After almost a decade in Australian and London galleries, Johanna Nulley founded Glasshouse Contemporary in East London just last year. Glasshouse is an independent gallery that operates at a grass-roots level. Johanna and her partner Jon are building real heart and soul into the way they run the gallery and how they connect with their clients and artists. Highlighting some incredible names such as Benjamin MacGregor and Martha Zmpounou, the gallery is now embarking on a thriving and blossoming second year.
Johanna in front of Glasshouse Contemporary (artwork by Christopher Thompson)
Tell me about Glasshouse Gallery. When did you open your doors?
Glasshouse was born just one year ago, out of love, and grief to be honest! I have been an artist for 20 years, and have spent 8 years managing art galleries, first in Melbourne, Australia and then London. The idea of a space where I could merge these 2 worlds, having a painting studio in a commercial gallery space, slowly crept into my mind.
Love and grief?
Yes, my mum cultivated my love for art at a young age, and I only ever wanted to be an artist. Whilst she never felt encouraged to go down a creative pathway in her own life, she made sure I felt this freedom. One of her dreams later in life was to run her own creative space, but she passed away in 2021. Slowly, and with lots of encouragement from key people in my life, I started to gather some courage to make her dream, and mine, a reality.
Clients at Glasshouse during Benjamin MacGregor’s exhibition
What makes Glasshouse so special?
Glasshouses have always been special to me. I used to play in my grandparent’s small greenhouse as a child - I remember it as a sensory experience - the smell, the humidity, the plants, soil under fingernails. The image of a glasshouse has followed me around a bit in life - I wrote a creative writing piece titled The Greenhouse at University, and find myself seeking them out as an adult. There is a liminal magic there - where sleek glass panes enclose an earthy wilderness. This became a metaphor of order and chaos in my mind, and it seems to summarise what I love most about art - the space between control and surrender, abstraction and representation.
So when I set up the gallery with my husband Jon, we had the glasshouse aesthetic in mind - so we lime-washed the walls to create a sense of organic texture and brought in lots of plants. It’s our curated greenhouse - and much of the delicious visual wilderness comes from the incredible art on the walls. This makes the space special and unique, and also welcoming to those who may not always feel comfortable in a traditional white wall gallery. We champion playfulness and curiosity and aim to be an accessible, engaging space brimming with personality and warmth.
And what is it that draws your clients to you?
What really makes us special, is our approach to customer engagement. Both Jon and I love community, hosting events and having interesting and meaningful chats. The gallery has already become a space where we spend hours with our friends and clients, chatting all things art, and life, over a glass of wine. We have been lucky enough to become a space people feel just as comfortable popping into for a chat, as they do attending an exhibition opening. We love it - this is what brings us joy. It’s a relationship business and very personal for us. I’m genuinely overflowing with enthusiasm for each and every one of our artists, and I love sharing this with people. There is no ego or pretension here, and I will happily chat to anyone about art.
Jon and Johanna at the gallery
What are some of the challenges of being a small independent gallery right now?
There is no doubt, this was a really difficult time to open an art gallery. The gallery model is changing, and so many galleries operate online and at art fairs instead of having a brick and mortar space. I really wanted to create a permanent space though, where clients can build meaningful and sustainable relationships with us and the artists they love. Where they can revisit their favourites and experience artwork in the flesh. We are not situated in a busy shopping area, so learning how to market the gallery effectively and let people know we are here has been a large part of the last year. I’m still learning, and we have been hosting regular exhibitions in order to raise our profile as much as possible.
How are you adapting to this change?
I think our personal approach to customer service has emerged as one of the gallery's biggest strengths, but I have also noticed that people are engaging with original art in really intentional ways at the moment.
What sort of art does well at Glasshouse with your clients?
Representational, figurative and landscape paintings are really popular here. Our clients are as excited about mark-making as I am and love the creamy texture of oil paint, the fluidity of watercolour and seeing brushstrokes on a surface. A love of texture, process and the materiality of paint underpins the most popular artworks here, possibly as a reaction against the rise of AI and a move towards the visible hand of the maker. And that’s where my heart is as an artist too - so I find this embrace of original paintings so joyful. We have made sure to adapt our future exhibitions and collections to keep stimulating this interest and it’s super exciting. I also think (and hope) this re-discovery of painterly texture will mean increased engagement with physical gallery spaces, where you can pop in anytime to get up close and personal with those elements.
Benjamin MacGregor with painting on loan from The Courtauld Gallery, 2025
Who are some of the artists you’ve shown?
I’m a big fan of Sky Landscape Artist of the Year and Portrait Artist of the Year - which is deeply connected to my mum as we used to watch it together. When I saw Benjamin MacGregor painting in the first round of the recent LAOTY, I was so excited by his mark-making that I reached out to him immediately. It was much later I found out he won the series, and the exhibition was already in the diary.
