Grimm, 43a Duke Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6DD
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There are plenty of good galleries in Amsterdam, and strolling along the canals to take them in is always a pleasure. Yet, so far as I’m aware, Grimm is the only Dutch-originated gallery to have expanded internationally: founded by Jorg Grimm in 2005, it opened in New York in 2017, then in London in 2022. For a couple of years, it was near Gagosian, but recently moved to what was Sims Reed’s two-level space in St James’s, where Timothy Davies oversees operations.
Grimm represent 37 artists across various media, but painting is a particular strength. Just so, my favourite London shows to date have been by Tommy Harrison, Jonathan Wateridge, Matthias Weischer and – above all – London-based Dutch artist Michael Raedecker’s current ‘placebo drive’. I also rate Caroline Walker, Louise Giovanelli and Anna Ruth highly. Walker hasn’t yet shown in the London space – having been with Stephen Friedman as well – but you can catch an excellent account of her at work on the BBC iPlayer in Nicola Black’s documentary ‘Caroline Walker: Women’s Work’, which culminates with her show ‘The Holiday Park’ at Grimm New York. She’s now hard at work, incidentally, on a large-scale commission for Art on the Underground at Stratford station – due to be revealed in September. Having emphasised the painters, however, I should mention that Grimm also handle the estate of the witty Dutch conceptualist Ger van Elk (1941 – 2014), and that my favourite Belgian photographer is next up in London: Dirk Braeckman.
London’s gallery scene is varied, from small artist-run spaces to major institutions and everything in between. Each month, art writer and curator Paul Carey-Kent gives a personal view of a space worth visiting. A collection of previous columns, ‘Paul’s Galleries To Go’, is now available from FAD.
