In 2007 SaLon Gallery (curated by Samir Ceric) realised its concept to advocate and assist the dynamic art scene emerging from the UK. Its mission is to discover, mentor and promote the country’s most talented recent art graduates (from art schools such as Royal Academy of Arts, Goldsmiths, Glasgow School of Art and The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art) and give them the opportunity to showcase their work in a professional gallery environment. The SaLon Gallery team ensures it selects the best new emerging artists through extensive research: travelling to graduate shows across the country, visiting artists’ studios and collaborating with universities. Promoting young talent to a wider audience, thus making art accessible to all, is a key concept behind SaLon Gallery. Moreover, the gallery places an importance on educating and informing young graduate artists about how to survive and succeed in the commercial art world.

SaLon Gallery’s shows have featured successful young artists already critical acclaimed, such as the Royal Academy’s Samuel Jackson, the Slade’s Ian Larson and the winner of Saatchi’s ’4 New Sensations’ show Sarah Maple.

SaLon Gallery has forged partnerships in both Moscow and New York. In June 2008 SaLon Gallery’s ‘UK’s Future Greats’ exhibition was launched in NY (White Box gallery, 525 West 26th St, Chelsea), a gallery run and managed by the established curator Juan Puentes, in New York in order to present to New York a vanguard of seminal, breakthrough artists from the UK and create a buzz around the progressive art scene which is emerging.

Also in 2008 SaLon Gallery will host an exhibition in its own space in West London entitled ‘Moscow’s Future Sensations’, which will showcase the Moscow’s emerging avant-garde art scene. Recent graduates from the UK will benefit from this creative exchange and the opportunity to showcase their art outside the UK.

In May 2008 SaLon Gallery embarked on a series of guest lectures talking to students about the professional art environment while educating and informing them about survival and success in the commercial art world. Talks would include information on how to price artwork correctly, how to present work so that it would appeal to dealers and collectors and the possible dangers arising within the commercial art world, such as the lack of a formal agreement with a dealer. Moreover, students will also get an insight into what makes art highly collectable and sought after, such as the media and subject matter that collectors and dealers find most appealing.

Mr Ceric is a member of the Contemporary Art Society and patron of Serpentine Future Contemporaries.