If the name is unfamiliar, that’s because the Jack Bell Gallery, which ran 2010-24, has just been relaunched under the direction and ownership of Oliver Durey – the name is something of a family affair, as Durey adds his name to his wife’s, that being the surname of his sons. The change formalises the position of recent years: Oly had worked closely with Jack for a decade, but Bell decided not to return from his native Australia after the lockdown period. The two of them had by then developed a distinctive international programme, with a predominance of African artists, typically discovered through frequent trips to the continent. Going back to the earliest shows – in Vauxhall Bridge Road – that was where I first saw the sculpted coffins of the Ghanaian artist Paa Joe and the thrones that Gonçalo Mabunda makes from arms recovered in 1992 at the end of the sixteen-year civil war that divided his home of Mozambique. Both are now widely known. The gallery was also where I discovered the Benin-based photographer Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou and the Cameroon painter Boris Nzebo. They remain my favourites, but the gallery’s signature artist is probably the Ivorian Aboudia, something of an auction star these days: he has had regular solo shows since 2011 and is the subject of an impressive new monograph published in collaboration with Rizzoli. The launch was celebrated with a display including the work above.
Currently you can see the London debut of LA-based Massoud Hayoun, who draws on Tunisian, Moroccan and Egyptian heritage. I’m sure it will continue to be worth popping up to the space overlooking White Cube in Mason’s Yard.
London’s gallery scene is varied, from small artist-run spaces to major institutions and everything in between. Each week, art writer and curator Paul Carey-Kent gives a personal view of a space worth visiting.
