Visit12 Fort Road, Margate

OpenTue–Sun · 10–18

Where art

finds its quiet voice

A pale timber staircase rising to a skylight between white gallery walls

A Japanese woodblock print of a great wave with Mount Fuji in the distance

After Hokusai, woodblock print

A small, free gallery on the Margate seafront. Six artists, two quiet rooms, and a new exhibition every few months.

Now showing01 / 04

Red Earth12 Sep – 17 Jan

N° 02 — The gallery

Gesso Art is a contemporary art gallery in an old seed warehouse on the Margate seafront. We work with six artists, show them in two rooms, and never charge for the door.

Six

artists represented

Two

exhibition spaces

Free

to everyone, always

We show art that is honest, handmade and brave — made to slow you down and open your eyes.

An empty gallery room with a warm oak floor and one large ink painting of misty mountains on the back wall

Room 01 — Red Earth

The collection

From the collection

Browse all 25 works

On view

Painting

Main Gallery

First Hang

Oct 4

–

Feb 15

Drawing

Project Space

Paper Weather

Mar 7

–

Apr 26

Painting

Main Gallery

Low Light

May 9

–

Aug 30

Painting

Main Gallery

A classical pastoral landscape with figures under pines by a lake

After Claude

Aug 29

–

Nov 29

Photography

Project Space

What the Tide Leaves

Sep 3

–

Nov 8

Painting

Main Gallery

Red Earth

Sep 12

–

Jan 17

Print Room

A Japanese woodblock print of a shrine gate and tall cedar with travellers

The Floating World

Sep 19

–

Dec 13

Photography

Project Space

A black-and-white studio portrait of a young woman from the 1930s

Silver Faces

Oct 17

–

Jan 10

Drawing

Print Room

Ink Garden

Nov 7

–

Feb 14

Textile

Project Space

A plant-dyed woven wall piece in stripes of madder red, weld yellow and sage

Warp and Weft

Nov 14

–

Feb 21

Sculpture

Main Gallery

A weathered bronze head by Tomasz Weir, its surface full of seams and thumbprints

Plaster Saints

Jan 30

–

Apr 25

Coming soon

Painting

Main Gallery

First Hang

Oct 4

–

Feb 15

Drawing

Project Space

Paper Weather

Mar 7

–

Apr 26

Painting

Main Gallery

Low Light

May 9

–

Aug 30

Painting

Main Gallery

After Claude

Aug 29

–

Nov 29

Photography

Project Space

What the Tide Leaves

Sep 3

–

Nov 8

Painting

Main Gallery

Red Earth

Sep 12

–

Jan 17

Print Room

The Floating World

Sep 19

–

Dec 13

Photography

Project Space

Silver Faces

Oct 17

–

Jan 10

Drawing

Print Room

Ink Garden

Nov 7

–

Feb 14

Textile

Project Space

Warp and Weft

Nov 14

–

Feb 21

Sculpture

Main Gallery

Plaster Saints

Jan 30

–

Apr 25

N° 05 — Viewing room

Works available now

All works

Ines Okafor

Gravesend, afternoon

Estuary clay and rabbit-skin glue on linen

Available

Ines Okafor

Laterite II

Laterite, iron oxide and chalk on linen

Available

Tomasz Weir

Standing Figure (plaster)

Bronze, unique cast

Available

Mariko Hale

Solway, slack water

Archival pigment print

Available

Priya Anand

Madder Field

Cotton and wool, madder and weld dyes

Available

Jonah Lisle

Godrevy, October

Oil on canvas

Available

N° 06 — Artists

Six artists, one room at a time

All artists

Ines Okafor

Painting

Tomasz Weir

Sculpture

Mariko Hale

Photography

Priya Anand

Textile

Jonah Lisle

Painting

Ada Brenner

Drawing

Talks & workshops

Ines Okafor and curator Ama Mensah in conversation before a seated audience

Artist talk

In conversation: Ines Okafor and Ama Mensah

Oct 15, 2026, 6:30 PM

Workshop

Make your own pigment

Nov 7, 2026, 11:00 AM

All events

N° 09 — Journal

From the gallery

All stories

Hands scooping red estuary clay with a trowel into a cloth bag at the water's edge

September 2, 2026

A year of walking

The curator follows Ines Okafor’s trowel from Gravesend to Lagos, and back.

Two visitors, one seated on a low bench, looking at a large estuary photograph hung low on a white wall

August 20, 2026

Why we hang photographs low

A note on the most common question about What the Tide Leaves.

Tomasz Weir working on a plaster figure in his dusty boatyard studio full of casts

July 11, 2026

Inside the studio: Tomasz Weir

An afternoon in a harbour-arm boatyard, with plaster dust on everything.

Free entry · Six days a week

Plan your visit

Book a place

Get directions

→

Address

12 Fort Road, Margate CT9 1HF

Hours

Tue–Sun, 10–18 · Thu until 21

Phone

01843 22 81 40

hello@gesso.gallery

Plan avisit Supportartists

A Baroque ceiling fresco of figures rising through clouds, framed in gilded plaster

A note from the curator

“Good art does not shout. It waits in the room until we are quiet enough to hear what it has been saying all along.”

Ama Mensah, Curator

A Japanese woodblock print of Mount Fuji above a blue bay with sailing boats and pine trees

An ukiyo-e woodblock portrait of a woman in a black and red kimono with swirling water patterns

Gesso Art

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