It’s been one of my greatest privileges to host his debut exhibition ‘Foundations’, alongside work by his sister photographer, Bella MacGregor. I adore the innovative visual language he has created, and firmly believe him to be one of the most exciting contemporary painters in the UK. It was an extraordinary show, and we were able to exhibit his winning commission ‘In the Shadow of Sainte-Victoire’ - on loan from The Courtauld Gallery. Ben had completed a second painting inspired by the same landscape, and seeing these two large-scale immersive artworks side by side was such a thrill.
I could chat for hours about all of the artists here, but in particular I have been honoured to work with Martha Zmpounou - an artist I have deeply admired for a long time. Her fluid, haunting and evocative portraits move between abstraction and figuration in such a compelling way.
Christopher Thompson at Glasshouse Contemporary
Have you noticed any trends coming up?
I have noticed a real shift away from abstraction in the last year, as many of my clients are keen to engage with figurative, landscape and architectural artworks. Instead of looking for photo-realistic imagery, they are enjoying seeing the familiar through the lens of the artist - where it moves gently towards the strange and unfamiliar. A great example of this is Christopher Thompson’s work. Chris used to be a portrait painter and has a painting of Pete Postlethwaite hanging in the National Portrait Gallery. He now explores landscape and architecture through his re-imagined and displaced houses. These are often local East London buildings which capture his attention. He meticulously paints the facade, but strips away the neighbouring houses to give full attention to the lone house (in the style of a portrait, really). He places these houses in an imagined rural setting - often by a canal or body of water - delicately capturing a wobbly reflection in the water. A small black and white cat appears in each work, tracing his steps. In recent works, surreal elements have emerged inspired by artists such as Magritte. These houses are infused with narrative, and have a haunting quality because of the displacement. Chris is one of my most loved artists here, and I often have clients interested in a bespoke portrait of their home - where instead of seeing it represented as it actually is, they want to see it through Chris’s eyes - re-interpreted and full of playful details. In this way the personal blends with the imaginary - a key intersection that seems to create magic for the viewer.
Another artist who sits within this same intersection and has captured a lot of attention this year has been Ella Kilgour. Her collection of paintings for our ‘Rituals’ exhibition focused on domestic and interior scenes from her daily life. These were beautifully rendered in oil paint with exceptional attention to light. Our clients loved the elevation of these ‘ordinary’ scenes with her delicious use of paint - particularly as she blends old master techniques with contemporary touches like chromatic undertones and broken colour.
Ella Kilgour at ‘Rituals’ (photo credit Weronika Goles)
‘Rituals’ was a beautiful group show. Personally, as I have gotten older and more acquainted with the challenges in the world, it feels more and more important to hunt down joy - to be a person who searches for beauty. This show was about the small moments in our lives, the daily habits which bring us a sense of grounding and delight. It was lovely to have a window into our artist’s souls and routines, and to see how everyone searches for beauty and meaning in a complicated world.
I loved working with Sebastian Espejo earlier in the year and it has been so exciting to see his work gather momentum globally. Coming up in December we have an exhibition by Katie Mawson, and next year we have exhibitions planned for Ella Kilgour, young artists Beau Roberts and Kuda Mushangi amongst others.
Autumn window featuring artworks by Beau Roberts, Christopher Thompson and Benjamin MacGregor
How do you see the direction of London art galleries developing over the next few years?
I am optimistic about the future of independent galleries because at the heart of things, I think people crave meaningful encounters with people alongside meaningful connection with art. One thing I have always loved about East London is how active and motivated people are to support local business. It’s such an engaged, considered and mindful market of beautiful human beings. I love being a part of this, and my hope is that I can continue to support the careers of artists by being their enthusiastic ambassador in East London.
I also intend at some point to hold my own exhibition of artworks. All of mine and Jon’s time in the last year has been spent building the gallery profile, marketing and doing general admin. Within the next year I’d love to grow our client network and our team, enabling me to spend more time painting at the gallery. I’ve always loved the idea of a gallery space where you can also see an artist working - getting a peek behind the curtain and really opening up and de-mystifying that process. I would like Glasshouse to evolve gently into that kind of space - where everyone feels welcome to encounter and invest in art, as well as getting that glimpse into the process of making.
Also, I love the buzz of an art fair, so hopefully these are in our future too! I’d love to exhibit at the Affordable Art Fair and the London Art fair - I tend to go to visit some of my favourite galleries here, like Art Friend run by Shona Bland, and the artist-run space The Bakery. Some of my other favourite galleries to follow online are Milieu in Cornwall, and Blue Shop Galleries in South London. I love their curation and approach, and both galleries have created warm, aesthetic spaces that welcome community and arts engagement.
Celebrate Glasshouse Contemporary’s 1 year Anniversary with Johanna and Jon this 31st October, 2025 from 6-9pm.