Nestled in the Cotswold destination town of Painswick, a new gallery is opening. Place(d) Contemporary opens in mid September, an evolution of Swindon’s Oink Gallery, whose owner Mark Pepperall aims to inspire urbane collectors who want to imbue their country homes with contemporary flair. With a roster of international names such as Banksy, Blek le Rat, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, alongside local artists like Stroud’s own James Green, the gallery builds on the Stroud region’s growing community of forward-looking artists and collectors.
Painswick, Queen of the Cotswolds, is a hillside town famous for its stone buildings and a churchyard thick with manicured yews. It’s a picturesque setting with a healthy flow of tourists throughout the year. This confluence of interest of well-to-do locals and affluent tourists is something that holds promise for Pepperall who has long-tail ambitions for his creative vision. Place(d) Contemporary launches with plans to include Place(d) Interiors shortly. Place(d) Interiors is the evolution of his design practice Pepper&Co and the plan is for the gallery to include elements that allow people to read the artwork as an experience that people live with in their homes. The balance between white-cube cathedral to art as a discourse and the consummated ideal where collectors bring art into their immediate lives. With twenty-five years in design and a decade running Oink Pepperall has the skills and belief to present something worthy of a visit but how will locals react? Between country ales and churchyard snaps with tourists actually visit?
Part of Pepperall’s plans are to run ongoing events that lean into the tension between the marquee and the local. Blue-chip street and contemporary names give the walls their pull: Blek le Rat, the French stencil pioneer often cited as an influence on Banksy; Emin and Hirst carrying the weather of the YBA years. But these alongside a number of emerging artists and events aimed at a general engagement Place(d) is looking to maintain the personality that underpin the community they fostered in Swindon. Peperral, an enthusiastic and animated character, reminds us that underneath the long numbers and bigger words, art should be social and it should be fun.
Two names anchor the opening. Andrew J Millar builds richly layered images from manipulated Polaroids and precious materials, among them 24ct gold leaf, mother of pearl and copper, and has shown at Saatchi Gallery, where his solo Hidden Visions (2023) ran for six weeks and his work returns in The Sun & The Moon (2026). James Green, working out of Stroud, paints portraits that chase the essence of a person over the likeness, instinctive and unconventional, rooted in the people and place around him. Sculpture carries real weight too, from Patricia Volk’s playful painted clay to Pietro Sanna’s hand-built ceramic vessels and the memory-laden pieces of Brazilian ceramicist Evelyn Tannus.
Whether the Cotswolds want their country homes shaken up by a Banksy or an Emin is the open question. Pepperall is betting that a gallery you can walk into without ceremony, talk in, and leave with something you love, is the way to find out. The doors open in mid September.
Launch Notes: Place(d) Contemporary: A New Contemporary Art & Interiors Destination Comes to Painswick
The Queen of the Cotswolds welcomes a new contemporary gallery, interiors studio and creative destination
Painswick, Gloucestershire Painswick, famously known as The Queen of the Cotswolds, is set to welcome a new destination for contemporary art, interiors and design with the launch of Place(d) Contemporary, founded by experienced gallerist and curator Mark Pepperall. Bringing more than a decade of gallery experience, alongside 25 years working in design, Pepperall is bringing his distinctive approach to the Cotswolds after building an established reputation through his successful gallery, Oink Gallery, in Old Town, Swindon.
Place(d) Contemporary will showcase an exciting programme of contemporary paintings, original works, sculpture and collectable art, bringing together an eclectic mix of established and emerging artists from the UK and internationally.
The gallery’s programme will include work by internationally recognised names in contemporary and street art, including Banksy, Blek le Rat, Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, alongside a carefully curated portfolio of established and emerging artists. Among the artists represented will be Andrew J Millar, the British contemporary artist whose practice combines manipulated Polaroid photography with materials including 24ct gold leaf, mother of pearl, copper leaf and other mixed media. Millar’s richly layered works explore the possibilities of combining photographic imagery with precious and tactile materials. His work has been exhibited internationally, and he has held a solo exhibition at Saatchi Gallery, London. His 2023 exhibition Hidden Visions ran for six weeks at the gallery, and he is also featured in Saatchi Gallery’s 2026 exhibition The Sun & The Moon.
The gallery will also represent James Green, a contemporary artist who lives and works in Stroud, providing a strong local connection for Place(d) Contemporary. Green’s contemporary portrait practice focuses on capturing the essence of people rather than creating precise or conventional representations. He describes his approach as instinctive and unconventional, with a desire to create work that goes beyond straightforward representation and explores deeper meaning, existence and emotion.
His work is closely connected to Stroud and its distinctive community. Green describes the people and place around him as an important influence on his practice, with his work informed by the environment, people and connections he encounters in his everyday life.
Sculpture with a contemporary edge
Alongside its programme of paintings and original works, sculpture will form an important part of Place(d) Contemporary’s offering, introducing a three-dimensional element that sits naturally within the gallery’s wider focus on art and interiors.
The gallery will represent sculptors including Patricia Volk, Pietro Sanna and Brazilian artist Evelyn Tannus, bringing together very different approaches to form, material and contemporary sculpture.
