That Which Appears

That Which Appears
Co-curated with Olivia Bax & James Fisher

Opening Reception: 17th September, 6–8pm
18th September – 31st October

Featuring work by:
Olivia Bax
James Fisher
Lucy Gunning
Charles Hewlings
Milly Peck
Mike Silva
Drawings from the Drawing Matter collection by Christo, John Hejduk, James Gowan, Louis Kahn and Mies van der Rohe.

Exhibition text by James Fisher & Cathy Hawley

List of Works

'That Which Appears' explores the window as a site of perception, memory and mediation. Bringing together historical and contemporary practices, the exhibition considers the window as both a literal and psychological threshold: between interior and exterior, self and world, presence and reflection. The exhibition aims to open a dialogue across generations, bringing different approaches to the window and its many meanings into conversation.

The exhibition will be presented in two parts. The first opens at Sid Motion Gallery on 17 September and will remain on view until 31 October 2026. An expanded presentation will then open at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, in April 2028, running until September 2028.

For the Sheffield exhibition, the artists will be joined by significant loans from the Graves Collection, Drawing Matter, Leeds Art Gallery and the Tate Collection, including a work by Philip Guston and nine drawings by Pierre Bonnard.
A book accompanying the exhibition will also be published, ahead of its presentation in Sheffield.

We extend our thanks to the artists in the exhibition for their work and conversations. Niall Hobhouse, Kendra Johnson-Matchett and all of Drawing Matter for loaning work. Cathy Hawley for her selection and text. Alison Morton, Kirsty Hamiton and Katie Irwin for supporting this exhibition in Sheffield in 2028. Cole Swensen whose book has been instrumental to this project. Thomas A. Clark who kindly let us use the title ‘That Which Appears’ from his book of poetry, and The University of Gloucestershire for funding to make it all possible

Artist Biographies

OLIVIA BAX (b. 1988, Singapore) studied BA Fine Art at Byam Shaw School of Art, London (2007-2010) and MFA Sculpture at Slade School of Fine Art, London (2014-2016). Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Double Take’, Weston Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, (forthcoming) 2026; ‘Wind Eyes’, East Gallery, Norwich, UK, 2026; ‘Thresh and Hold’, Ribot Gallery, Milan, 2025; ‘Handrailing’, New Arts Centre, Roche Court in collaboration with Sid Motion Gallery, 2024 and ‘Floss’, Holtermann Fine Art, London, 2024. Recent group exhibitions include: ‘Dinner Party: Olivia Bax, Jacob Epstein and Matthew Smith’, Leeds City Gallery, Leeds, UK, 2026; ‘Phantom Sculpture’, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, UK, 2023-24; ‘Confab Window: Olivia Bax & Veronika Hilger’, Hatch, Paris, France, 2023 and ‘Eartheaters’, Lustwarande, Platform for Contemporary Sculpture, Tilburg, Netherlands, 2023. In 2024-25, Bax curated a major institutional exhibition called ‘These Mad Hybrids, John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture’ (Royal West of England Academy, Bristol and Sheffield Museums, Sheffield). Prizes and awards include: Open Studio, Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, Milan, 2025; Artist Research Fellow, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 2023; The Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, 2019/20 and the Kenneth Armitage Young Sculptor Prize, 2016. Bax’s work is part of private and public collections including: The Arts Council Collection, The Ingram Collection, Tremenheere Sculpture Park and Lukowa Art Collection. 

JAMES FISHER (1972, UK in 1972) studied BA Fine Art at the University of Brighton (1992 – 1995) and an MA at the Royal College of Art (1995 – 1997). He was a recipient of an Abbey Scholarship in Painting at the British School at Rome in 2001. He was awarded a PHD in Fine Art at the University of Gloucestershire in 2009 following a series of exhibitions that explored relationships between painting, music and text. Fisher has had nine solo exhibitions including ‘Uchiwa-e’, Eagle Gallery, London, UK, 2011; ‘My Hopes are not Entirely Hopeless’, Aldeburgh Music, Suffolk, UK 2009; ‘I came here a stranger’, Eagle Gallery, London, UK, 2008; ‘As a stranger I depart’, Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden, UK, 2008 and ‘The Wanderer’, Rochester City Art Gallery, UK, 2005. He has exhibited in Italy, Ireland and the UK and has been an invited artist in exhibitions including BITE, Mall Galleries (2011); ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (both in 2010). He has collaborated with sculptor Denise de Cordova on ‘Camouflage’ – an installation of sculpture and paintings for the London Art Fair 2015. Fisher’s paintings are held in many private collections in the UK and Europe, and public collections include FIL Plc, London; the Jerwood Foundation, Hastings and the Hive, Worcester.

LUCY GUNNING lives and works in London. Her solo exhibitions include: Greene Naftali, New York, USA, 2004; Matt’s Gallery, London, UK, 2004; Spike Island, Bristol, UK, 2003; The Centre for Drawing, Wimbledon School of Art, London, UK, 2002; and Tate Britain, London, UK, 2001. Select public collections include Arts Council of England, London; Tate Gallery, London; Hayward Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, Toyama; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; and Contemporary Art Society, London.

CHARLES HEWLINGS (b. 1948) studied BA Fine Art at Newcastle Upon Tyne (1967-1971) and Advanced Course in Sculpture at Central St Martin’s School of Art, London. A recent solo exhibition includes: ‘Done, Gone, Cleft’, Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, 2019. Recent group exhibitions include: ‘Recent Acquisitions exhibition’, Leeds Art Gallery, including ‘Valley Suitcase’ by Hewlings, 2024; ‘The Great Bower Barn’, Canterbury Festival, Molash, UK, 2024; ‘Sculptors’ Drawing Exhibition’, Latimer Upper School Gallery, London, UK, 2023. The most recent publication is Carol Harrison and Charles Hewlings, ‘Beauty and Revelation. This Great Absence: A Conversation between Theology and Sculpture’, published by Bloomsbury in 2025.

MILLY PECK (b. 1990, London, UK) lives and works in London. She holds a BFA from The Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK (2012) and an MA in Sculpture from The Royal College of Art (2016). She was resident on The Bridget Riley Fellowship at The British School at Rome, IT (2021). Peck has been exhibited internationally at galleries and institutions including: VITRINE Gallery, London and Basel; Jerwood Space, London, UK; g36, Glasgow, UK; Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK; BALTIC, Newcastle, UK; Matt’s Gallery, London, UK; East Bristol Contemporary, Bristol, UK; Assembly Point, London, UK; Annarumma Gallery, Naples, IT; Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK; The Royal Standard, Liverpool, UK; Bloc Projects, Sheffield, UK. She completed her first permanent public commission with Vital Arts at Mile End Hospital, UK, in 2024.

MIKE SILVA (b.1970, Sandviken, Sweden), lives and works in London. He studied BA Fine Art at Middlesex University (1989-199) and MA Fine Art at Royal College of Art, London. Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Interiors’, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen, DK, 2026; ‘Landscapes’, Anton Kern, New York, USA, 2025; ‘Mike Silva’, Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, UK, 2025; ‘Mike Silva’, De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill On Sea, UK, 2024; ‘New Paintings’, The Approach, London, UK, 2023. Recent group exhibitions include: ‘SALON’, Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Co. Waterford, IE, 2026; ‘All Nature Has a Feeling’, Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen, DK, 2025; ‘Yay, to have a mouth!’, Rose Easton/Ginny on Frederick, London, UK, 2025; ‘I thought, I had lost half a soul here’, Meyer Riegger, Berlin, DE, 2025; ‘I thought, I had lost half a soul here’, Meyer Riegger, Berlin, DE, 2024; ‘Voyage’, Maureen Paley: Morena di Luna, Hove, UK, 2024; ‘The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain’, Pallant House, Chichester, UK, 2024; ‘of intimacy and quietude’, Sid Motion Gallery, London, UK, 2024; ‘Dream and Refuge’, Works from Jerwood Collection, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK, 2023; ‘The Painted Room’, GRIMM, Amsterdam, NL, 2023; ‘Friends & Lovers’, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA, 2023 Recent press and publications include:  'Painter Mike Silva: You Are Looking at a Memory', Louisiana Channel, Marc-Christoph Wagner, 2026; 'Mike Silva', De La Warr Pavilion publication, 2024; 'Mike Silva on voyeurism and image-making' TANK Magazine, 2024; 'In Conversation with Mike Silva', émergent magazine, Lore Alender, 2023.

Artists from the Drawing Matter Collection: https://drawingmattercollections.com/

CHRISTO (b. 1935, Bulgaria - d. 2020, New York) studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Sofia (1953–56) before defecting to the West, via Prague, in 1957. That year, he spent one semester at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Major group exhibitions have been organised by Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; Museum Ludwig in Cologne; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

JOHN HEJDUK (b. 1929, New York - d. 2000, New York) studied at the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture (1947–1950), the University of Cincinnati (1950–1952), and received his Master of Architecture from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in 1953. Major works include: Kreuzberg Tower and Wings in Berlin, Wall House II in Groningen, the House of the Suicide and House of the Mother of the Suicide in Prague, the House for Two Brothers in Berlin, and the House for a Musician. Awards received: AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, 1988; Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture, 1986; National Endowment for the Arts Design Fellowship, 1983; Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, 1979. 

JAMES GOWAN (b. 1923, Glasgow - d. 2015) studied architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. His most renowned projects include: University of Leicester Engineering Building, Leicester, 1963; Langham House Close, London, 1958; Schreiber House, London, 1964. 

LOUIS KAHN (b. 1901, Estonia - d. 1974, New York) studied at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his Bachelor of Architecture in 1924. Kahn’s significant commissions include: Richards Medical Research Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania, 1957–65; the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, 1959–65; the First Unitarian Church in Rochester, New York, 1959–69; the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh 1962–74,; the Phillips Exeter Academy Library in Exeter New Hampshire, 1965–72; and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, 1967–72. Awards received: Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), 1953; AIA Gold Medal, 1971; Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), 1972.  

MIES VAN DER ROHE (b. 1886, Germany - d. 1969, Chicago, USA) never received any formal architecture training. His most renowned projects include: Barcelona Pavillion, Barcelona, 1929; Farnsworth House, Illinois, 1951; Seagram Building, New York, 1959; Lafayette Park, Washington, 1959; Neue National Gallery, Berlin, 1968; IMB Building, Chicago, 1973; Chicago Federal Centre, Chicago, 1974.