About The Gallery
Cristus is an exciting new contemporary arts gallery located in the picturesque seaside village of Sandgate, just 1.5 miles from Folkestone, with its unique arts-led regeneration programme. The gallery exhibition space is housed in a late-Georgian shop on the old High Street, which runs parallel to the beach. The perfect place for a seaside gift shoppe, perhaps; but the aims at Cristus are more ambitious - to offer original artwork that is innovative and of exceptional quality, and yet affordable. To achieve these aims, careful consideration has been given to the use of the exhibition space. Artists have been limited in number and selected by a gallery panel that includes both directors and exhibitors. Together, they seek to avoid the sale of mass produced art and have therefore focused on up-and-coming work from committed artists in a range of media. On opening day, 11th January 2009, exhibitors will include a photographer, a ceramicist, a glass designer, an etcher/printer and three painters. Only three of these artists are established and the rest are eager to build reputations from now, at Cristus Gallery.
The original artwork will always be available to buy, either at the gallery or through this website, but in some cases the exhibiting artists have agreed to the production of limited edition prints of their work. These prints are produced at the gallery to full archival standards and with the active involvement of the artists. Every care is taken to represent the original in colour, tone and texture. And to maintain exclusivity, the gallery has determined that the print runs will never exceed 40, including proofs, and will often be limited to only 10. These prints are offered signed, numbered and mounted, but can also be framed to customers’ requirements. Commercially produced prints by other artists, whether limited or open edition, will not be offered at Cristus.
Core to the work at Cristus will be finding and nurturing talented artists and bringing them to the notice of collectors. This will be achieved by attending as many exhibitions as possible, as well as running our own events and competitions. Space is limited at the gallery, so tough decisions will have to made to keep the walls fresh and exciting. And, of course, there is this website, which we hope will be used by a whole community of artists and art lovers.
