Skip to main content
Margot Heller

Margot Heller

Title
Honorary Doctor
Person Type
Honorary
Margot Heller

Biography

Honorary Doctor

Since Margot Heller become Director of the South London Gallery in 2001, its footprint has quadrupled and annual visitor figures have increased sevenfold. 

After graduating in History of Art from the University of Sussex and junior roles at a commercial gallery and Tate Gallery, Margot was initially Assistant Curator and finally Director at Southampton City Art Gallery before moving on to be Director of Exhibitions at the Anthony D’Offay Gallery.

She works closely with artists on creating their exhibitions, the secret of the success of numerous solo and group shows with artists ranging from Steve McQueen and Thomas Hirschhorn, through to Katharina Grosse and Oscar Murillo. In 2010 she opened a major expansion of the gallery space, architecturally in keeping with the spirit of its 1891 building. In 2015 an admirer gave the gallery a nearby former Fire Station which opened as a new extension of the SLG in 2018.

Strongly associated with neighbouring Camberwell College of Arts, Margot has embedded the gallery in its local community while firmly establishing its international reputation, with Antony Gormley describing the SLG as the “catalyst for Peckham and Camberwell becoming the artistic hotspot it now is”.