5 40 pm

Paper cards are on the wall. They were cut like a 3 year old’s but they were on the wall, I was happy. Everything looked pretty much done. Except me, un showered, dusty, dirty, sweaty, in men’s pyjamas.

Clean up the studio a bit and run off.

6 05 pm

Got home (its 2 mins away from studio at least)

6 30 pm

Got out of shower. The pop up exhbition had officially started. I was thinking “its Spain, the standard is to be 30 minutes late”, which meant I had some time to get ready, definetly had to drink some wine and smoke something to calm the nerves too.

6 35pm

2+ glasses of wine down. Oops.

6 55pm

Exhibition started at 630, and I was still ‘getting ready’ at home. Smoking a lot. And chugging wine to ‘relax’. Hiding.

7 03 pm

Got a hold of myself at last…. kind of. A whole bottle of wine nearly down me…. I proceeded to leave for the exhibit after taking a few selfies (standard).

7 07 pm

I ran into Andrew  outside mine (which is around the corner from the studio). By this time I was already a bit fucked, and now even more confused… “Why are we both standing in the street and not in the gallery when its our exhibition going on right now…” I think. Andrew interrupts my hazy thoughts as he says he’s leaving to go home to get changed. Im thinking what the hell is wrong with us, he is leaving his own exhibition, and I haven’t even arrived.

I started to panick about him leaving, as he says just one other artist had arrived to the exhbition. Basically he just left a bunch of confused strangers in the gallery by themselves.

But then, he proceeds to say that Ash, who is the only one who has the keys to the main door shutters of the entrance door to the gallery, has not arrived yet, as Ash thought the exhibition started later on at 730pm (like seriously what is wrong with us), so the shutters are closed. Closed shutters, the entrance door is closed.

Andrew is leaving.

I hadn’t arrived.

The shutters and main door were closed.

The event started over 30 minutes ago.

” Run”. I tthink to myself.

7 10 pm

Andrew calms me down (not at all) saying that people are arriving and are confused, they are having to use the shitty side door to enter the gallery, confirming its not the end of the world. He then actually proceeds to leave, leaving me alone in the street, heart racing, sweating again, confused, panick.

7 15pm

Cigarette x 2

7 20 pm

Finally arrived nearly an hour late to my own event, when I live next door, to a group of confused people lingering outside and looking at their google maps and looking around, “Yep, you guys have arrived. ” I thought, however I said nothing to them.

The closed shutters stared at me fiercely as I walked in through the shitty side door that go into the apartments’ hallway, where you then have to open another door to the right and go into the gallery. The people behind me from outside started to follow cautiously. I still didn’t say anything or even look at them.

The Show

I walked into the pop up exhibit and there were already quite alot of people there, no one I recognized which was good in a way.

But of all nights why did they have to punctual this one night?

I did not see any other fellows artist there, except Lois, were where my other 5 fellow exhibitors not there yet? I decided I was a bit messed up from drinking and smoking too much too fast, and that the best thing was to hide in my studio alone at the back and drink fanta, as you do. (I always, always have a stash of fanta at the studio, Kennan and Kel was my favourite TV show on Nickeledon when I was growing up you see…).

I came out from my studio cave quite a while later, feeling a bit more hydrated at least. A full 1 litre bottle of fanta in my stomach.

I found out that Ash had finally arrived shortly after me and had opened up the gallery doors.

Andrew had decided to go to the shop to buy deoderant instead of going home and had put some deoderant on so he was happy again and back in the studio.

The other artists had arrived and more people were there. It was pretty busy!

Quite a success!

So the doors were open, there was a Dj, there was wine and beer. There were a lot of people and they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the art.

I had a beer and talked to some people, my friends started to arrive and it was actually lovely. When I realized there wasn’t anything left I could do but enjoy myself, my mood shifted and I felt great (ish).

And my lovely models came out too!

In Conclusion

To wrap up the story, please do not be like me or my dear friends if you ever organise anything, especially not an art exhibition.

Prepare in advance, organise yourselves, don’t leave everything to the last minute because things will always go wrong and its just better to be able to take your time and get to your event not feeling absolutely fucked and anxious.

You might think this is obvious, but hey, not for everyone right? As you can go back to review in the previous section, on my detailed timeline.

Overall, the pop up event was great (ish) fun, I ended up meeting loads (3 tops) of new interesting people and it was very nice to see my friends come out to support me. I would definitely recommend doing a little pop up event to show case your new work, and especially do an event like we did if you share a space with other artists.

In the end as we were 7 artists and we all invited friends and contacts, therefore there was a big crowd at the event, and it was a great success… Even though our beer and wine supply went down in the first 2 hours…. I do believe the homeless guy, who walked in from the street after spotting the wine table from the window, put a few bottles under his coat, but I was not prepared to say anything. It’s fine, better him than me have them to be honest. I was fucked.

Thanks and good luck!

For more pics and videos of the pop up event check out my instagram and my fellow artists instas too!