Emerging from an artist-led scene in Northern England, Paul Moss and Miles Thurlow opened Workplace’s first physical gallery location in the Brutalist Trinity Square complex in 2005.

From the outset the gallery has worked mostly with artists—emerging and established—from the North of England, setting itself apart as a key commercial gallery outside the typical confines of the London art world.

Workplace operated a second space in London’s Mayfair district, between 2013 and 2018, before bringing the focus back to its northern roots. In conjunction with that shift, Workplace established the Workplace Foundation to foster the regional art scene in Northern England in 2017.

Workplace Artists

Workplace represents established and emerging artists working in a diverse range of mediums, including painting, sculpture, multimedia installation, conceptual art, video and performance.

A large proportion of the gallery’s roster come from the Northern region. That includes internationally-exhibiting, Consett-born sculptor Eric Bainbridge, whose found-object assemblages from the 1980s and 1990s have inspired a younger generation of British artists; Huddersfield-born mixed-media artist Simon Barclay, who draws upon popular culture, fashion, and music to explore issues of culture and constructed identity. Newcastle artist Laura Lancaster, whose expressive, gestural abstracted paintings draw from anonymous lost or discarded photographs and films; and Manchester-based painter Louise Giovanelli, whose lyrical, luminous, complexly layered paintings refer to decontextualised segments of historical artworks.

The gallery also features some emerging international names including Stockholm-based Jacob Dahlgren, who repurposes familiar objects to create seemingly abstract compositions, and Los Angeles anti-bourgeois provocateur Joel Kyack, who combines unusual items from prop-houses, hardware stores, and medical companies to produce dark humorous assemblages and paintings.

Workplace Exhibitions and Art Fairs

Workplace promotes the work of its artists through dedicated solo-shows of their new work and several group surveys. Christening its new gallery space in 2008 with 'All my favourite singers couldn't sing...' Workplace invited a diverse selection of artists to respond to the space of the Old Post House.

Open to collaborative opportunities, the gallery has worked with CIRCA Projects on several programmes including the semi-satirical, self-critical group show Exhibition in 2015.

Maintaining a similar international presence to some of its London counterparts, Workplace has taken part in several major art fairs including The Armory Show, Dallas Art Fair, ARCO Madrid, Artissima, Art Basel Hong Kong, Expo Chicago, FIAC, Frieze Art Fair, Zoo Art Fair in London, and NADA Art Fair Miami.