Meet the 173 Annual Open Selectors: Paul Hedge
Taking place between 12 September 2026 and 3 January 2027, our Annual Exhibition features both emerging talent and established names, spanning painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, architecture, sculpture, and mixed-media installation. It represents some of the most exciting artists working across the UK and beyond today.
Selection is overseen by a panel of guest experts alongside RWA Academicians. This year, we are delighted to welcome Sheryll Catto, Ceri Hand, and Paul Hedge as our guest panellists.
Paul Hedge is an art dealer and art collector, and is the Co-Owner/Founder, of Hales Gallery (London/New York), opened in 1992 with his business partner Paul Maslin.
During his time in the art world, Hedge has served on the boards of The Contemporary Art Society and The Society of London Art Dealers. He has lectured extensively and has acted as an advisor to artists and collectors.
Today, Hales Gallery represents a wide array of international artists and artists estates including Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Basil Beattie RA, Jordan Ann Craig, Martyn Cross, Anthony Cudahy, Ken Kiff and Kay Walkingstick.
We caught up with Paul to find out more about his career, thoughts on the contemporary art world and what he is excited about for this year's Open.
In a similar way to the RWA, your gallery is committed to fostering emerging talents as well as celebrating historic pieces. What is your drive behind this vision?
It is my contention that all artistic ideas come from somewhere. They do not simply fall from heaven, and only very occasionally (and contrary to popular belief) does an idea arrive in an artist's head in a moment of creative genius.
For most artists, ideas and skills develop from looking, studying, thinking and making in parallel. These skills are honed over years.
Therefore, a lineage of artists spanning generations and interested in similar ideas seems quite natural to me. There may well be societal and technological difference that affect the way in which things are expressed but for the most part the universal interests of human beings remain the same.
I have always liked the idea of creating a cultural context for artistic expression by bringing together artists from different generations within the same programme. I think it's good for a gallery to not only represent the work of a single artist but also to find ways to explain it beyond its own boundaries.
Work made by living artists of all generations, shown alongside works from historical estates seems to me to be the best way to explain artistic movements and ideas in a mutually supportive way.
This has been part of the thinking of Hales for the past 34 years.
What advice would you give early career artists who are looking to promote the sale of their work?
Young artists wishing to promote, show and sell their work do not need to be invited or asked to participate by art dealers or curators. More than anything, it is imperative that they get together with other likeminded artists and do stuff themselves. My advice is to get on with it, use all tools and connections at your disposal at any given time and find a way of connecting.
There is nothing more attractive to people like me than the idea that there is a group of artists doing something special and of their own making, that I have no clue about.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that open exhibitions and competitions should be ignored.
I want to be surprised, amazed and everything in between. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to unearth a diamond in the rough or a ruby in the dust?
As a collector, what are your favorite pieces in your personal collection and why?
This is a difficult question to answer as it changes all of the time. My life has been an ongoing series of love affairs with art, from childhood onwards. I share the collection with my partner Jane. She is an active participant in the process of hunting down and discovering the art works we own together. Not everything is up on the wall or out on show at any one time and now that I am in my 60s, storage is an issue. Maybe it's a bit cruel to ask an art dealer what his favourite pieces are? (I say this laughingly.)
I have art works collected in all periods of my life. Some purchased when I was as poor as a church mouse and had to scramble the money together, and others when I was better off. Surrounding myself with them has a significant spiritual value to me.
The circumstances of their purchase, the connections to artists, the unearthing of something thrilling, the hard work to bring in artist to prominence..... All of these things play a part in the wonder of owning art.
How do you consider which artists and artworks will appeal to audiences?
I have no idea which art works will appeal to anybody else and I think it’s a very bad idea to second guess what collectors might want . Everything I have done on a gallery level has been initially based on personal taste and enthusiasm.
The job of an art dealer is to present and make a case for art that excites them. Our job is that of being tastemakers rather than following the tastes of others.
There is nothing more rewarding for me than to work with likeminded colleagues to research and make a case for an artist's career , develop a collector base and build upon it to the point where there is a defined market where once there was none.
As part of the selection process, what are you interested in discovering?
If I knew what I was interested in discovering, then being on the selection panel would be a chore and not a pleasure. I want to be surprised, amazed and everything in between. I don’t want to be bored by seeing stuff I feel obligated to include.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to unearth a diamond in the rough or a ruby in the dust?