decision to \u201ctransition\u201d away<\/a> from the traditional gallery format. \u201cIt\u2019s about breaking the system apart a little bit, and, in finding Freeny, I found this amazing way to show art and slow the process down,\u201d Scarry says. \u201cWe do artist talks, we engage with community. People always make the comparison with Hauser & Wirth, but it’s not trying to be that. It’s not a restaurant, it’s not a cafe, it’s a bohemian destination for people just to come and really engage. And through that, we sell art as well, which is where I come in.\u201d<\/p>\nThe gallery\u2019s current show is of previously unseen works from the estate of the British abstract artist Jane Harris (1956\u20132022), in partnership with Prue O\u2019Day, on behalf of Harris\u2019s husband, Jiri Kratochvil and son, George Kratochvil. Harris, who died from cancer aged 65, moved to P\u00e9rigord in rural France in 2006, and her work remains better known across the Channel than in the UK\u2014an exhibition of her work opens at FRAC Limoges in October 2025. The exhibition is in fact dual location. The Fugitives, in Somerset (until 2 August), focuses on Harris\u2019s large-scale abstract works, many of them using the metallic paint that she started to use in her later works. Prices for these rhythmic, shimmering works range up to around \u00a360,000, with works on paper starting at around \u00a31,500. Meanwhile, the second iteration, Aloof (until 31 July), christens Close\u2019s new London project space, at 23 Balcombe Street in Marylebone, and focuses on Harris\u2019s meticulously rendered smaller works.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing is you get to see the whole studio from when she was 16 years old and wanted to be a garden designer\u2014she was completely infatuated with 17th century French design,\u201d Yianni says, walking into one of the Somerset galleries hung with her large-scale abstracts.<\/p>\n
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Aimee Parrott, Hum (2024), included in After Nature<\/p>\n
Courtesy the artist and CLOSE ltd<\/p>\n
This autumn Close will present a monumental sculpture by the British artist Simon Hitchens at Frieze Sculpture in Regents Park, London (18 September-2 November). The monolithic Bearing Witness To Things Unseen is a new version of a 2022 work from Hitchens\u2019s Shadow series. Running alongside this presentation is a group exhibition at Close in Somerset titled After Nature (13 September-25 October). Curated by Ben Tufnell, a former Tate curator and co-founder of the London gallery Parafin which closed last year, the exhibition brings together Land Art greats such as Bristol-based Richard Long and David Nash with a younger generation of artists who also respond to nature\u2014and the havoc wreaked by humans upon it\u2014in their work. Artists include Aimee Parrott, Nissa Nishikawa, Onya McCausland, Fred Sorrell and Lotte Scott, alongside Hammick and Hitchens, working in media spanning sculpture, ceramics, drawing, painting and photography\u2014a significant mud work by Long will be installed in one of the capacious barn galleries.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy heart went out to Ben Tufnell when his gallery closed down,\u201d Yianni says. She recounts Tufnell suggesting that he curate a show at Close, after she called him to see how they could collaborate. \u201cI said, Well, I’m really interested in identifying the new Land Artists, because we work with people like Lotte Scott and Simon Hitchens, who are based in the West Country and grounded in nature. So, we started this ball rolling, and now we have this wonderful show opening called After Nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scarry chimes in: \u201cOne of the things Freeny is very good at is holding space for people, whether physically or intellectually.\u201d He points to the Richard Long mud painting which will be included in After Nature. \u201cWe have a long enough gallery space to install it\u2026when you look at one of the mud paintings and you’re in Lisson, or Gagosian or Zwirner in New York say, it feels quite abstract, there\u2019s a disconnect. But out here, you\u2019re back to the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the art world thinks of Somerset, most think of a few square miles in the east of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[6185,228,226,227,6188,229,88,9543],"class_list":{"0":"post-48479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-market","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-commercial-galleries","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-exhibitions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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