THE LARGEST PRIVATE ART SPACE IN BRISTOL IS RIGHT HERE

At the HERE building, this hum is VISUAL. The thrum of making things happen – of new, and more, being done – isn’t hidden behind the doors which conceal COVID surviving small and medium sized accounts and agencies, tech start ups and comms thought leaders. The corridors have evolved to become one of Bristol’s largest art spaces. And without an easel in site.

What started as a show of support to a few local artists, has now crept along every walkway and public space, to create an almost Guggenheim like gallery, hosting more than 60 pieces of visual from up-and-coming and established artists, all produced in Bristol.

HERE has succeeded in its aim to exist as a gallery, at one and the same time a literal four-wall space adorned with paintings and prints, but more poetically, and a canvas of spaces, each one a vision of a business wrought in the minds and hearts of business founders and their teams. In fact, the metaphorical latter gave rise to the former. Bristol’s finest have turned HERE into a living gallery, inside and out.

The corridors of HERE are currently alive with several solo shows, as well as pieces lent from private collections and the artists themselves. A current favourite amongst visitors and staff, is the neo-classical animal-human portraiture of Julian Quaye, whose ‘parallel-universe naturalism’ features in the reception and ground-floor meeting areas.

‘Gallery’ is no exaggeration. HERE really is more than just pictures on walls. All the art displayed is for sale. Spaces become great places when their occupants are encouraged to grow of their own accord. HERE continues to be a greenhouse for the seeds of creativity, with every wall, inside and out, home to the new shoots and deeper roots of a city that has earned its reputation as an artistic hub. It really is happening right HERE.