Patricia Volk FRSS is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors and a Royal West of England Academician. Born in Belfast, Volk works from her studio in Farleigh Hungerford, Wiltshire, creating playful, abstract sculptures in painted clay. Her work explores contrasts and juxtapositions of form, line and often vibrant colour, with each hand-made piece retaining its own individuality. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally and is held in public and private collections.
Pietro Sanna, born in Sardinia and now based in York, is a contemporary artist and ceramicist whose practice developed through his studies in Contemporary 3D Craft at York College. He creates hand-built and slip-cast ceramic vessels, using asymmetrical forms, layered surfaces and abstraction to explore narrative and the possibilities of three-dimensional space. His ceramic practice sits between craft and contemporary fine art.
Brazilian artist Evelyn Tannus brings another international perspective to the sculpture programme. Based in São Paulo, Tannus trained in visual arts at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP) and chose ceramics as her principal artistic medium. Her distinctive pieces combine ceramics and painted imagery, drawing on memories, photographs, mythology, cultural references and the visual language of tattooing. Her work has been exhibited in Brazil and internationally, including appearances at Milan Design Week and Maison & Objet in Paris, and her pieces are represented by galleries and stores in cities including London, New York and San Diego.
For Mark, sculpture is an important part of the relationship between art and the spaces in which we live.
“Sculpture brings something completely different to an interior. It changes as you move around it, it interacts with light and space, and it can become almost part of the architecture of a room,” says Mark. “With my background in interiors, I’m particularly interested in how art works within a space rather than simply hanging on a wall. That’s something we’re going to explore throughout the gallery.”
Where art meets interiors
Place(d) Contemporary will be more than a traditional art gallery.
Alongside the gallery, the space will become the new home of Place(d) Interiors, the evolution of Mark’s existing interior design business, Pepper&Co. Mark has worked across commercial and domestic interiors for the past decade, bringing together his background in design, his experience of working with clients and his understanding of how art can transform a space. The move from Pepper&Co to Place(d) Interiors forms part of a wider decision to bring Mark’s creative businesses together under one identity, creating a more cohesive destination where art, interiors, furniture and design can work alongside one another. With a background spanning 25 years in design agency work, followed by a decade working across both commercial and domestic interiors, Mark sees the new space as an opportunity to demonstrate how art can become an integral part of the way we live.
“I’ve always believed that great art and great interiors belong together,” says Mark Pepperall. “A piece of art can completely transform a room, just as the right interior can give artwork the space and setting it deserves. Painswick feels like the perfect place to bring those two worlds together.”
The gallery will also partner with a leading British contemporary furniture company, with details of the partnership to be announced shortly. The collaboration will further strengthen the space’s ambition to become a destination for contemporary art, furniture and interiors in the Cotswolds.
From Swindon to Painswick
Mark’s journey into the gallery world follows a long career in design. After running a design agency for 25 years, he turned his attention to the art world, opening Oink Gallery in Old Town, Swindon. Over the past decade, he has developed a strong reputation for identifying exciting artists and building relationships with collectors, while creating a gallery known for its modern, accessible and eclectic approach to contemporary art. “Opening Oink Gallery was a huge leap for me after 25 years in design, but it quickly became something I was incredibly passionate about,” says Mark. “Over the last ten years we’ve built a fantastic portfolio of artists and, most importantly, a wonderful community around the gallery. Moving into Painswick feels like the next chapter.” “We’re not looking to create a gallery that feels intimidating or overly formal. We want somewhere people can walk into, discover something they love, talk about art and interiors, and hopefully find something that makes them want to come back.” The move to Painswick represents the next stage in Mark’s evolution from designer to gallerist, while bringing together the two creative worlds that have shaped his career.
A new chapter in Painswick
For Mark and his wife Lily, the move to Painswick represents an exciting new chapter — both professionally and personally. Lily, a life coach, will also be running her business from the space, creating a shared environment that brings together art, interiors, wellbeing and creativity. The couple are keen to become part of the life of Painswick and to build relationships with the businesses, creatives and wider community already established in the village.
“We’re very conscious that we’re coming into a place with its own strong identity, history and creative community, and we want to respect that,” says Mark. “We’re looking forward to getting to know people, supporting the local businesses around us and finding opportunities to collaborate.”
“Painswick has such an incredible sense of place and a really strong connection with art and creativity. We feel incredibly lucky to be joining the community, and we’re excited about what we can bring to the village while becoming part of its next chapter.”
The presence of James Green, who lives and works in nearby Stroud, is one example of the gallery’s connection to the wider Cotswolds creative landscape, while the broader programme will continue to bring established and emerging artists from across the UK and internationally to Painswick. The couple are looking forward to bringing their combined creative businesses to the Cotswolds and creating a space that reflects their shared passion for art, design, creativity and people.
“We’re genuinely so excited about what we’re creating,” adds Mark. “It’s a new chapter for us personally as well as professionally, and we can’t wait to open the doors and welcome people in.”
Place(d) Contemporary and Place(d) Interiors will launch from their new Painswick home, with further details on the opening date, furniture partnership and inaugural exhibition to be announced soon.
Place(d) Contemporary and Place(d) Interiors launch in Painswick, Gloucestershire, in mid September 2026.
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Images courtesy of place(d) © Mark Pepperall
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle
