Paul Moss, one of the founders of Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, has died. In 2003, Moss and Miles Thurlow borrowed an apartment to hang a show of artist friends ahead of a visit by the selection committee of the London Art Fair. Impressed by this ad-hoc gallery, the pair were given a booth. Buoyed by early success Moss and Thurlow took on a permanent space in 2005 within Gateshead’s Trinity Square shopping centre. Set up as a commercial gallery, representing the likes of Marcus Coates, Joel Kyack and Matt Stokes, Workplace has taken part in fairs in New York, Miami, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Turin, Tokyo and Hong Kong. It now occupies premises in a former post office in Gateshead.
From 2013 to 2018 the gallery leased a second space in central London and recently the gallerists set up Workplace Foundation, a charity with the aim of supporting emerging and under represented artists from outside of London.
In a tribute Thurlow notes ‘Some of my happiest memories are of countless adventures with Paul, exploring far flung places, hanging out with fellow gallerists and often extraordinarily eccentric art collectors… Paul could and would make friends with anyone, effortlessly.’
15 February 2019