Craft, identity, and the art of reinvention at the Hauser & Wirth

Hauser & Wirth Somerset presents An Uncommon Thread, a group exhibition showcasing ten contemporary UK-based artists who explore the transformative power of unconventional materials, on view until April 27th, 2025. The show highlights how craft traditions, repurposed objects, and alternative surfaces become vessels for personal and collective memory.

Opening in the Bourgeois Gallery, works by Nengi Omuku, Tai Shani, and Jack O’Brien examine human connection, social memory, and historical narratives. Omuku merges Nigerian textile craftsmanship with Western oil painting, depicting fluid figures in harmonious coexistence. Shani creates a cosmic world where feminism, mythology, and the sublime intertwine. O’Brien’s sculptural assemblages—charged with eroticism and tension—challenge perceptions of the body and its architectural surroundings.

In the Rhoades Gallery, Max Boyla, KV Duong, Nour Jaouda, and Lindsey Mendick explore the symbolic weight of materials. Boyla’s satin works reflect environmental balance, while Duong’s latex pieces reference colonial histories and queer identity. Jaouda’s layered tapestries, made from Cairo market fabrics, mirror her shifting sense of place. Mendick reinvents traditional ceramics to expose raw human emotions with humor and pathos.

The Pigsty Gallery spotlights Charlotte Edey, Georg Wilson, and Rachael Louise Bailey, whose works engage with iconography, folklore, and found objects. Edey’s surreal portals blur reality and imagination, while Wilson’s canvases weave together ancient traditions and seasonal cycles. Bailey’s sculptures combine industrial and organic elements, creating tactile, nuanced forms.

The exhibition culminates in Lindsey Mendick’s I Asked You Not to Hurt Me (2025), an installation inspired by Greek mythology. Depicting decaying sea creatures consumed by insects, the work delivers a haunting critique of exploitation and overconsumption.

Alongside the exhibition, a public program explores materiality, process, and storytelling, extending An Uncommon Thread beyond the gallery walls.