Nurture
by Freshers 2026/27: Shan Hua, Dominique Bailey-Boahene, Anna Samoylova and YiMiao Shih, Santara Kaur Pawar
Nurture by Fé Collective
September 30 - October 28
Celebration drinks and pizza:
Join us on September 30, 2026, 6-9pm
October 17: Before the Image Workshop by Santara Kaur Pawar
1:00 - 2:30pm
RSVP HERE
The Cannery by Sweet Thursday,
95 Southgate Rd, London N1 3JS
“Something lost and something gained, the art of loving” - Olivia Dean
Nurture brings together the five artists embarking on the Freshers 2026/27 programme. Featuring works by Shan Hua, Dominique Bailey-Boahene, Anna Samoylova and YiMiao Shih, alongside a workshop by Santara Kaur Pawar, the exhibition approaches nurture from five different perspectives. Together, they explore nurture as a verb, the act of helping something grow over time with love, through practices that revisit personal memory, reflect on kinship and reinvent materiality.
Nurture is an act of love. It requires sacrifice and dedication, and it is a choice to give something up so that another person, or another part of ourselves, might grow. In The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck defines love as "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth" (Peck, 1978). For Peck, love is both an intention and an action: something we choose, not something that simply happens to us. In All About Love, bell hooks takes up this definition and argues that, because the choice to nurture growth must be made, it overturns the common assumption that we love by instinct (hooks, 2000). This forms the basis of the exhibition: nurturing craftsmanship begins with love. Out of love for their subject, and in pursuit of their creative vision, each artist acts as a steward of their chosen materials and ideas, tending them patiently before sharing them with the world.
Throughout the Freshers programme, our goal is to equip the artists to grow in their practice and to support them in taking the next step in their careers. Nurture brings to the fore the values with which we enter this year's programme nurturing: relationships, craftsmanship, personal growth and artistic practice.
Anna Samoylova Everyday sacredness: having a foot on your face, 2025 Calico, linocut, golden thread, cotton thread 25cm x 25cm
Anna Samoylova Everyday sacredness: laughing, 2025 Calico, linocut, golden thread, cotton thread 25cm x 25cm
Anna Samoylova Everyday sacredness: keeping close to each other, 2025 Calico, linocut, golden thread, cotton thread 25cm x 25cm
Dominique Bailey-Boahene Hills, 2026 reclaimed textiles 300 x 200 cm
Shan Hua A Little Girl, 2026 Velvet 15 x 15 cm Edition: 1/9
YiMiao Shih The Gaze, 2024 Thread, vintage thread, fabric, wood, dye, beeswax 20cm x 14.3cm
YiMiao Shih Wind Whisper, 2024 Thread, vintage thread, fabric, wood, dye, beeswax 20.2cm x 14.2cm
YiMiao Shih Alternative Landscape, 2025 Thread, vintage thread, fabric, wood, dye, beeswax 14.5cm x 22.8cm
Anna Samoylova Diptych, 2025 Calico, acrylics, cotton thread 76cm x 133cm
YiMiao Shih Flamed Terrain, 2026 Thread, vintage thread, primed linen, medium-density fibre board 34.5cm x27.5cm
YiMiao Shih Landscape study, Hague, 2023 Hand embroidery, vintage thread, silk thread, thread on canvas, canvas stretcher 15cm x14.5cm
WHAT’S ON
Before the Image
Tickets: Free Admission
Sat 17 October 2026
1 - 2:30PM
The Cannery by Sweet Thursday, 95 Southgate Rd, N1 3JS
As part of Nurture: Debut Exhibition by Freshers, Before the Image is an experimental ink workshop led by artist Santara Kaur Pawar. The workshop explores drawing as a process of remembering, using ink to investigate how personal experience and memory shape the way we see and represent the world before an image is fully formed.
Beginning with a plant, tree or flower, participants will be invited to choose an object they know from experience and draw it entirely from memory. What remains is not necessarily an accurate representation, but a personal impression of the object: its shape, proportions, movement and character as it exists in memory.
Working exclusively in black and white, the session removes colour as a decision-making tool and focuses attention on form, line, pressure, repetition and mark. The workshop will offer exercises to reconnect with memory and explore personal visual language through mark making and the fluidity of ink.
Meet the Freshers
More About Freshers
With women making up 73% of creative postgraduates but only 32% of artists represented by major London galleries, Freshers addresses this imbalance by creating space, opportunity, and visibility. This exhibition is a celebration of each artist and an introduction to their evolving journey with Fé Collective.