Elizabeth Xi Bauer is thrilled to inaugurate its new space in Exmouth Market with an exhibition that builds on the gallery’s past and sheds light on its present whilst establishing possible routes towards its future. We do so by showing a cohort of artists who have been involved with the gallery’s programme since the inception of its first permanent space in Deptford in 2021 – sometimes, even before that, when the gallery was founded as a peripatetic space in 2015 – and form the core of Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s identity.
Thiago Barbalho is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice draws heavily on two-dimensional surfaces of various kinds, yet encompasses sculpture, objects, embroidery, and the written word. He exhibited his work at the gallery during spring 2023, in dialogue with Theodore Ereira-Guyer, and has his first solo show scheduled for later this year. At this inaugural exhibition, Barbalho will display two canvases inhabited by his signature colourful, biomorphic figures. Their nod to nature is further emphasised by their titles: Semente germinando (Germinating seed) and A seiva das palavras (The sap of words), both 2024.
Theodore Ereira-Guyer is among the first artists to be represented by Elizabeth Xi Bauer, and his creative growth is indissociable from the gallery’s very expansion into a player on the London art scene – an expansion now crowned by the opening of this space. On this occasion, Ereira-Guyer will show two large-scale etchings, which is perhaps the medium that he’s most comfortable with among the various that he explores. Titled Starlight and Wishes by starlight (both 2024), the works employ a variety of green and brown shades to depict two landscapes at twilight, as if offering a sneak peek into a scene that is not commonly seen.
Karoliina Hellberg works mostly with paint, such as oil, acrylic, or watercolour – or, often, a mix of all of them on the same surface. Although her works are not created as a series, some visual elements and specific shades appear in many of her pieces, creating a sense of unity and continuity analogous to chapters of a book. The serpent is one of such elements, as are flowers and wallpapers; all of which are present in her newest composition, titled Pergola, commissioned specially for this exhibition. Hellberg has been a staple of the gallery since participating in a group exhibition in late 2021.
Alongside Ereira-Guyer and Abraham Kritzman, Marta Jakobovits has been involved with Elizabeth Xi Bauer since its early days. Mastering the field of ceramics like few others, Jakobovits works alone and is involved in all aspects of her artistic practice, from moulding to burning and glazing; likewise, she dedicates equal care to all of them. Here she exhibits two twin works, titled Strange Beings Appeared I and II (both 2024), where small volcano-like creatures sit above a light blue, organic-shaped tray. She further exhibits Pyramid Boxes (2019), a composition made of three brown-grey pyramids that share the same height and triangular shape as her other works on show.
Abraham Kritzman has been a pillar of Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s programme since the very beginning. The artist is equally committed to creating sculptures and paintings, transiting back and forth between both realms with nonchalance. Noteworthy, his paintings are rather voluminous, and his sculptures denote spatial and colour concerns that are proper of painting, thus, ultimately, both strains of his practice blend to shape his unique vocabulary. Here, Kritzman exhibits two diptychs from his Hefff series (2024) that consist of different compositions made of thick layers of brown paint drawn over with a sharp object, adding reliefs which expose orange paint to the monochromatic surfaces. Each of these brown surfaces is eventually interrupted by the underlayer of orange paint with various details, adding light and lightness to the compositions.
Oswaldo Maciá has participated ad hoc in the gallery’s programme since he was featured in É a lama, é a lama, a 2023 group exhibition centred around the climate crisis. The artist’s prime element is nature itself, which he records, photographs, paints, and sculpts, equally fascinated by fauna, flora, and natural phenomena alike. At this inaugural exhibition, he shows both photographs and drawings that were conceived in the Namib Desert. Whereas the photographs depict the dunes, the drawings show studies of fog-basking beetles (Onymacris unguicularis), a resilient species that is native to that African southwestern ecosystem.
Elena Njoabuzia Onwochei-Garcia favours large formats in her compositions, as seen at her duo show The House of Bernarda Alba (2024–25) in our Deptford space (alongside Sam Llewellyn-Jones). Here, she exhibits Nonsense Begins (2025), a tempera on washi cutout collage that navigates her distinct lexicon of magical realism. The artist explains that she was interested in approaching the culture of blame and fear with this painting and, indeed, with the larger series of works to which this one belongs. Noteworthy, the creatures in the work are all in physical contact with the next, as in a pass-the-message exercise, thus emphasising the interconnectivity aspect behind the blame culture. This is one of the most colourful compositions by Onwochei-Garcia to date.
The main thread of Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín’s work is textile, though he also produces paintings and videos on occasion. The artist started his relationship with the gallery while participating in a group show in 2022 and has since produced a solo display in 2023. Later this year, he will present his second solo show with us – this time in Exmouth Market – to coincide with the launch of his first monograph. At this inaugural exhibition, Pichillá Quiacaín shows three pieces that belong to larger, ongoing bodies of work: two compositions from the Grandmother series, and one work from his Seed series. This show will be the first of many that he is featured in as a represented artist.
