WORKING TITLE: I ❤ ARTISTS & OCEANS

Wrought in the tides of a year becoming, Working Title: I ❤️ Artists & Oceans is a group exhibition. Surfaced here are artworks by Lulua Alyahya and Valérian Goalec, artworks by Angélique Heidler, Zeynep Kayan, Valeria Schneider and Zinong Zhang; art workings that ebb and flow in form and in thinking.

Belmacz’s thrives on arts expansiveness; we love to get lost in the vastness of horizons, be these red-blue, lilac, opal, deep peach or pearl. From this sea of passion, Working Title: I Artists & Oceans, brings together a range of artists each of whom we have felt inspired by; artists who make us want to venture forth and further, to places known or new and to experience again and again the full on verbosity of life — living.

We know that this is our romantic projection, the joys of art present such far off looking.

The artists in Working Title: I Artists & Oceans do more than offer a dreamy reflection on life, they provide a material kick, demanding that we do the work of thinking free(&)dom for ourselves. That we sit with their artworks and chart where we can venture with them; physically or at least with them in mind. In an epoch of ever greater in-progressiveness, where one is often exposed to numb faced chatter, Lulua and Valérian and Angélique, Zeynep, Valeria and Zinong provide us with an ode to renewal.

Lulua Alyhya

(b. 1998, Washington D.C, USA)

Graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art (UK) in 2020 and Goldsmiths, University of London (UK) in 2024. Lulua’s paintings encompass references drawn from different worlds, interwoven to pose strange yet familiar accounts of masculinity, youth, and beauty. Her subjects are often candid and idle, situated against dreamlike, nondescript backdrops reminiscent of the desert.

Valérian Goalec

(b. 1986, Rennes, France)

Valérian’s practice renders the known and existent otherwise. Often borrowing forms, objects and day-to-day things, his artworks can be understood as parts or as wholes; indeed one is not quite sure where his work ends, inviting ambiguity and multiple interpretations.

Act 16

The total weight of the artworks is revealed.

Act 26

The audience’s suggestions are collected.

Angélique Heidler

(b. 1992, Paris, France)

Bringing together elements of collage, sewing and painted imagery, her work emerges from a place of intuition. Drawing from the aesthetics of media and marketing, Angélique’s artworks undermine consumerism’s representations, highlighting how identity and individuality is a nuanced construction.

Zeynep Kayan

(b. 1986, Ankara, Turkey)

Zeynep embraces repetition as a way to explore structural setups and scenarios. Working across video, photography, sound and performance, her works express a vocabulary of the “self ”, or of the “human condition”, one which escapes categorization.

‘Mirror Blindness, is a name I came across reading Heidi Bucher, one of my favourite artists, she was mentioning this about Rilke, who coined the metaphor of mirror blindness in his Orpheus – Sonetten. This sentence stayed and resonated with the work so much: “..Nothing material existed any longer, Rilke wrote, not even a reflection of it, but what had once been reflected was stored indestructibly in the spirit”‘

This book stayed on the chair that I pulled for a whole year at Rijks [academy] like a good omen. Nobody could see it as i always put it underneath ceramics that look like ropes, which were falling down from the chair, during the pulls and adding another layer to the whole sound.

Valeria Schneider

(b. Kokchetav, Kazakhstan)

Valeria’s works deal with division and dualities, our physical and psychological limits and how these can be transformed. Utilising steel, textile and coloured pencils, she examines her surroundings and interpersonal relationships creating dreamlike maps or studies of her inner world existence.

‘My new work RESTLESS EERIE GREEN, repeats the tapestry The Unicorn Rests in a Garden (1495-1505), reinterpreting its narrative through selective intervention. By removing key elements, I draw attention to the garden and the gate, focusing on the intrusion of this single feature. The piece shifts the narrative from one of apparent harmony and order to one of disruption, which, for me, has been present in the tapestry from the very beginning and is further emphasized by the title. With everything else removed from the garden, the gate becomes the central figure and transforms the space it occupies. This alteration reflects a redefinition of boundaries and questions what constitutes the frame of the scene.’

