“Mallorca is the perfect canvas with a rich palette of art and culture”

“I guess from my upbringing I had that instinct to just go with the flow, so yes, I lived and worked in a number of countries,” he said. Then one day, someone suggested he looked at the world of art, and since then he has not looked back. And this week on April 30, he will be opening a new gallery, Grove Gallery Palma, with British resident Scott Adams as Operations Manager in the very heart of the capital in Calle Can Veri, 4.

However, James has had to overcome some major hurdles in his new journey, the biggest probably having been the Covid pandemic. But he said that when things get tough, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work, and the pandemic ironically helped him to shine on the global art stage.

“I had moved to Bearsted in Kent, got into London and despite having been advised to get into art, I knew nothing about it. But I met a mad artist, who looked identical to the comedian Keith Lemon, at his studio. We hit if off, he explained to me how the industry worked and I then became his manager. A lot of artists are obviously very good at what they do, the art side of things, but we swept in on the sales, marketing and promoting side and I opened the first gallery in February 2020. And a month later the lockdown came.

“We had literally just got the Grove Gallery ready in Fitzrovia, slap bang opposite the University of Westminster on New Cavendish Street. The idea was to get into the local community but we couldn’t, we were all locked up. But the saving grace for me, being so fresh in the art industry, was we didn’t have an identity so we could be anything.

“We were able to pivot on some very tight moves and we started thinking about what to do. We came across virtual tours, which were rife because it was pretty much the only way of getting round the lockdown and get out there. So we started doing the virtual tours of the gallery exhibition, blasting them far and wide. And that was a game changer for us.

“We got our first good catch with a hotel in Malta which had just been refurbished. We’d recently done a magazine article and I got a call from the designer of the hotel and they bought nearly all of the exhibition stock,” James said.

“So that taught me that PR paid and here we are now in Palma. One of the guys I know has an old school friend who brokers art on the island. We started talking back at the start of the year and one thing led to another. And what is mad is that the second artist I ever worked with is called Elena Gaul, who is from Mallorca. We had a lot of success with her, we had some great shows and exhibitions over in London and she really helped to put us on the map if you like, especially here on the island. She’s fantastic.

Help artists

“When the guys started showing me the street in Palma, next to Gallery Red, I thought great, we’ve got to do this. The artwork has just arrived today (Easter Monday) and we’ve called the show Beyond the Surface. We were going to start with a debut show with Zara Muse, but decided to use the new gallery right from the start as an international platform for both up-and-coming and established artists, so we’ve also got Amanza Smith and Silent Mike. “Zara is mid-tier emerging and established and the other two are very much emerging,” James said.

“The philosophy or idea of the new gallery is to help elevate artists, especially in a new international location. That said, with regard to Amanza, who is from Los Angeles, she is also one of the main characters in the Netflix series Selling Sunset. But apart from being a top reality TV star, she’s a superb artist and will be at the opening in Palma with the two other artists who are British. We’re doing an event with her in London first and then flying her down to Palma.

“There will be about 26 pieces in the opening exhibition which is quite varied. Between the three artists, we’ve got Zara who does female portraits using a palette knife, we have Silent Mike from Birmingham, he’s does georealism, he actually creates amazing tattoos, and Amanza is basically quite robotic and it’s her debut show which opens in London with us on Thursday,” James said. But for a young man with a young family who has been round the world, why Mallorca?

Mallorca has it all

“Apart from the fact I first came to the island to give my wife a weekend birthday treat and have been popping back and forth ever since, I’ve got mates who have moved here and obviously new ones I’ve made. A lot of our main competitors are moving out to Dubai, but what we’re doing here is relatively local. It’s me down to a tee in the sense of where I would want to potentially live, bring up a family. I went to watch Real Mallorca play the other night, the ground was full of families together.

“And I’ve noticed a shift in the UK. It’s all politics, politics and everyone’s miserable to be honest and I like the idea of raising a family here on this beautiful island. It just feels like all the stars are aligned with knowing the guys, where the gallery is and what I plan to do with my family. And obviously art is huge over here. We’re staying at the Hotel Victoria Gran Meliá. It’s blown me away, the art, the collection of books about art and artists plus the island’s centuries old cultural history in all fields from art to music and literature. And people know that around the world. It’s why so many people come here. The museums, Mallorca and Palma have it all and through the virtual tours we can still easily maintain our global reach.

“The art market has got off to a strong start this year. The United States, the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia and Asia are all performing well, so really I look at Mallorca and wonder why wouldn’t anyone come here. And I’ve been relatively successful in putting artists on a career path in the UK, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t do it here. No artist in their right mind will turn down an invite to Palma.”

Instagram @grovegallerypalma