Bosse & Baum, Unit DG.1, Bussey Building,133 Rye Lane, London, SE15 4ST
www.bosseandbaum.com Instagram: @bosse_and_baum
This is the tenth anniversary year of Bosse & Baum, founded by Alexandra Warder and Lana Churchill in 2014. I’m not sure what’s behind the slightly exotic name – an African and a German tree if you want to take it literally – so that adds a little mystery. I hardly dare ask who is the Bosse and who the mere Baum is in the partnership. Either way, the gallery has consistently occupied a unit in the post-industrial Bussey Building, in Peckham, South East London, though there is the matter of which unit: the current exhibition is the first in the third such space to be used. ‘Westminster Coastal’ is a Luke Burton solo: he has featured regularly, but the gallery presents women more often – the shows I recall liking most were by Bea Bonafini, Miriam Austin, Lucia Pizzani, Florence Peake, Jade de Montserrat and Holly Hendry.
They fitted with the stated aims ‘to champion female artists’ and to represent ‘an international roster of emerging artists whose work challenges dominant historical narratives and is socially engaged’. Returning to Burton, his installation of paintings, sculptures, found furniture, food, packaging and fake memoranda is adventurous in content as well as form: it considers the rare-in-art topic of the civil service – who they are, what they wear, eat and write… I confess to having worked for the Department of Health, so I may be biased, but I believe that is a subject worthy of attention.
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.
