MUSE – Metamorphosis
Meet the artists:
Gemma O’Brien
Gemma O’Brien is a London-based fashion illustrator, painter and clothes-maker. A Central Saint Martin’s College of Art graduate, she studied Fashion Communication and Promotion. Her early career saw her work at Vivienne Westwood and Tank and has work for sale on Nick Knight’s online SHOWstudio Gallery. Gemma’s work is inspired by individuals who actively challenge convention both in the fashion world and the everyday, working in various media including ink, acrylic, watercolour, oil and thread. From 2022 to the present day, Gemma has shown paintings in groups shows at the Lido Stores in Margate, Candid Art Gallery, London, The House of Smalls Gallery in Gloucestershire (now Scotland), Chelsea College of Art, London College of Fashion and 54 The Gallery in Mayfair as well as contributing an embroidered bra to Linder Sterling’s live art performance ‘Cut to the Chase; in Delphi, Greece in 2024.
www.gemma-obrien.com
@_gemma_obrien
El Relleno
El Relleno’s mobile phone photography is a mix of street photography and nature inspired by minimalist ideas and ancient mythology.
In his first year exhibiting he earned himself a solo show in Camden after he was found busking at Charing Cross by a film maker who made a documentary about him.
He’s a self-taught artist currently living and working in London and has exhibited in galleries around the city. He has found international recognition being selected as a finalist for the prestigious Prix Camera Clara in Paris and his work was also chosen to appear at Visual Art Scotland’s centenary show at the Royal Academy in Edinburgh.
About the work: She courts her hero with affection and guidance. She intelligently reassures him and mothers him as if he were her own. She invites him into her house, calling for him in the night-time. He comes to her bathed in crystal water and desperation in his conscience. There is promise of retribution and change. Delight in success and failure – their union is everlasting.
@el_relleno
Paul Kingsley Squire
Paul Kingsley Squire is a London based oil painter & draftsman whose portfolio includes ethereal, otherworldly abstracted landscapes, surreal figurative works imbued with symbolism and old master inspired fantasy paintings.
He is fascinated by themes of metamorphosis and transformation and in recent years he has developed several distinct series of works, that play with dualism and the esoteric, creating a fusion of futuristic subject matter with an aged aesthetic.
@paulsquireart
Ziqian liu
Ziqian Liu is a Chinese photographic artist based in Shanghai. Her works are all created
independently with a camera and a tripod.
In her works, she combines her own body, plants, mirrors, and light and shadow to
continuously explore the symbiotic state of harmony between humans and nature, which is
the first theme of her work. She believes that humans are equal to other living beings in
nature. We exist in the same world, breathe the same air, and rely on each other. It is in this
balanced symbiosis that beauty is most fully realized. She aims to allow viewers to
experience the beauty and power of life in the tranquil world she constructs.
The second theme is about perspective. Familiar objects often remain in our minds in fixed
forms. However, she wants to convey through her work that observing the same object from
different angles can lead to new discoveries. She uses mirrors to illustrate the multifaceted
and relative nature of things, helping viewers understand the world from different
perspectives. Mirrors are tools for self-awareness and introspection. Mirrors also serve as a
bridge to show the inclusive and interdependent relationship between herself and the objects
around her.
She rarely shows faces in her works. She believes that the silhouette in the frame can
represent anyone. Different viewers will have different interpretations and imaginations about
the work, which is the charm of photographic creation and the reason why photographic art
attracts her. Her works have been exhibited in cities such as Shanghai, Milan, London, and
Los Angeles. She has been interviewed and featured in media outlets including China
Daily, ELLE China, VOGUE Portugal, and IGNANT.
@ziqianqian
Mad Bu
Mad Bu creates magical worlds that are transmitted to the viewer.
They inhabits an alternative world of hidden thoughts, fever dreams and dark fantasies.
Their paintings depict ambiguity between light and dark, innocence and guilt; their installations present spaces that are both theatrical and mystical and lead the viewer to break through from reality into an alternative world.
Soft materials are essential. They like to change textures, combining different mediums to produce a raw and organic feel. Traditional mediums are also utilised, to connect with the past. Many of their works are tactile- the touch of the surface being part of the communication and energy transfer between them and the viewer.
They are mad and hysterical.
They are aware of you, and they need your awareness to awaken.
Feed them with your secrets and they will be pleased.
@mad_bu_art
https://madbuuu.wixsite.com/madbu
Mad Bu & Bad Mu
We are on a journey of unlimited possibilities. We are the chasers of freedom. We are the hunters of fever dreams, unique visions, forbidden secrets and ancient wisdom. Through the dark corridors and scary recesses of our minds, we strive to create an alternative world where all lost spirits will find their spot to rest. Feed us, join us, and play with us. No boundaries, no boarders. Be led by it, don’t force it.
