The October Gallery is one of London’s unique and special art spaces. It has its own identity, not quite purified White Cube its arrangement of spaces and places (including a theatre, a kind of dining area as well as a leafy, open yard) folded away on a Holborn side-street invite the showing and contemplation of contemporary art but also seem to welcome you to sit and get more acquainted with its community.

You first became aware of the gallery when, during the 1990s, and having discovered that your writing was publishable, you decided to focus only on ‘Black and Asian artists in London’, who, at that time, were hard to locate and poorly supported. Then, INiVa (Institute of International Visual Arts) was operating from one office in Whitfield Street, Sonia Boyce and David A. Bailey were tending the AAVA (African & Asian Visual artists Archive) at the University of East…