Looking for a place to experience emerging talent? Look no further: the BBNR Gallery is opening its doors to art lovers around Islington this month.
Based in Canonbury, this gallery is the passion project of Monika Bobinska and partner Barbara Brownlee. Together, they provide emerging artists with a space to get inventive – all from the comfort of their own home. The gallery has been constructed in Bobinska’s garage, with the aim of creating a more intimate space for people to get together and talk about art.
The pandemic stalled the gallery’s planned opening, though its doors finally opened in February. “We just decided, to heck… we would definitely open and just see how it went.” Brownlee explained. “And if you can fit it in on our daily walk, you can get in without touching anything.”
Creatives and art lovers are currently being asked to schedule a visiting time via email. The couple are relying on artists to spread the word of their latest installation. Rae Hicks, a London-based artist who paints brightly coloured landscapes, has had his work promoted on the gallery’s Instagram, increasing support and engagement.
Thanks to this wider reach and the gallery’s presence on Instagram, people have been getting in touch from as far away as New Zealand and Austria to buy art pieces. Bobinska said, “We’ve been posting them online, and people have been loving them.”
As an industry veteran, Bobinska has had more than 20 years’ experience running galleries. This has included both Monika Bobinska Gallery and Lounge, with one of her previous collaborators, Laure Provost, winning the Turner Prize in 2013. Her plan is for the gallery to feature a rotating selection of up-and-coming artists. “In the programme, we want to have quite a lot of changes of gear, I suppose. Ideally, you’ll come in and it’ll be within the same sort of ethos but it’ll be unpredictable… it’s not going to be exactly the same sort of set-up you saw last time.”
Later in the year, the pair are planning on featuring Louise Ashcroft, a female performance artist whose show will be video-based. Until then, painter and sculptor Hicks is installed until 18 April. “I find his work quite humorous in lots of ways,” Bobinska said. “All those little paintings, I mean, they’re amazing because they’re so strong and a tiny painting can hold a whole wall, but they’re also quite mischievous.”
Though the market might be tough, the pair remain optimistic about the potential of their home gallery. “Artists have become much more able to sell their own stuff. They’re much more resourceful with it,” Bobinksa said. “Whereas we see it as, if you know you have a solo show offered to you, you do something really amazing, because you’ve been shown this particular space and you know, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ It really galvanises you.”
