We are delighted to present [Un]Seen, the first-ever solo exhibition by acclaimed artist Laxmi Hussain. Bringing together a significant body of work, this landmark exhibition offers an intimate encounter with an artist whose deeply personal practice has resonated with audiences through its honest, expressive exploration of motherhood, identity and the female experience. We are thrilled to celebrate this important milestone in Hussain's career.
"[Un]Seen" explores the quiet complexities of motherhood, inviting audiences to consider the unseen labour that underpins both caregiving and artistic practice. The exhibition examines the parallels between the invisible emotional and physical work of raising children and the often-overlooked processes of making art: the hours of experimentation, repetition, reflection and resilience that remain hidden behind the finished work.
Hussain's paintings and drawings are rooted in the female body as a site of memory, transformation and lived experience. Inspired by motherhood, identity and the body's continual evolution, her fluid, expressive works celebrate vulnerability, strength and change. Trained in architecture before dedicating herself to art, Hussain's practice combines intuitive mark-making with a sensitive understanding of form, creating works that are both deeply personal and universally resonant. Through colour, gesture and abstraction, she challenges conventional ideals of perfection, inviting viewers to embrace bodies as they are: evolving, resilient and full of life.
At the heart of [Un]Seen is a question: what do we value, and what do we fail to notice? While the viewer encounters the finished artwork, much of what gives it meaning lies beyond the frame—in the invisible acts of care, emotional labour and creative persistence that shape both artist and mother. In this exhibition, these two identities are not presented as separate, but as deeply intertwined, each informing and sustaining the other.
The title [Un]Seen also speaks to a universal human desire: to be seen. It reflects the experience of many mothers, whose labour often goes unnoticed, while acknowledging the unseen work of the artist whose countless decisions, revisions and acts of making culminate in a single finished piece. Together, these works ask us to look beyond the surface and recognise the hidden narratives, quiet acts of devotion and accumulated moments that make both art and motherhood possible.
As Laxmi Hussain's first solo exhibition, [Un]Seen marks a significant moment in the artist's career. We are honoured to present this exhibition and invite visitors to experience these powerful works firsthand, celebrating an artist whose practice reminds us that some of the most meaningful things in life are often those we cannot immediately see.
Curated by Gallery Director Tally de Orellana
About the artist:
Elegant and ethereal but also precise and geometric, Laxmi Hussain’s drawings and paintings exist somewhere between the abstract and the realistic, often presenting what appear to be the free-flowing organic forms of the body through intricately ordered patterns. Her finely detailed line forms are rooted in a fascination with architecture, a subject she studied for several years before becoming disillusioned with the constraints and rigidity of the discipline and shifting her focus to the unconstrained creative possibilities offered by art.
Laxmi has been drawing for as long as she can remember. As a child in London, she would lose hours after school, sketching on the counter in her dad’s corner shop. But it is only since the birth of her first child, that Laxmi has turned her passion into a profession. Re-inspired by the irrepressible joy in creativity shown by her children, she picked up the pencil once again, finding artwork to be a valuable means of reclaiming her own identity amid the emotional blurrings of motherhood.
Her inspiration comes from the forms encountered in everyday life, from the body, the tenderness of motherhood, the natural shapes of the body as a vessel and its evolution throughout life. Working in several different media, usually at night, Laxmi is driven by experimentation, constantly exploring new techniques and searching for the shapes and subjects they express best. Often, her work includes elements that appear incomplete, obliging the viewer to pause and engage with the artwork, filling in the absences themselves rather than just dismissing it and moving on.
