Nanci Byrne is a London born & based painter. Toying with misdirection, movement and ambience, Nanci creates ornate paintings that challenge the boundaries of what is meant by ‘decorative’. Soft shapes conceal disquieting atmospheres, with surrealistic, dreamlike imagery unfurling and revealing itself. When viewing her pieces there is often the uneasy sense that they look back at you. Underpinning the whole of her practise is an exploration into the relentlessness of mother/womanhood, which she approaches with darkly comedic references, animal motifs, and the complex interplay of repetition, pattern and destruction.
As a trained textiles designer, Nanci is especially driven to explore the (sometimes negative) value placed on decorative art within a contemporary context. Her paintings draw inspiration from 17th cent. tapestries, and the Art & Crafts movement, but also her long-standing love of video games. She recently graduated from the Royal college of Art with an MA in Painting and is a Frank Bowling scholar.
Luh'De Gita is a Balinese artist whose work explores the changing landscapes of Bali through painting, installation, and archival research. Her practice reflects on post-colonialism, overtourism, and cultural shifts, often using linen and traditional Balinese display methods. She has exhibited in Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, and New York. Luh'De completed her BA at Institut Teknologi Bandung and her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London with the support of the LPDP scholarship, continuing to develop a practice that weaves personal narratives with wider historical and cultural questions.