Zinong Zhang

(b. 1995, Inner Mongolia, China)

Working sculpturally, through the complex of multiplicity, her work blurs and reimagines linear and binary conditions, transforming them into chaotic flows where inconsistent and paradoxical entities coexist.

artist biographies

Lulua Alyahya (b. 1998, Washington D.C, USA) graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art (UK) in 2020 and Goldsmiths, University of London (UK) in 2024. Her paintings are sparsely composed of dislocated subjects, interwoven to map connections between masculinity and urbanisation, expanse and constraint, tradition and transformation. Recent exhibitions include, Alice Amati, London (UK), 2024; Studio Chapple, London (UK), 2024; Quench Gallery, Margate (UK), 2022; The Residence Gallery, London (UK), 2022, ATHR Gallery, Jeddah (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), 2021.

Valérian Goalec (b. 1986, Rennes, France) completed his MFA at École Européenne Supérieure d’Art de Bretagne Rennes (France) in 2010. Valérian practice renders the known and existent otherwise. Often borrowing forms, objects and day-to-day things, his artworks can be understood as parts or as wholes; indeed one is not quite sure where his work ends, inviting ambiguity and multiple interpretations. Recent exhibitions include, CAPC — musée d’Art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (France) 2024 – 25; Can Félipa, Barcelona (Spain), 2024); UA26, Vienna (Austrai), 2024; Mutter, Amsterdam (The Netherlands), 2024; Bananafish, Shangai (China), 2024); 10n, Bruxelles (Belgum), 2023; OpenSpace, Nancy (France), 2023.

Angélique Heidler (b. 1992, Paris, France) graduated from Slade School of Fine Art (London, UK) in 2015. Bringing together elements of collage, sewing and painted imagery, her work emerges from a place of intuition. Drawing from the aesthetics of media and marketing, Angélique’s artworks undermine consumerism’s representations, highlighting how identity and individuality is a nuanced construction. Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include, Silke Lindner, New York (USA), 2025; Centre d’art contemporain – la synagogue de Delme, Delme (France), 2025; Galleri Opdahl, Stavanger (Norway), 2024; Café des Glaces, Tonnerre (France), 2024; Nir Altman, Munich (Germany), 2024; Weiss Falk, Zurich (Switzerland) 2024; Braunsfelder, Cologne (Germany) 2023; Chris Andrews, Montréal (Canada), 2022.

Zeynep Kayan (b. 1986, Ankara, Turkey) graduated from the Communication and Design Department of Bilkent University (Turkey) in 2008 before receiving a MA in Fine Arts from MaHKU in Utrecht (The Netherlands). Between 2022 and 2024 she was a resident at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Zeynep embraces repetition as a way to explore structural setups and scenarios. Working across video, photography, sound and performance, her works express a vocabulary of the “self ”, or of the “human condition”, one which escapes categorization. Recent exhibitions include, Zilberman, İstanbul (Turkey), 2024; İstanbul Modern Museum, İstanbul (Turkey), 2023; Volkskundenmuseum, Vienna (Austria), 2022; Protocinema, İstanbul (Turkey) 2022; Zona Maco Foto, Mexico, 2022; Paris Photo, Paris (France), 2022; Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (USA) 2021; Helsinki Contemporary, Helsinki (Finland), 2020.

Valeria Schneider (b. Kokchetav, Kazakhstan) studied in the class of Peter Piller and Özlem Altin at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig (Germany). Valeria’s works deal with division and dualities, our physical and psychological limits and how these can be transformed. Utilising steel, textile and coloured pencils, she examines her surroundings and interpersonal relationships creating dreamlike maps or studies of her inner world existence. Recent exhibitions include, Galerie EIGEN+ART, Berlin (Germany), 2024; Universität der Künste, Berlin (Germany), 2023; SMAC gallery, Berlin (Germany), 2022; Kunstraum, Ortloff, Leipzig (Germany), 2022; IfZ Institut für Zukunft, Leipzig (Germany), 2021; SHE BAM! Galerie Laetitia Gorsy, Leipzig (Germany), 2020; Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (Germany), 2020.

Zinong Zhang (b. 1995, Inner Mongolia, China) graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London (UK) with an MFA in Fine Art in 2023. Working sculpturally, through the complex of multiplicity, her work blurs linear and binary conditions, reimagining these as chaotic flows where paradoxids can coexist. Recent exhibitions include, Gerald Moore Gallery, London (UK), 2023; Ugly Duck, London (UK), 2023; APT Gallery, London (UK), 2023; Copeland Park, London (UK), 2022; Deptford X, London (UK), 2022; Lumen Crypt Gallery, London (UK), 2022; Hyphy Studio, London (UK), 2022.