aboutBIOPRESS
Branch Gallery is a contemporary art space in Durham, North Carolina committed to promoting the work of local, national, and international emerging and mid-career artists. The gallery was founded in 2004 by husband and wife team Chloë Seymore and Harrison Haynes, both graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, following their relocation from New York to Haynes's home-state of North Carolina. Teka Selman joined the gallery as Partner in December 2006, following her move to Durham from New York, where she was Director of Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Gallery. With the goal of cultivating a contemporary program in the Southeast, the gallery was started in a 1900s mill-worker's house in Carrboro. In 2006, when given the opportunity to join the growing scene in downtown Durham, Branch chose to move to its new location—a 3,000 square foot warehouse space which houses two galleries.
Since its inception, Branch Gallery has served as a laboratory for the arts in the Southeast, organizing a wide range of group and solo exhibitions in collaboration with artists who are recognized locally, nationally, and internationally. To that end, the gallery often hosts two exhibitions simultaneously, of both an emerging and mid-career artist. By juxtaposing a well-known artist with a lesser-known artist of equal talent, the gallery seeks to expose the unknown artist to a wider audience while likewise providing access to a nationally recognized artist and his/her practice. The gallery works with a growing roster of artists—both through representation and project-based initiatives—including Casey Cook, Bill Thelen, Kyung Jeon, Deborah Grant, George Jenne, Taiyo Kimura, and Jeff Whetstone, among others.
The gallery has also continued to strengthen its involvement in its local and academic communities, hosting fundraisers for the Daylight Community Arts Foundation as well as events for the Nasher Museum at Duke and HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory). Branch participates in art fairs both nationally and internationally, including the Aqua and NADA Art Fairs in Miami, Florida, as well as New Contemporaries at Art Cologne in Köln, Germany and SWAB, Barcelona. The gallery has been a member of NADA since 2005.