'Baby Gallerist' Will Lunn launches Sumarria Lunn in Mayfair

Nancy Groves
Friday 22 April 2011 00:00 BST
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Will Lunn, 22, is barely out of art school – yet next month the so-called "Baby Gallerist" makes the move from Peckham to Mayfair, to launch his very own gallery. Walk down South Molton Street and you could easily miss it: a narrow doorway, shrouded in foliage, wedged between two outposts of dusty old Grays antiques. In three weeks time, Sumarria Lunn will be open for business.

Lunn met fellow gallerist Vishal Sumarria, 26, in 2008 working at south London's William Angel Gallery, part of the resurgent Peckham art scene led by Hannah Barry. Lunn actually staged his first show five years ago on his home turf of Colchester, an experience that left him hungry for a space to call his own.

"Being taken seriously at a young age is tough," says the ex-street artist, who graduated from The Courtauld last summer. "I encountered a hell of a lot of resistance from people who wouldn't believe I was putting on an exhibition. They thought I wanted to hold a rave or something."

But Sumarria Lunn will not be making a noisy arrival in W1. Axonometric showcases the more subtle stylings of Korean artist, Yun-Kyung Jeong, whose fretworks of natural and architectural elements have a refreshing Escher goes East quality to them.

"I'd rather the programme builds momentum than burns out," says Lunn. "Above all else, we wanted to do what wasn't expected of us."

Axonometric, Sumarria Lunn, London W1 (sumarrialunn.com) 11 May to 4 June

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