LONDON.- December 2020 marked the launch of Crean & Company, a new UK-based online gallery set to champion an international community of established and emerging mixed-media contemporary artists.

The launch coincides with the virtual opening of Avoiding the Hodgepodge (1 December 2020-15 January 2021), the inaugural exhibition outlining the vision and concept of the gallery, whose represented artists include textile artist Carolina Mazzolari, sculptor Thomas Merrett and painter Rupert Shrive.

Crean & Company has been founded by lifelong art collector Nick Crean and art historian Clementine Perrins. The gallerists have adopted an optimistic and future-orientated outlook, looking to harness the virtual potential of showcasing their community of artists and makers to a global audience of collectors. A timely venture, the gallery will act as a digitally curated space, with viewing rooms that promise to be full of colour, curiosity and conversation.

The launch exhibition Avoiding the Hodgepodge presents the ethos of Crean & Company as a kind of ‘virtual Wunderkammer’ reflective of the aesthetic and artistic interests of its founders. In particular, the gallery encourages an appreciation of art that is pared back to the essential qualities of beauty, colour and style. Nick Crean himself started as a collector of many of the artists now represented by the gallery, and is passionate about introducing their work to wider audiences.

‘The pleasure of collecting sits at the heart of Crean & Company’s ambition,’ says Nick. As fellow founder Clementine adds, ‘For a collector to become a patron of the arts is not to be stuck in the concept of buying for investment; at Crean & Company, we sell because we love the work, because it is a reflection of the time and place we are in’.

Other artists represented by the gallery and exhibited in Avoiding the Hodgepodge include New York-based painters Avital Burg, Lauren Luloff and Alexander Nolan; London-based painters Tyga Helme, Amelia Power, Serena Rowe, Laura Smith; and London-based sculptor Thomas Merrett.