“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled”.
— John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972
“The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act”.
— Marcel Duchamp, The Creative Act, 1957
“There should be something revelatory about art. It should be totally creative and open doors to new thoughts and experiences”.
— Tracey Emin (quoted in various exhibition and interview texts about her practice)
Inaugurating Hypha Studios’ new Fenchurch Street gallery location, (UN)SEEN, curated by Zoë Goetzmann, brings together 21 contemporary artists whose practices explore the deeply personal threshold between the seen and unseen, through which artists choose what to reveal to audiences. Through painting, sculpture, and interdisciplinary approaches, the exhibition examines the quiet tension between what is revealed and what remains intentionally withheld, positioning perception as both a visual and psychological encounter.
Emerging from an interest in tracing the familiar and unfamiliar, (UN)SEEN considers how artists navigate the threshold where abstraction and figuration coexist. Gesture, process, and material operate as sites of disclosure, revealing traces of choice, control, and freedom while simultaneously resisting fixed interpretation. Each work exists within a delicate balance between presence and absence, inviting viewers to confront the limits of perception and knowledge.
Tracing a lineage from nineteenth-century representational painting through Surrealism and into contemporary abstraction, the exhibition situates perception as fluid and evolving. Artists continue to negotiate visibility through material experimentation, symbolic language, and abstraction, allowing meaning to emerge gradually through sustained encounter.
(UN)SEEN is not simply concerned with providing visibility to emerging artists, but transcends disciplines, genres, and gender. Bringing together diverse artistic voices across painting, sculpture, installation, design, expanded and project-based practices, the exhibition foregrounds the plurality of contemporary artistic production.
artists
Abbie Griffiths
Adrián Coto
Anna Kolosova
Cas Campbell
Claudia Pang
Ekaterina Adelskaya
Emily Hana
Elena Unger
Epona
Elina Yumasheva
Ewelina Skowronska
Hannah Kline
Hannah Shillito
Hugo Lami
Joonhong Min
Karolina Dworska
Lucie Davis
Mingzhang Sun
Paul Doherty
Olivia Foster
Taya De La Cruz
