After such a challenging 18 months for many small businesses, it's always great to see new spaces and new retail opportunities opening, particularly when they are on your doorstep.

Beam Editions, a Nottingham based art book publisher, opened its doors this summer to present a new space combining their three passions - art, books and coffee.

Working in collaboration with Bradley Coffee Merchant, the new location is a speciality coffee shop, bookshop and art gallery.

Ahead of the exhibition launch we visited the new space located within the walls of the Primary and caught up with Bradley (who you may recognise from previous UW. shoots) and Ollie one half of Beam Editions.

 

 

 

 

Inside the main space, Beam has a changing programme of exhibitions drawing on their international publishing programme, alongside championing exceptional artists from the local area. During our shoot, we saw the last week of Derek Sprawson - 'Painting and Oil bar Drawings from the 90s'. Derek is well-loved amongst former art students in the city, having taught for many years on the local fine art degree but is recognised amongst his peers to be an outstanding painter of his generation. 

 

 

The next exhibition draws from further afield. After a chance meeting at the LA Art Book Fair back in 2018, Beam is presenting the first UK exhibition by Los Angeles photographer Grey Crawford. 

'Chroma - 1978-1985' is an exhibition of the artist's early work. Crawford captured overlooked architectural spaces of LA's urban fabric - parking lots - industrial buildings - disused gas stations - the remains of a failed building site, and unremarkable everyday modernist architecture. 

 

 

Back in his darkroom, the artist transformed these documentations of everyday LA into something entirely different. Crawford inserted geometric shapes, lines and gradients into the picture plane. The artist imagined a virtual reality long before the technologists realised it through the digital revolution, 7 years before Steve Jobs launched Apple and Bill Gates Windows. Some 40 years later, Crawford's is enjoying success with a generation that has grown up with digital technology and the virtual world being a part of everyday life. 

If you're local to Nottingham, why not head down to Beam this Friday for their launch party of Grey Crawford – 'Chroma 1978–1985'. 

Bradley will be making cocktails rather than coffee, and there will be live jazz and a DJ too!

 

Beam Editions | Website Instagram

Bradley Coffee Merchant | Instagram 

33 Seely Rd, Nottingham NG7 1NU