Public Gallery is expanding its East London location, taking on the neighbouring unit of the gallery’s existing space in the Middlesex Street Estate. Opening January 2025, the expansion will increase the gallery’s presence and footprint, providing a second multi-story exhibition space and resulting in a combined total of five levels across both sites. The expanded location will enable the gallery to present works in a nontraditional and context-driven environment, offering artists a new setting for exhibitions and programming.
Embracing its character as a former textile shop, the gallery will maintain the existing facade and interior of the new space, unique for its linoleum floors, a street-facing vitrine, and rows of wooden shelving. In part, this decision ties into preserving the street’s cultural heritage as the location of Petticoat Lane Market – London’s oldest textile and clothes market which still operates outside the gallery every Sunday. More importantly, the expanded space creates a new context for the gallery’s growing roster of artists.
Directors Alex Harrison, Harry Dougall and Nicole Estilo Kaiser say
“We’re always looking for new ways to engage our artists, so while there was certainly something organic about the opportunity to take on the unit next door, the decision to expand was fundamentally tied to supporting our artists as they grow with us. We were looking for an alternative to the more traditional white cube environment of our current space. This new setting inspires a different type of artistic collaboration and experimentation,”
Built in the late 1960s, the Middlesex Street Estate bears resemblance to the nearby Barbican in both its brutalist design and shared history, being part of the same postwar revival plan for residential areas in the City of London.
“We’ve been in active dialogue with the City of London about increasing our cultural impact and engaging the local community, and look forward to using the new space to further those aims. Adding this second gallery space will support the ambitions of our programme, reaffirm our commitment to East London, and keep our energy and attention focused. Expanding our home base also allows us to strengthen our relationships with nearby institutions such as Whitechapel Gallery, the Barbican, and Raven Row,”
elaborate Harrison, Dougall and Estilo Kaiser.
On January 16th, 2025 the new gallery space will open to the public with 00:00:01, a group exhibition of 17 artists, including Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Mandy El-Sayegh, Raque Ford, and Abbas Zahedi.
“We’re looking forward to celebrating our growth in a space that’s already familiar yet still completely new. It’s an exciting way to mark the next chapter for the gallery and our artists,”
The gallery’s expansion will coincide with its second participation in Condo London, hosting The Breeder, Athens and Martins&Montero, São Paulo and Brussels, alongside the UK debut exhibition of New York based artist Greg Carideo.
About
Public is a London-based contemporary art gallery dedicated to supporting international emerging artists and promoting cross-cultural exchange. The gallery was founded in 2020 and cultivates a diverse curatorial programme presenting work in all media across its three story brutalist East London space, encouraging ambitious projects, intergenerational dialogues, and non-traditional modes of seeing and thinking. Public is led by Founding Directors Alex Harrison and Harry Dougall and Director Nicole Estilo Kaiser. @public.gallery
00:00:01 indicates the resetting of a clock or the first moments of a new day, inspired by the Zen Buddhist concept shoshin, translating to ‘beginner’s mind.’ Encouraging us to look at the familiar as if for the first time, a beginner’s mind humbly positions any form of knowledge as a string of unknowns, embracing a state of mind that is free from habit or expertise, instead ready to doubt, learn and expand through compassion and gratitude. Marking the opening of Public’s new gallery space and our first exhibition of 2025, 00:00:01 brings together 17 artists whose practices inspire wonder and curiosity, cultivating in the present the world we want to inhabit in the future, no matter how radical or inconceivable it may seem at times.
Featured Artists: Nils Alix-Tabeling, Amanda Baldwin, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Mandy El-Sayegh, Justin Fitzpatrick, Raque Ford, Ignacio Gatica, Sihan Guo, Steph Huang, Melissa Joseph, Harminder Judge, Xin Liu, Rose Nestler, Christian Quin Newell, Yi To, Achraf Touloub, and Abbas Zahedi.
Middlesex Street Estate in the Portsoken ward of the City of London comprises Petticoat Tower, with 88 flats over 23 floors, and Petticoat Square, with 146 properties surrounding the landscaped podium area. The estate was built between 1965 and 1970 and shares its site with the Artizan Street Library and Community Centre.
