Polly Penrose
Where Have I Gone 4, 2025
Collage of Fine Art Archival Pigment Prints on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Paper, staples
43 x 30cm
Ingrid Berthon-Moine | Dyana Gravina | Polly Penrose | Mia Wilkinson | Kate Williams
felt, expressed, chosen is a group presentation marking the first exhibition in the permanent home of SLQS Gallery, situated in the heart of London’s Shoreditch.
In a world facing a resurgence of far-right ideologies and the rapid growth of the “manosphere”, the hard-won rights of women and the queer community are facing erosion. In this regressive moment, inspired by bell hooks’ All About Love: New Visions (1999), this exhibition offers meditations on love and desire which interrogate preconceptions and widen perspectives.
Opening on the eve of Valentine’s Day, when couples are lured to consume their love through the prism of capitalism, the exhibition offers a parallel interpretation where ‘there is no special love exclusively reserved for romantic partners’ (hooks). Love is felt, expressed, chosen and acted upon.
Known for producing arresting faceless self portraits in disused spaces, Polly Penrose was invited to take photographs in the gallery before renovations began, in which she responds to the exhibition’s theme. This special commission forms part of the artist’s Curtain series in which Penrose collaborates with her mother to create a collection of visceral photographic collage works, cut with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel and stapled together to reflect the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship and how it changes over time. This important series powerfully pieces together the beautiful, the raw and the ugly, alluding to the constant opening up and healing of the deep wounds experienced in this formative bond.
Like Penrose, figurative painter Mia Wilkinson tends to position her body at the centre of her work, though typically contextualised within dark, bizarre and humorous domestic scenes. The voyeuristic element to the work is set against the thick materiality of each brush stroke, conveying a myriad of details which draws the viewer into a strange, intriguing world where a woman’s self-love and sexual desires are intertwined.
‘Possessing the courage to claim our grief as an expression of love’s passion’ (hooks) is the core sentiment in Second Cycle, a series of watercolours by Ingrid Berthon-Moine, created during a recent period of personal grief while embracing a sense of renewal and reawakening. These unique flower paintings transcend traditional associations with romance and celebration, inviting fresh meditations on sensuality and new beginnings.
Can true love be found within ourselves? The quilted textile works by Kate Williams offers a reflection on intimacy and the suffocating impact of overbearing emotions and affections. With its cocooned, soft pink hues, Williams’ wall sculpture is reminiscent of what lies deep within.
Coinciding with the launch of her first book, Embodied histories: Medicalised Sexuality, Childbirth, and Subversive bodies (2025), Dyana Gravina presents an embodied performance of her somatic research into the political entanglement between birth and sexuality. The work explores the act of regaining one’s authentic self through a healing practice achieved by subverting traditional expressions of femininity.
SLQS
All quotes from bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions, 1999
Image 'Where Have I Gone 4' Courtesy of Polly Penrose and SLQS Gallery
Private View: 13 February 6-8pm
On view 13 February - 22 March
20 Club Row, London, E2 7EY