Somerset’s Hidden Gem For Art Lovers

Close Gallery, near Taunton, is a hidden gem of a gallery, deep in the glorious Somerset countryside. A visit to the grounds and the three gallery spaces will make you feel like you’ve discovered like a secret place for contemporary art. The gallery was founded in 2019 by Freeny Yianni, a former director at Lisson Gallery in London. Ms. Yianni has cleverly maintained her London art world connections via an additional project space at 23 Balcombe Street in Marylebone where they also have shows.

Close prides itself as a vibrant hub for residencies, exhibitions and education and it’s tranquil, rural location must inspire creativity in an intentional counterpoint to the often-frenetic pace of the wider art world. The gallery works with both living artists and artist estates, offering a unique platform for thoughtful, exhibitions that encourage deeper engagement.

Art at Close is not confined to traditional walls; it extends into the gardens and surrounding landscape allowing plenty of time to enjoy the artworks. And this is certainly the case with the current exhibition After Nature (on until 25 October 2025), a provocative group show, curated by Ben Tufnell, formerly at Tate and Parafin.

Featuring well-known artists such as Richard Long and David Nash, the exhibition also includes work by overlooked pioneers and next generation talent, including Mercedes Balle, Chris Dury, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Alex Hartley, Magnus Hammick, Simon Hitchens, Tania Kovats, Alastair & Fleur Mackie, Onya McCausland, Nissa Nishikawa, Aimee Parrott, Lotte Scott and Fred Sorrell.

The exhibition offers a timely exploration of the ways in which artists are looking at and thinking about nature in the twenty-first century, with works spanning a range of media, including sculpture, ceramics, drawing, painting and photography. Some artists in After Nature have made art that imitates nature with a focus on natural processes (gravity, evaporation, etc.) and materials (mud, minerals etc.) in their work, while others have reflected nature in color and form.

Turner-prize winning land artist Richard Long shows works made of mud taken from the River Avon, on paper and aluminum while Mercedes Balle has used algae and mud for her piece “Thames Bank MMXXIV.” On another wall is Chris Drury’s rather beautiful circular drawing made from dust and ash.

“The Last of My Summer Blooms” by Tania Kovats is made with Dahlia flowers from the artist’s garden, evoking not only the inevitable decay in nature and the passing of the seasons. Another intriguing wall-based series showing the cycle of the seasons is Magnus Hammick’s oil painted prints, based on photographs the artist takes of the same oak tree every day at sunrise.

On the gallery doorstep, ceramicist Nisha Nishikawa’s stoneware pot is filled with gently scented medicinal plants and in a gallery across the courtyard you’ll find four more of her sculptures made from materials foraged from the local landscape.

Outdoors, sculptor Simon Hitchens says that “Reality Event,” his pair of large black concrete sculptures, “subtly investigate the essence of the things we perceive: the physical world, nature and our place within it. I am fascinated by rock: historically as a medium to make sculpture, physically as the very earth that supports us and geologically as the almost ageless constant that resonates through time, giving perspective to our lives on this planet.” Simon Hitchens is also exhibiting a new work, “Bearing Witness To Things Unseen” as part of Frieze Sculpture in Regent’s Park, London this autumn.

In the courtyard, artist duo Alistair and Fleur Mackie’s vertical sculpture of colorful plastic globes, “Stack” was made from deep sea trawl floats that they collected on Cornwall beaches. The bright plastic jetsam suggests lightness, even gaiety belying the fact that they’re actually invasive gatecrashers on nature.

Artists have long addressed the complexities of issues like climate change and extreme weather events, often quietly but with subtle power and insistence. Artists’s work can show the ways in which culture can represent and reflect the environment, and perhaps offer a nuanced understanding of our present predicament. After Nature invites audiences to consider how contemporary art can offer new ways of seeing, sensing and engaging with the natural world at a time of urgent ecological change.

Location and Opening Times

Close Gallery, Close House, Hatch Beauchamp, Somerset, TA3 6AE +44 (0)1823 480 350

Hours during exhibitions: Thurs and Fri | 11am-4pm Sat | 11am-3pm All other times, by appointment.