A painting by Rachel Lancaster of the back of a woman's head with her blond hair tied up in a bun

Arms Reach

A painting by Rachel Lancaster of a blue knitted jumper with a hand draped over

Always Already

A portrait of Pei Wang sat in a dark room holding a paintbrush

Matt Carey-Williams and Gallery 2 are pleased to present 

: the second group exhibition curated by Carey-Williams as part of his nomadic project. ‘Episode II: Home and Away’ spotlights fourteen emerging British figurative painters at Gallery 2 in Seoul and Matt Carey-Williams in London.

 – as both title and notion; journey and oxymoron – is an Episode that embraces the historical dissonance – of source and celebration (as already unveiled in previous generations of artists who have shaped our understanding of ‘British art’) – just as it betrays an equally telling association of subject, mood, and design.

Most of the artists in this Episode now call London their home and have enjoyed formative experiences as artists in the British capital. They often use the body as a signifier for an array of concerns, predicated upon various tributaries of status, and charge their practices as vehicles to emblematise certain class or identity friction. Patterns and paradigms of desire, and their ever-shifting geology of being and becoming, come together to collectively paint a tapestry of experience that reflects what it means to live in Britain today.

 thus serves a multilaminate of oppositions and congruities that, when contemplated thousands of miles away, further amplifies then issues that both entangle such a dazzling variegation of practice and politics yet lubricate a shared chorus of passion, presence, and protest.

The participating artists in Home and Away are Ruby Dickson (b. 1996), Aaron Ford (b. 1994), Mattia Guarnera-McCarthy (b. 1999), Christopher Hartmann (b. 1993), Reuben Beren James (b. 1995), Rachel Lancaster (b.1979), Andrew Maughan (b. 1987), James Owens (b. 1995), Glen Pudvine (b. 1989), Joshua Raz (b. 1993), Sophie Ruigrok (b. 1992), Nour el Saleh (b. 1993), Pei Wang (b. 1989) and Georg Wilson (b. 1998).

A detail of a painting by Rachel Lancaster of a blue knitted jumper with a hand draped over it

An installation view of a group painting exhibition including a painting by Rachel Lancaster

South Korea

Seoul

Gallery 2

"Episode II: Home and Away" showcases 14 emerging British figurative painters at Gallery 2 in Seoul and Matt Carey-Williams in London, exploring themes of identity, class, and contemporary British life.

Episode II: Home and Away

Related Artists

Rachel Lancaster

Pei Wang

London

Newcastle