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Plurality Now, London (2026)

15/05/2025

BOUND WATERS - CONFLUENCE | EXHIBITION VIEWS

The show is on for another week at !! Until 17th May 2025.

Bound Waters - Confluence is a duo exhibition that delves into Caribbean identity, celebrating its cultural richness while addressing its fragmented histories through storytelling and folklore. Bringing together the distinct yet interconnected practices of Jamaica based painter Richard Nattoo and UK-based interdisciplinary artist Roisin Jones, the show explores the enduring, evolving relationship between Jamaica and its diaspora. Using water both as a metaphor for connection and resilience, and as a medium, locally sourced from rivers, it is infused into the works with watercolours, ceramics, sculpture and mixed media pieces, creating works that carry place, spirit, and memory within them.

The show developed as an extended discussion—beginning with a joint residency at Artisan House in Kingston (Jamaica), where both artists immersed themselves in local riverscapes, research on storytelling and collective memories. Through this shared experience, they found connections within each other's practices through water and explored the mythology around it. Through their research they were taken with the mythology of the River Mama and her symbolic connection to the diasporic history. What began as an artistic exchange developed into a broader conversation around themes of mythology, identity, and belonging explored through material and form. People of the Caribbean are intrinsically linked to water, and the River Mama emerges here as a potent emblem of that relationship.

Through a cross-Atlantic dialogue between land and longing, rootedness and rupture - a dialogue between home and away - the artists reimagine the story of the River Mama as a vessel for reconnection and cultural continuity.

Read the rest of the curatorial essay on my website in the link in bio

Dates
- Thursday 15th May, artist walk-through, 3pm
- Saturday 17th May, Coffee morning finissage and performance from 11am

25/09/2023

ARTWORKS | MAX LIMBU

Untitled (Rock City), 2023
Vynil lettering on acrylic sheets
110x73,4cm

Untitled, 2023
Akabare Chilli plant, tarpaulin, compost

Max Limbu’s work is centred on the Nepalese community in the UK particularly the first-generation immigrants who arrived post the late 2000s immigration surge, which included ex-Gurkhas and their families pursuing better prospects.
The installation examines the trials faced by these immigrants, delving into challenges such as language barriers, cultural unfamiliarity, and encounters with racism. To achieve this, the installation scrutinises governmental policies concerning immigration and assimilation.
The work explores the act of cultivating non-native plants in the UK to evoke a sense of home and cultural connection. The process of these plants adapting to the British environment parallels the journey of immigrants seeking a better life in a foreign country. An intriguing metaphor implies that a plant's perseverance in acclimatising to its new surroundings mirrors the determination of immigrant communities navigating unfamiliar territories. The insult directed at the plant symbolises the assimilation process, presented through a sanitised office glass door. This juxtaposition highlights the tension between the plant's invasive nature in the exhibition space and the assimilation it undergoes.
The installation effectively blends playfulness and depth. By combining these elements, it strikes a delicate balance between openness and discourse, inviting viewers to contemplate the complex emotions and experiences of both plants and immigrants in their quest for belonging.
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Max Limbu (b. 1990, Nepal) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the relationship between culture, heritage and politics through the lens of architecture and artefacts in the context of contemporary Nepal.
He seeks to reconfigure objects and narratives that address and highlight local struggles confronting rapid urban change in a globalised world. He is interested in the role of communal memories and narrative and myths that tell the story of urban conflict and cultural struggle, loss and change.

23/09/2023

ARTWORKS | JADE THEY

'Go Home I', 2023
Screen Print on Guangzhou Chinese paper
50 x 100 cm

'Go Home II'
Screen Print on Guangzhou Chinese paper
50 x 100 cm

Inspired from a recent family trip in China, where Jade They had her very first family reunion, this series presents two pieces colliding English and Chinese printing techniques together.

They present mirrored landscapes with ‘Go Home I’ and ‘Go Home II’, two images of landscapes and flora of both countries intersecting and disrupting each other. The pieces are mirrored, representing two different sides of her, yet they do not touch. With these abstract works, Jade They shares with us her own experience of being mixed race: a feeling, she finds, of not having a home or a race as one can occasionally feel as if neither will accept you as part of their community, and sometimes one can feel to have the best bits of both with a richer, more multi layered heritage of the two together.

‘Fragments', 2023
Screen Print on Somerset paper
21 x 30 cm

Her smaller piece represents a flower motif that could be an English rose or a Chinese peony, the drawing is fragmented and distorted so that the viewer cannot tell them from one another. Another parallel metaphor linked to her heritage and journey of self-exploration.
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Enquiries [email protected]
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Jade They (b.1990, UK) is a printmaker and illustrator based in London. Her prints are centred on literature, landscapes and her Chinese and English background.
Jade They is an artist exploring the themes of identity, often searching for a place of home in the environments she draws. She utilises the print techniques of two cultures and in this manner, inter-weaves her English and Chinese heritage by combining their traditional printing styles in her own way.
Jade They most recent solo show was with Gallery White Box in 2022. She has had several exhibitions across London such as Bermondsey Project Space in 2021, Lewisham Art House in 2020, East End Print and Deptford Does Art in 2019. She participated in print fairs such as the London Illustration Fair and the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.

