UPDATE: BEERS London has announced it will close after 14 years, just days after Sid Motion Gallery revealed that it too will shut its doors following a decade in the capital.
The two announcements bring the changing economics of London’s commercial gallery scene back into focus, with both galleries having built their reputations around championing emerging and mid-career artists.
As first reported by The Art Newspaper, Sid Motion Gallery will close following its 85th and final exhibition, That Which Appears, opening on 18th September and running until 31st October 2026.
Founded by Motion in 2016, the gallery has built its reputation around supporting emerging and mid-career artists. Rather than waiting until financial pressures force the issue, Motion says the decision to close has been made deliberately while the gallery remains in a position to properly support its artists.
“My heart is full when I think of the conversations and connections that the gallery has facilitated over the years,”
Motion told The Art Newspaper.
“Closing the gallery is a positive and conscious decision. We are stopping while we are ahead, while my artists are properly serviced and the quality of the programme remains high.”
Motion also acknowledged the financial realities behind that decision:
“As I look ahead to the future, I can see that the gallery is not in the financial position to fully honour the extraordinary potential of each of my artists. I will not compromise when it comes to supporting them in the way that they deserve.”
Now BEERS London has revealed that its forthcoming group exhibition, rather aptly titled So This Is Goodbye…, will mark the end of the gallery’s 14-year run.
Founded in 2012 and led by Kurt Beers, the gallery has become particularly associated with contemporary painting and the discovery and promotion of emerging artists. Its final exhibition continues that approach, bringing together artists selected from around the world through an open call.
In announcing the final show, BEERS describes it as both a celebration of its journey and a conclusion to a programme shaped by “discovering, supporting, and championing exceptional contemporary artists.”
So This Is Goodbye… brings together Iris Bendt-Hedal, Aleksandr Biruk, Damien Cifelli, Carsten Goering, Michelle Hoogveld, Rory Jones, Matthieu Leger, Matt Macken, Elliott Pittam, Griffin Rich, Tania Rivilis, Brian Robertson, Namarata Singh, Lucia Tambini, Curtis Valentine and Benny Watson. The exhibition runs from 20th–29th August 2026.
The closure comes despite BEERS continuing to develop its programme this year. In 2026, the gallery launched a new 40-Day Residency programme, with Slade graduate Georgia Dymock becoming its inaugural artist-in-residence and presenting a solo exhibition in July.
The near-simultaneous announcements are notable at a difficult moment for the commercial art market. London’s smaller and mid-sized galleries face the familiar combination of rising operating costs, expensive art-fair participation and a more cautious collector base, while having to maintain increasingly international programmes for their artists.
Sid Motion’s closure is particularly unusual in that its founder has explicitly chosen to stop before those pressures compromise the programme.
The gallery began in a disused betting shop in King’s Cross before relocating to the Penarth Centre in South Bermondsey in 2019. Motion subsequently helped establish the South Bermondsey Art Trail, which has grown into a significant network of artists and creative spaces in the area.
Its final exhibition, co-curated by Motion with artists Olivia Bax and James Fisher, will feature Olivia Bax, James Fisher, Lucy Gunning, Charles Hewlings, Milly Peck, Mike Silva and drawings from the Drawing Matter collection by Christo, John Hejduk, James Gowan, Louis Kahn and Mies van der Rohe. The exhibition will not disappear with the gallery: it is scheduled to travel to Millennium Gallery, Sheffield Museums, in April 2028.
Motion has also stressed that the closure should not be interpreted as her abandoning either London or the artists she has worked with.
“The London art world remains vibrant, internationally significant and full to the brim with brilliant, deeply passionate and genuine people,” she told The Art Newspaper. And of the gallery’s artists, she added: “I will be the front row supporter on their next projects as their confidant, champion and lifelong friend.”
Two galleries closing does not constitute an exodus, but BEERS London and Sid Motion Gallery disappearing almost simultaneously removes two distinctive independent voices from the capital’s contemporary art scene — and makes the pressures facing galleries of their scale increasingly difficult to ignore.
BEERS London’s final exhibition, So This Is Goodbye…, runs 20th–29th August 2026. Sid Motion Gallery’s final exhibition, That Which Appears, runs 18th September–31st October 2026.
Image from Paul’s Gallery of The Week: Sid Motion Gallery 15th February 2023