The Contract – Performance:
Domination, power, brain-washing, inequality, manipulation… these are not only politics, these can be our everyday life. Are you the manipulators or the muppets? Or both? Are we too close to the danger and harm without knowing that? Do you feel trapped sometimes?
These traps aren’t that clear most of the time, we need to stay sober and strong.
When the self- realization awakens…
Anger, frustration, shock, confusion, regret, shame …all the emotions mixed together, creating waves of extreme feelings.
Evil behind the mask, one day, you will be exposed.
This performance is sharing strength to all people who are struggling in the dark time of their lives. We are not afraid to embrace our vulnerabilities and transformations.
@madbu_badmu
Keith Pointing
Keith Pointing uses surrealism and humour to satirise the human condition, environmental justice and societal issues. He works primarily in oil paints and he uses motifs and layers of iconography from the natural, the classical world and visual memory. In each work, he experiments using the language of form, colour, shape, space, and volume. These works explore the dichotomies of childhood and adulthood, the conscious and unconscious, and the seen and unseen in various emphasis and combinations.
@keithpointing
Chris Holley
Chris Holley’s practice lives where music, movement and visual art collide. A Berkshire based graduate artist with a background in choreography and dance, she translates live performance into vibrant visual energy, often creating paintings in-the-moment. Whether abstract or figurative, her work pulses with rhythm, spontaneity and emotion.
Proactive and involved in many multi-disciplinary projects – notably as visual artist in residence at acclaimed Bangor Music Festival 2025 – she also delivers illustrated talks on the flow of inspiration across the arts – this year for community cultural hub Guildford Institute.
You’ll find her writings on the huge impact of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes on visual art in the National Library of Art at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and in other major art archives. Among frequent exhibiting she highlights… selection by abstract artist Albert Irwin for Discerning Eye; achieving winner of international exhibition Art Jazzed Up and two solo shows and a three-hander at the iconic Yehudi Menuhin Concert Hall, Surrey.
The Flamenco series of mixed media drawings reflect her direct involvement and passion for this vibrant Andalusian art form, its unique blend of song, guitar and dance, rich cultural tradition and deep emotional expression making it a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
@chrisholleyart
Susan Kistner
Having graduated with an MA in Textiles. Is interested in working in different mediums including digital. She has exhibited in the past and has had work published.
The theme of metamorphism appealed to her because of her interest in shamanism and love of the goddess. As representative of nature and transformation integral to our understanding and appreciation of life and the world around us. To delve deeper to deal with chaos . The image of the butterfly comes to mind in its transition from one state to another as a symbol of rejuvenation although some ideas are less about evolution my interest is on the positive always.
Clare Archibald
Clare Archibald is a Scottish multidisciplinary writer-artist working with text, sound, image, performance, objects and materials to explore ideas of place, time, articulation, movement, encounter and transformation. Her work explores the between spaces of the private and public, the individual and collective, the autodidactic and academic and the real and imagined, using experimental processes, collaboration and place as sites of learning and transformation.
She is widely published in experimental journals and academic presses, has exhibited, screened and installed work in the UK and internationally, released two collaborative site specific albums, a range of solo sound work and has her body of multidisciplinary work relating to expected neonatal death held by the Wellcome Collection. She has presented work in a range of settings from book festivals to car parks and woods and has worked with a range of collaborators, including the international public for a 2021 sound installation. She has her own press, Versions of Undefined focusing on archive, intention and connection.
Time Anointed (2023) is a series of six black and white photographs connected over a period of time by the same bunch of decomposing geum flower stalks and the act of going outside to hang or take in washing. In the same way that the washing line is a point of transformation by the elements, the geum stalks in their continuously altering state provide a conduit for transformation and performance in a private garden that is nonetheless overlooked by others. The act offers a point to consider transformation by interaction with materials, boundaries of ageing, illness, and menopause, inner/outer freedom within public sightlines, illusion and the creative inquiry and access to other dimensions offered by relatively small and quick, repetitive actions in the domestic space.
@versionsofundefined
https://www.clarearchibald.com/
https://www.lonewomeninflashesofwilderness.com/
Galina Hristova
Galina’s professional training started at the widely acclaimed National school of Fine Arts ‘Tzanko Lavrenov’, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, continued with BA and MA Set and Costume design at the National Academy of Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria, and was sealed with the MFA Fine Art Course at Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, London, UK.
Trained in the academic tradition of painting and drawing, Galina now works multidisciplinary with main focus on Painting and Performance art, with focus on human nature, exploring the dichotomy between rationality and instinct, after the Jungian theory of the archetypes and the collective unconscious.
Together with her teaching and curatorial experience, she has led different workshops, presentations, and talks.
Her practice expands in curation with the realisation of different art exhibitions and live events.
Galina has six solo shows and a great number of collective exhibitions in the UK, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, and the US.
@galina.hristovaart11