Marc Valli, the co-founder of Magma — the beloved London art book and print shop with outposts in Covent Garden, Clerkenwell, and Manchester — launched ELEPHANT in 2009 at a time when most magazines were retreating from print. The name was a provocation: Valli wanted to tackle the apparent elephant in the room of contemporary art culture, breaking down the walls between fine art, graphic design, fashion photography, and illustration that the art world seemed determined to keep standing.
Over more than a decade, ELEPHANT grew into one of Britain's most distinctive art publications, distributed in nineteen countries and designed by a succession of acclaimed art directors — from Matt Willey to Kellenberger-White. Its tone was direct, sincere, and multidisciplinary. The magazine championed emerging artists long before the institutional world caught up, and it led critical debates on race, sex, class, and gender in the arts with a fearlessness that larger publications rarely matched. In 2018, the brand expanded into a physical space — Elephant West, a converted petrol station in White City designed by architects Liddicoat & Goldhill — before the pandemic intervened.
The magazine's journey has included several changes of ownership, from Laurence King Publishing to the Colart Group, and periods of turbulence that tested its editorial independence. But at its best, ELEPHANT represented something rare: an art publication that treated every creative discipline equally, cared deeply about emerging talent, and refused to be confined by the conventional boundaries of the art world.
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