Gallery 31 Residencies

Abbas Zahedi July 2021 – November 2021

Abbas Zahedi developed a new commission during his three-month residency at Somerset House Studios, building on his recent work sampling meditation apps. Here, work through sound, performative remnants, and site-specific intervention, ritualistic rhythms provided an undercurrent that re-enliven mediated transcendence. Instead of a pure sonic encounter, Zahedi’s Door WC2R tuned the space of Gallery 31, enabling an improvised tempo, or rather, a de-choreographed palpitation.

Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin (December 2021 – March 2022)

Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin is an artist of multiple diaspora who researches what it means to 'be' through poetic and minimal practice. Born and raised in London with dual British and Black Caribbean ancestry, she works butterfly-like with found objects to craft a contemporary philosophy inspired by her spirituality, heritage, and rituals for collective healing.

Her focus during the residency was to explore the hybrid space of the mystical, the mundane and the remedial through sculptural form in the context of London society today, culminating in a group show Piece of Mind at Gallery 31.

Mani Kambo (May 2022 – August 2022)

Mani Kambo is a multidisciplinary Artist, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She explores the inner spirit by drawing on her own personal totemic symbols. Influenced by her upbringing in a Sikh household filled with superstition, prayer and religious ceremony. Textile, fabric dying and printmaking is rooted in Kambos family history within the caste system. She focuses on objects, routines and rituals distilled both from the everyday and mythology.