DIRECTOR'S SELECTION | October 2026

DIRECTOR'S SELECTION | October 2026

13 October - 7 November 

The artworks in this month’s Director’s Selection grapple with contradiction, spirituality, and the natural world. Whether it be through figurative work, or abstraction, these artists confront the dichotomies that exist in the world around us with a blend of humour and sensitivity.

Shany van den Berg’s lush florals create a sense of harmonious tension, where the cultivated and the wild exist in a single, balanced frame. The ample curves of her vases mirror those of the female form. Where van den Berg sees commonalities, Aron Demetz’s work serves as a visual metaphor for our simultaneous coexistence with, and alienation from, the natural world. William Peers plays with the rigidity of his sculptural medium, creating sinuous looping shapes from solid rock.

Transcendence and spirituality emanate from Cathy Abraham’s meditative brush strokes, in Guy Ferrer’s exploration of humanity versus time, and in Deborah Bell’s investigation into the border between mortality and immortality, presence and absence, the grounded and the transcendent.

Alessandro Papetti’s cinematic paintings, focused on industrial archaeology, urban landscapes and nude studies blur the boundaries between public and private spaces. Thonton Kabeya also concerns himself with architecture and design, celebrating the relationship between cities and their inhabitants. 

Luca Evans' work sits at the playful and delicate intersection between tradition and alteration, linguistics and visual art. Norman Catherine’s work oscillates between the macabre and the comic - an exploration of light and dark.

Beneath the glimmering surfaces of Lucinda Muge’s ceramic vases is a familiar world simmering with paranoia and tension. The result is a whimsical collision of the popular and the refined, the mundane and the elevated, the violent and the beautiful.

Shifting towards abstraction, Ricky Burnett, Maja Marx, and John Murray move between representational and nonrepresentational forms, creating structures that are simultaneously in the process of forming and disintegrating.

Everard Read London is proud to present this group exhibition of largely South African artists, with diverse backgrounds, all of whom have an authentic and considered practice and who share a commitment to contemporary story-telling and craft.