Bringing together a group of international artists whose work channels the spirit of the universe, this exhibition considers our enduring connection to the natural world. Across painting and sculpture, the artists gathered here turn their attention to the moon, earth, animals, water, plant life and symbolic forms drawn from nature, reflecting on the unseen forces that shape our lives. Magic, surrealism and the quiet intelligence of organic forms run through the works on view, inviting us to slow down and contemplate the threads that bind all living beings.
The exhibition takes its title from Yaya Yajie Liang’s 2024 painting We are unwilling to spin out our thoughts into the phantasm of sleep, making cables of cobwebs are wilderness of handsome groves. Liang’s practice is rooted in queer ecology, exploring the natural world as a space of expansive possibility where diversity of form is celebrated. Within ecosystems across the planet, variations of gender, sexuality and relationality flourish without judgement. For Liang, nature offers not only a model of this multiplicity but also a site of nurture and healing. Her delicate watercolours on Chinese rice paper capture fleeting moments where organic shapes seem to shift and dissolve. Leaves, tendrils and bodies swirl together, forming surreal constellations that evoke the magical essence of the natural world.
A similarly transformative relationship to nature appears in the paintings of Alexandria Smith. Smith’s figures are often pictured in states of cleansing or rebirth, bathed in moonlight or emerging from waves. Water and lunar light become agents of change, washing away the burdens of the past and opening space for new futures. Ornate frames extend the narratives of the paintings beyond their edges, inviting viewers to step fully into Smith’s imaginative world. Her work draws upon the legacy of twentieth century female surrealists while looking forward, suggesting speculative possibilities for who we might become once we surrender to the rhythms of the cosmos.
Folklore and myth shape the dreamlike scenes created by Melissa Kime. Her paintings draw upon the visual language of fairy tales, weaving together women, animals and seasonal landscapes. Throughout history, women have been imagined as healers, guardians of cycles and custodians of knowledge passed quietly between generations. Kime embraces these associations, depicting moments of transition that feel suspended between worlds. Figures appear alongside animals or within shifting environments that suggest the turning of seasons. In these spaces the boundary between human and nature dissolves, allowing the viewer to pause within a threshold moment of transformation.
Anouk’s paintings also draw upon a lineage of artists who explored close relationships between humans and animals. Queer painters such as Romaine Brooks, Lotta Laserstein and Renée Sintenis frequently included animals alongside their subjects, while the celebrated French painter Rosa Bonheur built her career painting animals with remarkable sensitivity. These histories resonate within Anouk’s practice. In the smaller shaped canvases presented here, animals appear as companions and counterparts, rendered in a restrained palette that allows bodies and the natural world to gently merge. Human figures remain deliberately neutral in form, creating a sense of openness that allows different viewers to recognise themselves within the scene. In these quiet encounters, whether through the painted figure or the viewer’s own presence, the human and animal worlds meet on equal terms. The paintings evoke the atmosphere of old stories and fables, where animals often act as guides, mirrors or spirit companions, inviting us to consider the subtle bonds that connect all living beings.
Layla Andrews also draws upon animal imagery to explore the complexities of human experience. A recurring crocodile head appears throughout her paintings, an uncanny presence that blurs the line between instinct and consciousness. Raised within a matriarchal household and informed by her mixed race heritage, Andrews approaches storytelling as a layered and emotional process. Her paintings carry traces of memory, grief and resilience, exploring how personal histories become entangled with wider cultural narratives. In dialogue with Anouk’s work, Andrews reminds us that humans are animals too, guided by instincts that connect us deeply to the living world around us.