22/09/2023

ARTWORK | SHUMAIYA KHAN

Themes present in Khan’s recent series centres around our inherited and influenced identities. All of them are in some respect painted over, a mean to repurpose the path of a thought or a place. Pigments are layered on the surface, like the building of an , slowly growing into a blend of who we have been, who we are, and what we’ll become.
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'An Olive Branch and Two Forget Me Nots', 2023
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 100 cm

The piece is a follow on, however the need for connection is replaced by transitionary isolation. A means to an end. Non-materialistic joys are put away for another day while more serious topics are being understood. The painting gives glimmers of hope in an appeal to not forget the things which matter to us, even though we have lovingly saved them for another day. Olives trees are a special plant to Shumaiya’s faith, a faith she has inherited from her matriarchal lineage.
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'Afterparty', 2022-3
Acrylic on canvas
70 x 80 cm

The work focuses on external interaction within a setting. Her mother cooks a feast for Eid and there are paramount differences in the life she lives and others around her. Even when content, can the heart be swayed by our connections into reminiscing of a future yet to happen?
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Enquiries [email protected]
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Shumaiya Khan (b. 1990, UK) is a painter and writer living and working in London, UK.

Khan produces contemporary pieces using acrylic, charcoal, chalk and poetry across canvas and paper. Pigment is worked and layered into pieces over a series of days or weeks. Brush strokes and charcoal lines are created at different paces, some with more initially thought through intention than others. She sees the physicality of her visual painting as a language forever working towards a changing image in her mind.

Khan’s work is based in emotional where her practice explores juxtapositions around dynamic behaviours in the sphere of; the relationship with ourselves, feminine expression and sensuality, societal interaction, morality, innate faith and spirituality.

20/09/2023

ARTWORK | YVADNEY DAVIS

In her series titled ‘Gather Round the Story Tree’, Yvadney Davis is retelling traditional Caribbean folk stories, as an act of maintaining history, protecting legacy and building community.
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‘When Tiger Nyam Leah’, 2023
Acrylic, wallpaper & chrome ink on linen canvas
90x60cm

Based on the Jamaican story ‘Leah and Tiger' the work shares the fate of a beautiful young woman who is hidden in the forest by her proud parents. They believe she is too beautiful to marry any of her potential local suitors. However, once hidden in the jungle Leah and her parents are outsmarted by a cunning and very hungry tiger, who devours her whole.
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‘Anansi and the Magic Dutch Pot’
acrylic, wallpaper & chrome ink on linen canvas
60x90cm

It is an ode the loveable rogue, Spider man, trickster: the main character for hundreds of years across the African Diaspora. In this popular story, mid-famine, he discovers a magic cooking pot that can give him all the rice n peas, curries, stews, hard food he desires, but instead of sharing with his village (including his wife and children!!) he not only hides the pot, but also fakes death to keep his stash. This is a lesson in the importance of sharing.
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‘Jack Mandora Me No Choose None’
acrylic, wallpaper and chrome on linen canvas
60x90cm

This piece is inspired by the phrase Jamaican storytellers traditionally use to end their stories, particularly one where the protagonist (often Anansi) behaved disgracefully. The saying essentially means ‘Don’t blame me, I’m just the storyteller’. Author of the best selling book ‘The Day I Fell Off My Island’ played the role of this infamous guardian of all stories.
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Yvadney Davis (b.1981, UK) is an award-winning London-based portrait artist championing her British Caribbean experience.

Davis' work is inspired by the connection of nostalgia and joy between the Windrush Generation of Caribbean post-war immigrants to the UK and its descendants. She wants to hold onto the memories and dreams of those that came before her, but also to celebrate the everyday of her community.

20/09/2023

ARTWORK | JAFFAR ALY

'Matter Out of Place's 2023
Oil, oil bar, spray paint, acrylic on dust sheet
240 x90cm

Jaffar Aly exposes and shares with us his personal experience as a living in London. Born in Zanzibar, Aly left the island at a very young age and grew up here in London. We observe 2 distinctive styles in the making of this piece: the dust sheet being stretched, and the lower part hanging to the ground. The ‘Matter’ is of identity, and it is ‘out of place’ as the dust sheet rolls on the floor. The artwork is a mirror to Jaffar Aly, picturing his struggles through the making of his own self. Raised Muslim in a Black household, Aly had to forge his own while growing up in the UK, which sometimes merges, and sometimes also splits. The white character, gasping for the dizziness to go down, represents the ghost of past versions which the artist once has been.
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Enquiries: [email protected]

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Jaffar Aly (b.1998, Zanzibar) is a visual artist and anthropologist living and working in London, UK.

