In ancient times, mirrors were made of polished bronze, not glass — so reflections appeared blurry and unclear. Through a Glass, Darkly is a group exhibition that reflects on the nature of perception, the opacity of truth and the tenuous boundary between inner and outer worlds.
The work of surrealist artist and writer Leonora Carrington (1917, England — 2011, Mexico) is deeply engaged with myth and metamorphosis, often exploring the merging of human and animal forms. In her later years, she became especially drawn to the symbolic power of masks, creating works that reflected both her surrealist roots and her immersion in Mexican ritual traditions. These masks, made from materials like wax, papiermâché, clay, or bronze often appear as intermediaries between the realms of worlds seen and unseen. Recent solo exhibitions include Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid (2023); Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Monterrey (2018); and group exhibitions at Philadelphia Museum of Art (2025); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2021-2022) and Tate Modern, London (2022) as well as the 2022 Venice Biennial, whose title and curatorial direction was inspired by Carrington’s book of children’s stories, The Milk of Dreams.
Emanuel de Carvalho (*1984, Portugal) is a visual artist whose practice encompasses painting, sculpture, installation, and sound. He holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London and a PhD in Medicine from the University of Amsterdam and completed postgraduate studies in neuroophthalmology and in painting. His work investigates the unstable nature of visual interpretation, often incorporating disruptions, distortions and fractures that challenge conventional notions of representation. shear lack (2025) introduces a body of work that engages with Catherine Malabou’s concept of destructive plasticity and anarchic thought, exploring absence, rupture, and groundlessness through the language of painting itself rather than representational imagery. The title reflects a deliberate severing of form and meaning, echoing Derrida’s trace and Barthes’ critique of language as a naturalising force. Recent exhibitions include Perrotin, Paris (2025), Gathering, London (2023 and solo in 2024), Hauser and Wirth, Somerset (2024), X Museum, Beijing (2024), Duarte Sequeira, Braga and Seoul (2024 and solo in 2023), and Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai (2022). He is a recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grant for 2022 to 2023.
The work of Nika Kutateladze (*1989, Georgia) assembles memories and photographs of people, houses and sites in his hometown. It reflects life in a very small community, from everyday behavior to the relationships between humans and animals. Individual portraits reflect broader, collective stories within Georgian society and beyond. Primarily painted on wood board, Kutateladze’s works inherit and preserve material traditions of Orthodox Georgian painting while employing desaturated, muted tones. Their idiosyncratic figures convey something secret and sacred. The red flower often appearing in his works carries a symbolic meaning: it requires intensive care to survive and if it is seen in a garden or house, it indicates that someone still lives there, while its absence means the house has been abandoned. Recent solo and group exhibitions include Mendes Wood DM, New York (2025); Artbeat, Tbilisi (2025); CCA, Berlin (2024); X Museum, Beijing (2024); Maison Des Arts Georges & Claude Pompidou, Cajarc (2024); Modern Art, London (2024).
Marcus Leotaud (*1985, Trinidad & Tobago) earned his BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and his MFA from Chelsea College of Art in London. His work explores the threshold of dusk — a space suspended between clarity and uncertainty, where perception begins to shift and the ordinary turns uncanny. In Pommerac (2025) subdued tones of bruised red, deep purple, and midnight blue create a twilight atmosphere, where fruits, animals, and landscapes blur and dissolve, changing as light and memory interact with the viewer’s gaze. The more one looks, the more the image unfolds — and retreats. His imagery draws from personal memories, found film stills, religious iconography, and fleeting impressions of Trinidad. Rather than forming linear narratives, his paintings dwell in paradox and emotional resonance. Recent exhibitions include the Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London (2025); Medulla Gallery, Trinidad (2021); and Gallery 46, London (2019).
Throughout her five-decade career, Margaret Raspé (1933, Poland — 2023, Germany) returned consistently to essential questions surrounding her own daily existence and the world around her. Her installations, performances, photographs, paintings and drawings function as vehicles to move the viewer towards an awareness of interconnectivity, melding the spiritual and political in a simple call to pay attention. Originally conceived for a basement room in the Eisfabrik Hannover that was charred after an explosion, her work Evdoxia-Sophia (1986) completely transforms the atmosphere of a space with a minimal acoustic intervention. Two stacks of raw wool in the corners omit a gentle light and play the meditative sound of bells, which was recorded while Raspé plucked wool with bells on her fingers. Recent exhibitions include Galerie Molitor, Berlin (2024); Automatik, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin and Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2023) as well as group exhibitions at Emalin, London (2025); Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan (2024) and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (2024).
With gratitude to Gallery Artbeat, Tbilisi; Gathering, London; Leonora Carrington Council; rossogranada, Zurich and Tramps, New York.
Press:
Challenging Time and Space: July Exhibitions’ Highlights in Berlin, Beatrice Sacco for The Columbist