Bo Lee and Workman founders on opening a gallery in Somerset

Bruton’s rise is an odd phenomenon. Fifteen years in the past this small Somerset city was a rural backwater, a fairly however pretty nondescript city recognized primarily for its non-public colleges.

Not now. No, now it’s the place arty Londoners can escape town and nonetheless really feel “seen”—milk options abound, Hauser & Wirth’s manicured farm store sells such necessities as wagyu burgers and kombucha, and also you’re as more likely to see a Jenny Holzer as a Holstein cow.

After all, the sudden opening of Hauser & Wirth’s gallery complicated in town’s outskirts in 2014 has contributed vastly to Bruton’s increase, as did the arrival of close by luxurious resort The Newt in 2019 and earlier than that At The Chapel in 2008, bringing sourdough pizza to the south west.

Now the city has one other gallery—Bo Lee and Workman, first launched final yr by Jemma Hickman, who opened her bo.lee gallery in Bathtub in 2009, aged simply 25, earlier than shifting it to Peckham in 2013, and Alice Workman, who was beforehand senior director of cultural centres Europe at Hauser & Wirth till 2021 (initially becoming a member of to launch the Somerset gallery) and has lived in Bruton for over a decade.

Though the pair began the enterprise in 2022, its everlasting bodily manifestation solely opened in Might this yr, in a former Methodist chapel, sensitively remodelled by Bruton-based Bindloss Dawes architects, at one finish of the excessive road.

Hickman closed her Peckham gallery in the course of the pandemic: “I used to be about to have my second child, and my husband has kind 1 diabetes so neither of us might depart the home. I had this large gallery and three employees, so I wanted to do one thing about it.” They determined to maneuver to Bruton, viewing their now dwelling “within the snow in the course of lockdown.”

Hickman met Workman at a kids’s playdate. “We began hanging out a bit and I used to be saying I needed to relaunch the enterprise,” Hickman says. “Alice had left Hauser already and I requested if she needed to do some consultancy work. After I stated these are the issues I believe the enterprise is lacking, a lightweight went off and she or he stated: ‘I believe these are all of the issues I might give.’ So, we determined to go in collectively as a partnership and relaunch the enterprise as a brand new gallery.”

At first, the plan was to not have a everlasting area—the duo held some pop-up occasions within the space in 2022. But when they did tackle a everlasting area, Hickman says, it “wanted to be a vacation spot gallery, one thing particular, in an effort to draw folks—we didn’t need a excessive road gallery”. So, when the Methodist chapel got here available on the market final yr, they may not resist drawing up a proposal and placing in a proposal. It was, Hickman says, “like shopping for a home if you’ve simply met somebody. However for each of us it felt like the correct factor to do.” Hickman has, she says, “at all times been obsessed by spiritual buildings—the final present I did in Bathtub was in Bathtub Abbey.”

The renovation began in February and completed in Might, in time for the opening present of works by the Cornwall-based artist Jonathan Michael Ray. This was adopted by an exhibition of work by Kim Booker, an artist primarily based in Tracey Emin’s TKE Studios in Margate, final month and now a gaggle exhibition titled Methods of Seeing (till 23 September), impressed by John Berger’s well-known e-book and that includes works by Polly Morgan and Sam Bakewell, Adeline de Monseignat, Des Hughes and John Wooden & Paul Harrison.

As for the artists the gallery represents, a number of have additionally moved to the West Nation from London over the previous 5 years, corresponding to Amy Stephens, who now lives in Bathtub, Will Cruickshank who’s in Devon, and Ray in Cornwall. Slightly than plucking artists straight out of diploma reveals, Bo Lee and Workman like working with these “who’ve a little bit of historical past, maybe have reached a second of their profession once they want a little bit of an additional enhance”. Extra artist representations are set to be introduced later this yr.

However can you actually promote progressive up to date artwork, works that aren’t slightly-abstract-sea-or-landscapes, for five-figure sums in a rural location corresponding to this? Completely, Hickman says: “Enterprise-wise, it’s the very best it’s ever been. For me personally, Bruton has been higher for enterprise than London ever was.” She places this all the way down to the “very transient and aggressive” atmosphere of the capital: “There are such a lot of galleries. Attempting to get folks to come back to reveals was rather more troublesome. Whereas with Peckham folks would whizz out and in of the gallery, right here they’ve a dialog and take their time—our openings are additionally packed.” The gallery predominantly reveals works priced from slightly below £1,000 to only underneath £100,000, promoting to a mixture of native and worldwide consumers—Booker’s works, priced from £950 to £28,000, bought to collectors in Dubai, Hong Kong and New York in addition to these from simply down the highway.

“Having had the gallery in Bathtub, I knew shoppers within the space, and Alice had been right here for 10 years so had a really established community and wonderful information of fairly a distinct finish of the artwork market from me,” Hickman says.

Workman later says over electronic mail: “When Jemma and I met and talked about her gallery, it rapidly grew to become obvious that we might mix our ambitions to create one thing new and genuine in Bruton. Our ideas for working with artists and our community-focused ethos aligned, nevertheless it was additionally clear what strengths as people we might deliver to the partnership.” Whereas Hickman had run her personal enterprise for almost 15 years, Workman had the expertise of working for a mega-gallery corresponding to Hauser & Wirth by a interval of fast growth: “Working for Hauser & Wirth in Somerset and Spain taught me the significance of a holistic method to constructing a group across the gallery. On a a lot smaller scale, Jemma and I are doing one thing comparable in Bruton, bringing collectively a group of artists, collectors and locals.”

Whereas the gallery will not be but doing gala’s—“We wish to do them, however the correct ones,” Hickman says—it would take part in Frieze Sculpture in Regent’s Park, London, this autumn (20 September-29 October) with a chunk by Amy Stephens. The gallery will even maintain a present of the sculptor’s work in Bruton from 29 September to 4 November.

Our distant, digital existences in the course of the pandemic supposedly threatened the way forward for the bodily gallery area and all its related prices. However fairly the alternative appears true—the need for bricks and mortar and the communal expertise of a gallery appears stronger than ever. “I actually missed it,” Hickman says. “The interplay, the power to make an area your individual and supply a safe platform to your artists.” However does she miss London? “No, in no way!”