Aly's work mixes visual arts with his academic background and research in and Black British Studies to produce striking and assertive pieces. Through his energetic and colourful brushstroke Jaffar Aly explores the concepts of race, gender, class and the experience of diasporas in London.

Aly's practice extends from , photography, and writing, tackling contemporary socio-political issues. In his , the artist aims to educate and depict unheard stories. His caricature-like portraits focus on the human experience, away from classical canon representations and anchored outside of Eurocentric values. By giving a voice to diaspora in London, Aly's work decolonises and decentralises what is known as common knowledge and rather creates 'parallel forms of knowledge'.

Jaffar Aly holds a BA in Anthropology and MA in Arts and Politics from Goldsmiths University. His most recent show was THIS IS A GROUP SHOW at Liquid Gold Studios (London) and has exhibited at the BCA, Mall Galleries and Saatchi Gallery.
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19/09/2023

ARTWORKS | LEE-ROY ZOZO zozo

Lee-Roy Zozo’s works are closely linked together: a colossal portrait of a young woman holds the mask of her ancestor, a modernised African sculpture is painted over reinventing a new school of tradition, and smaller abstract paintings add a space for colour, and playfulness. The portrait titled ‘Speaking in Tongues’ originates from the concept of displacement: embracing the fact that she was raised away from her cultural country, she holds the mask, as if holding on to her roots, valuing both sides of her identity, standing atop the amalgamation of cultures. The mask is inspired from East African ritual masks and creates a personal interaction between the work and the viewer – as well as echoing the sculpture in the series. It opens a conversation with our inner reality, and brings into question: who are we, really?
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Enquiries: [email protected]
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Lee-Roy Zozo (b.1996, UK) is a visual artist who navigates between France, Guadeloupe, and the UK.

Lee-Roy Zozo has a great fascination for wood, which he uses as his main medium. From carving, burning, and painting on it, the material goes through a series of transformations to create captivating and beautiful figurative and abstract paintings. The artist connects his use of material to expression of energy, and historical and cultural concepts.

Zozo explores the different ways to use wood by sculpting and subtracting the medium, working extensively with shadows and light. He directly carves the figure from his painting, utilising the patina of the raw wood which exceptionally translates the skin colour of his characters. In this manner, the artist also links the symbolic properties of wood to people with melanin and taking the viewer back to ancient times when individuals would hand craft into representational, celebratory, and protective ritualistic symbols.

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19/09/2023

ARTWORK | KATASHA ROSE

‘A Brief Moment’ is captured in the soft brushes of Katasha Rose. A calm yet intense character looks at us, set on a blue abstract background, a slight glimpse of textured work appears on the right-hand side.

In this portrait of a woman, the artist blends her two styles of choice: and figurative. Showing a certain duality in her work, her practice is a way for her to find her own expressive language, a language that defines who she is as a person and as an artist. Rose’s techniques reflect her own , being born and raised in Jamaica, the artist likes to explore her own heritage through art. Her journey through self-exploration is a means to find where to fit in society, and as a British Jamaican woman.
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Enquiries: [email protected]
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Katasha Rose (b. Jamaica) is a contemporary abstract and portraiture artist based in London and born in the Caribbean. Her work explores beauty, identity and heritage as seen through the lens and experiences of an urban Black British woman. An experience that is rooted in her consciousness and ties to rural island life in the Caribbean.

Rose’s identity as an artist was fully established during the global pandemic; ss a self-defence strategy to combat the global sense of uncertainty, mental fatigue and fear. Her work has emerged internationally as she aims to amplify themes close to her heart, whilst using the paintbrush as a tool to inspire change in what remains an uncertain world.

Katasha Rose most recent group show was with Gallery OCA at Cromwell Place, 'Pouring from a Vessel of Knowledge', London, UK (2023); and Dozie Art in New York, NY, USA (2022). She had another international group exhibition in Athens, Greece that same year. Rose had numerous solo exhibitions around London such as her solo pop-up show at Soho House Brixton studio in 2022, and a solo and residency with Lauderdale Gallery in November 2021.
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17/09/2023

ARTISTS TALK | WEDNESDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER

7 - 8.30PM

FREE EVENT

Join us on Wednesday 20th of September 2023 at 198 Contemporary Arts and learning for an artist talk with Yvadney Davis, Katasha Rose, Jaffar Aly and Lee-Roy Zozo.

This event will be a chance to hear the artists engage into conversations about their practice and they work done for the show. It will be followed by a short Q&A.

Link in bio to book your spot (not mandatory but advised)

FREE EVENT

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