Acts of
Making
November 2023 February 2024
East London Art Space · UK
In artistic practice, finished works are often regarded as the final outcome, yet the most significant aspects of creation frequently exist within the process itself. From observation, reflection, and perception to the selection of materials, the development of form, and the continual refinement of ideas, artistic creation remains in a constant state of transformation. Through the act of making, artists establish connections with personal experience, social realities, and the world around them, while continuously re-examining questions of identity, existence, and meaning.
Acts of Making brings together artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, presenting works across painting, photography, printmaking, mixed media, and ceramics. The exhibition focuses not only on the artworks themselves but also on the processes of experimentation, inquiry, and discovery that underpin them. Each work reflects an ongoing dialogue between artist, material, memory, time, and perception, forming a multifaceted exploration of contemporary creative practice.
Making is not simply the production of objects. It is a way of understanding and engaging with the world. It emerges between experience and imagination, between intuition and reason, and between intention and chance. Through different artistic approaches, the participating artists respond to their surroundings while expanding their understanding of reality through the creative process.
The exhibition addresses themes of embodiment, observation, memory, emotion, and the relationship between individuals and their environments. Although each artist works through a distinct visual language, they share an interest in the open-ended possibilities of making. Every brushstroke, photographic image, material experiment, and sculptural gesture becomes a means of establishing a connection with the world.
Acts of Making shifts attention away from the completed artwork and towards the process through which it comes into being. Artistic practice is rarely linear. It is shaped by uncertainty, experimentation, decision-making, and continual adaptation. The works presented in this exhibition reveal not only finished forms but also the accumulated experiences and reflections that emerge throughout the creative journey.
By bringing together a range of media and artistic approaches, the exhibition highlights the complexity and diversity of contemporary art making. From representational painting to abstract exploration, from material investigation to conceptual inquiry, each artist offers a unique perspective on the meaning of creation. Visitors are invited to engage with these processes and consider how artistic practice can become a means of understanding the world, articulating experience, and generating new forms of knowledge.
The exhibition brings together Ethan Chase, Miles Lee, Ryan Cooper, Terry Chandler, Lynn Lin, Lillian Huang, and Huiyuan Zhang. Working across a variety of media and approaches, the artists present diverse perspectives on creativity, materiality, perception, and artistic process.
40 × 60 cm
Dress: Rhythmic Gymnastics I
Oil on Canvas
Ethan Chase's Dress series takes animal imagery as a point of departure for reflecting upon the relationship between human beings and the natural world. The animal form functions both as a living presence and as a metaphor for identity, existence, and spiritual freedom, challenging fixed classifications and inviting viewers to reconsider the boundaries between humanity and nature.
120 × 80 cm
The Distant Place Intoxicated by the Spring Breeze No.13
Lightbox & Archival Pigment Print
Working across photography, moving image, calligraphy, writing, and painting, Miles Lee explores questions of cultural identity and spiritual experience within contemporary urban life. His work constructs a poetic space between memory and imagination.
100 × 70 cm
Vanishing Series III
Oil on Canvas
Ryan Cooper's practice is grounded in close observation of personal experience and emotional states. Vanishing Series III captures subtle psychological shifts associated with the passage of time, creating a dialogue between external reality and inner experience through figurative painting.
~5–12 cm height
Ember Breath
Ceramic, Variable Dimensions
Huiyuan Zhang's ceramic work Ember Breath explores the vitality and transformative potential of material. Through processes of forming and firing, clay undergoes continual change, recording the traces of time and physical interaction. The work reflects both fragility and resilience, revealing the dynamic relationship between material, process, and becoming.
50 × 50 cm
Night Falls in an Instant
Acrylic on Wood Panel
Terry Chandler's work focuses on fleeting experiences that resist easy definition. Through layered materials, collage-inspired structures, and printmaking influences, she transforms moments of uncertainty and transience into visual form.
1200 × 700 mm
Perceptual Field
Mixed Media, Oil Paint & Quartz Sand on Canvas
Lynn Lin's Perceptual Field presents the body as an open and continuously evolving site of perception. Through fluid layers of colour, unfinished contours, and expanding spatial relationships, the work examines the dynamic interactions between the individual and their environment.
120 × 100 cm
A Glimpse
Oil on Canvas
Lillian Huang's practice investigates the relationship between time, memory, and space. Drawing inspiration from architecture and everyday environments, she reinterprets familiar landscapes through a personal lens. In A Glimpse, space becomes more than a physical setting; it functions as a repository of experience, memory, and emotional resonance.
Through painting, photography, printmaking, mixed media, and ceramics, Acts of Making presents a wide range of contemporary artistic approaches. Rather than promoting a single aesthetic position, the exhibition creates a dialogue between diverse practices and perspectives. From relationships between humanity and nature to questions of perception and memory, from material experimentation to emotional expression, each artist approaches the act of making from a distinct viewpoint.
The exhibition does not seek definitive conclusions.
It invites you into an ongoing conversation about creativity, process,
and the many ways in which meaning emerges through acts of making.