Ancient Modern Group Exhibition: James Dearlove at Brooke Bennington, in collaboration with Gertrude Art
Early in 2023, James Dearlove joined Colstoun Arts as an artist in residence. We are delighted to share news of his inclusion in Ancient Modern, an upcoming exhibition at Brooke Bennington, presented in collaboration with Gertrude Art. The exhibition opens this Thursday with a private view between 6-8pm at Brooke Bennington Gallery.
This collaborative group exhibition brings together Carl Anderson, Emma Black, Jonathan Michael Ray and Dearlove, and is titled ‘Ancient Modern’, it considers how the visual languages of the past continue to pulse within contemporary practice. Armour, puppetry, stained glass and communal labour surface not as relics but as mutable forms—gestures that stretch across centuries while remaining acutely present.
exhibition details for Ancient Modern - Brooke Bennington x Gertrude
James Dearlove: Figures at the Edge of Time
Dearlove lives and works in Cornwall. A graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art (MFA) and Turps, he is a recipient of the Ingram Prize and has exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, New Contemporaries, the London Art Fair and The British Art Fair, alongside solo presentations in London and Paris.
Dearlove’s paintings explore desire and disquiet through fractured figuration, this emotive fragmented appearance is furthered by his unique collage technique, which literally breaks the surface up in front of the viewers eyes. His surfaces—layered, scraped, collaged—form twilight and surreal worlds, where figures, animals, objects all seem to both emerge and dissolve often simultaneously. Throughout James’ work the points of interest within the compositions are never stable; they are caught mid-transformation, suspended between intimacy and estrangement.
In Three Figures With Net, contemporary men are depicted repairing fishing nets, which is no doubt inspired by the fact that he lives and works in coastal Greece and Cornwall, two areas highly dependent on the fishing throughout history both ancient and modern. The act is ordinary, communal, and quietly unchanged since ancient times. Across millennia, hands have gathered to mend and maintain—to prepare for survival at sea. Dearlove draws this continuity into the present, allowing ancestral rhythms to echo through contemporary bodies. The composition fractures and reforms, collapsing temporal distance so that past and present occupy the same pictorial breath.
Here, labour becomes ritual; ritual becomes myth. Dearlove suggests that history does not sit behind us as a completed chapter. It persists as inheritance—felt in gesture, in repetition, in the quiet choreography of shared work.
“Three Figures with Nets” - Oil, Acrylic and Mixed Media, 150cm x 150cm, 2025
The Setting: Brooke Bennington, Fitzrovia
Located at 76 Cleveland Street in Fitzrovia, Brooke Bennington is one of London’s most compelling exhibition spaces. Unassuming from the street, the gallery unfolds across two intimate rooms, creating a concentrated encounter with the work. Its programme consistently balances emerging voices with overlooked histories.
Last year’s Woman Magic, curated by Anna Souter, presented paintings by Anne Berg alongside her meticulously kept diaries—an exhibition that felt both rigorous and tender. That same sensitivity underpins Ancient Modern: a measured dialogue between material, memory and contemporary urgency.
gallery founders in their space before it opened. photograph from the gallery website
Gertrude Art: Expanding the Conversation
The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Gertrude Art, a contemporary art platform and app launched in 2021. Designed to make art collecting more accessible, Gertrude blends the familiarity of a social network with the structure of a digital marketplace. Its emphasis on transparency and direct engagement with living artists reflects a broader shift in how collectors encounter and acquire work today.
For established collectors, this collaboration offers a dual framework: the intimacy and discernment of a physical gallery presentation, alongside the clarity and reach of a digital platform. The result is an exhibition that speaks both to connoisseurship and to evolving modes of collecting.
Ancient & Modern Exhibition Details
Ancient Modern
Brooke Bennington
76 Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, London
In collaboration with Gertrude Art
E: info@brookebenington.com
T: +44 (0)7988 941056
Open:
Monday - Wednesday | by appointment only
Thursday - Friday | 12 - 6 pm
Saturday | 11 am - 5 pm
For further information or to arrange a viewing, please contact the gallery directly or visit their website.
