States of Becoming

Verity Woolley, Mina Courtauld, Camilo Parra, Kate Burnett and Raoul Coombes

States of Becoming brings together five painters whose practices converge around painting as an unfolding process of fluid activity rather than a vehicle for fixed representation. Instead of approaching painting as a predetermined outcome, these artists regard the act of painting as an open-ended investigation: a negotiation between gesture, time, and memory — exploring how images and meanings emerge and develop through time.

The title foregrounds the transitory and mutable nature of painting, a medium that resists closure and insists on continual transformation, always caught in a state of becoming rather than static being. Layers of paint are added, withdrawn, and re-articulated so that each canvas carries the history of its own making, oscillating between presence and erasure. The paintings reveal themselves through temporal complexity, where the sedimentation of geological strata, evolutionary change, and personal memory interlace, overlap, and resonate. Each canvas becomes both an archive of actions and a space of potential emergence, recording not only what is visible but also what has been concealed, overwritten, or allowed to resurface. Through this lens, the paintings operate as palimpsests of time.

All five artists approach painting as an exploratory practice—an activity that unfolds through repetition, hesitation, and the layering of actions across time. The works invite viewers to consider how meaning is not imposed but continually negotiated, demonstrating how painting can be both a site of memory and a state of becoming.

Thursday 12-5pm – Friday 12-5pm – Saturday 12-5pm
Free Entry