Bringing together 30 emerging artists from nine countries, BRIDGES opens at LumiNoirArt Gallery in Chalk Farm, London, UK. The exhibition features artists from Canada, China, France, India, Malaysia, Slovakia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, most of whom first crossed paths during their master’s studies in University of the Arts London or the Royal College of Art. Since then, some of them returned home, some moved elsewhere, and some continued moving between cities. For many, this marks a rare opportunity to reconnect, especially with the practices they’ve developed since parting ways. This show is, in many ways, a reunion, but also a way of looking at what’s unfolded in their work, and in the places they’ve been.
Curated by Ye Xuan Hew (Malaysia), Briana McCarthy (USA), and Emma Jordan (Canada), BRIDGES is the first in what is envisioned as a travelling exhibition series focused on art, dialogue, and shared space.
Taking cues from the book Art as Therapy by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong, the exhibition adopts a more personal approach, where each work is presented with a one-sentence story, written in English and the artist’s native language. These short texts don’t explain the work, but offer a glimpse into the artist’s thinking or feeling at the time, more like a suggestion or a footnote from the artist. Some are poetic, others straightforward, and a few leave room for interpretation. The use of the artist’s native language points clearly to where each artist is coming from geographically, emotionally and culturally.
Even if visitors may not understand the words, the presence of another language changes the experience. It reminds you that these works weren’t made for a single audience, and that meaning can come through even when translation isn’t possible.
“Invisible women.”
— Jane Hughes, London, UK
“Painting is about repetition and variation in rhythm.”
— YuXuan Hou, Shanghai, China
“I began by the sea, painting traces of unspeakable emotions while searching for humanity’s place within the echoes of time and nature.”
— Siaw Lyn Ling, Miri, Malaysia
In the exhibition space, visitors are invited to leave something behind, like a mark, on a shared world map and messages, reflections, or wishes in a communal book. Although the gesture seems simple, in the context of the exhibition, it feels weighted as everything here is a small act of bridging: between languages, between lives, between past and present versions of self.
The exhibition is also built with sustainability in mind. Materials are reused and repurposed. Everything feels careful. It’s the first edition of what the curators hope will become a travelling platform for holding stories, for allowing people to meet again.
“I’ll burn the bridge between us — in fear, in greed, in kindness.”
— Briana McCarthy, Michigan, USA
BRIDGES
8–13 July 2025
Curated by:
Xuan Hew (Malaysia), Briana McCarthy (USA), Emma Jordan (Canada)
Koppel, Chalk Farm
157 Regent’s Park Rd, London NW1 8BB
