Bow Arts’ annual Bow Open Show showcases the talent and diversity of art being made across the charity’s studios, as well as by their artist educators. This year’s curator, visual artist Lindsey Mendick, invited submissions with her provocation “A Personal Treasure”, and has gathered work from 33 artists, various in media and all distinctly precious for sharing a treasured notion.

Laid out in a museum style under the gothic arches of the Nunnery Gallery, the show spans painting, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, video, and millinery, with small objects collected in intimate groups in vitrines. The artists selected include some of Bow Arts’ brightest stars and growing talent, with Catherine Chambers just shortlisted for the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024, Sadegh Aleahmad currently working on a commission for the National Gallery, and Tommy Camerno shortlisted for the Waverton Art Prize 2024.

Suitably eccentric and theatrical, Mendick’s selection of treasures ranges from a wearable Sicilian cassata cake (La Sicilianedde, Micheal Coppelov), a series of tufted swords embellished with ceramic teeth and trinkets (Serious Quarrels, Haydn Albrow), and fantastical sensory worlds drawn on coffee cups (Paul Westcombe). What artists have chosen to share is beautiful, both visually and personally: Cameron Ugbodu’s Das Kind mit den goldenen Knochen steht wieder auf ungebrochen (the child with the golden bones stands up again) gleams with gold and contrasting deep blue, reflecting on transformational reflection; You Liang’s Growing Up is an Animal Trap is a triptych of silvery soldered and printed shapes, delving into the artist’s younger years of growing up as a “Chinese queer individual navigating the complexities of growing up in a conservative town”.

Images, left to right: Tabitha Powles Frog 2023; Maddie Yuille A kiss 2024; Moussa David Saleh Nose To Cheek 2024.

There are also quieter, intimate treasured moments to be found through exquisite painting: Moussa David Saleh’s Nose To Cheek, Maddie Yuille’s A kiss, and Tabitha Powles’s Frog – referencing the treasured possession of a patient Powles cares for as a nurse.

Not to be missed, Mendick’s Bow Open invites viewers to explore some of the most exciting work being made in London today through her unique curatorial lens. Speaking of her curation, Mendick cites the importance of these exhibitions for artists’ careers, and of organisations such as Bow Arts who provide these opportunities for artists:

“After I left the Royal College of Art, Bow Arts gave me my first commission and I will always be eternally grateful to organisations such as these that champion and promote emerging artists at the time they need it most.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a carefully curated event programme, building on themes from the show, and including chances for visitors to take part in hands-on workshops run by Bow Arts artists.