(C) Jo Thorne Photography
Helen Beard (b. 1971, Birmingham, UK) studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design and went on to have a fifteen year career as an assistant art director in the film industry. During this time, Helen continued with her artistic practice, working in the diverse mediums of paint, collage and needlepoint.
Her work vibrates with movement and colour in a celebration of the erotic experience. Using a vibrant palette and an ever changing framework: from close-crops to wide shots, to create a landscape of intimacy. Her paintings are a textural fusion between form and colour, utilising sinuous brush strokes in a motion akin to stroking skin.
She has exhibited in numerous group shows, including ‘True Colours’ (2018) at Newport Street Gallery. Solo shows include ‘It’s Her Factory’ (2019) at Unit London and ‘The Desire Path’ (2020) and ‘The Tulips are Too Excitable, It Is Winter Here’ (2023) at Reflex Amsterdam. Helen’s work has also been translated into a series of silkscreen prints, produced with UNIT Drops, Reflex Amsterdam and Paul Stolper Gallery.
In 2022, Helen was co-curator, with Maria Buszek and Alayo Akinkugbe, of ’Sensitive Content’ a group exhibition at Unit London that featured artists including: Betty Tompkins, Penny Slinger, Renee Cox and Linder Sterling.
Nunes’s entire life has been a transgression between two very different realities, each evolving deeply around his art. His style of painting doesn’t start with an idea or a concept. Rather, he paints straight onto the canvas without drafts or subject. Often in a semi-conscious state, undefined, his work emanates from an urge, an impulse, something irrational. Nunes’s instincts take control in such a way that he is no longer the master of the brush. Nunes’s live painting performances with the Kharkiv State Opera Orchestra and Ballet Theatre have attracted global attention, and his works are on permanent display in the Council of Europe. He has also exhibited at Christie’s and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Born in Lisbon, with his early childhood years spent in Africa, he now lives and works in London.
Gianna Dispenza earned her BFA in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014 and completed her MA in painting at the Royal College of Art in 2020. Her work has been showcased internationally, spanning the USA, UK, Italy, France, South Korea, and Lebanon, including prestigious institutions like the Victoria and Albert Museum. Currently residing and working in London, Dispenza continues to captivate audiences with her emotionally charged and archetypal explorations.
Gianna Dispenza has taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions locally and abroad. Gallery exhibitions and residencies include: In The Flesh, 2023, This is not a curated exhibition III, 2022 - 2023, Residency Num. 1, 2021, This is not a curated exhibition II, 2021 - 2022, VestArt, 2022, Who is Ramo (Project Room #1), 2021 Double like tata, 2020.
Aristeidis Lappas (b. Athens, 1993) lives and works in Athens. He studied for a BA degree at the University of West England, Bristol, UK. During this time he participated in an exchange programme with Academia De Belle Art, in Bologna, Italy. His work has been exhibited in: Body Thoughts, The Breeder, Athens (2021); Tenderness of a Cutting Sword, The Breeder, Athens, (2020, solo); Theorimata 2, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2020, group); Polymorphic Entrancing Topos, P.E.T Projects, Athens (2019, solo); Part II, The Breeder, Athens (2019, group); Break Time Contemplations, Transformer, Washington D.C. (2018, group); From November 2020 until January 2021 he was a resident in St.A.I.R., Graz, Austria, and in the summer of 2021, in the Tryfon Art Residency, Lesvos, Greece. His work was part of the 7th Athens Biennale Eclipse (2021). He is represented by The Breeder, in Athens.