Maya Frodeman Gallery is pleased to present One Thing Touches Another, a group exhibition curated by Emma Hill and Tom Hammick, on view at the gallery's downtown location from July 31st through September 14th, 2025. An artist reception will be held Thursday, July 31st from 5 to 8 pm. Hammick and Hill will be in attendance. All are welcome to attend.
The ideas behind One Thing Touches Another began from a simple premise which was to ask whether the language of painting has agency in an increasingly turbulent world. The exhibition offers a view of painting as an essential language of connection – as the physical manifestation of another’s thoughts. A form of invitation – a reaching towards.
The exhibition brings together work by 41 British artists, from internationally established figures to emerging young contemporaries. It reveals connections and currents in British art that span 75 years, with work by significant artists of the Modern British era, including Eileen Agar, Prunella Clough, Roger Hilton and William Scott, historic paintings by Ken Kiff and Roy Oxlade (whose influence as teachers travels into the present time), and recent work by artists including Basil Beattie RA, Andrew Cranston, Peter Doig and Marcus Harvey.
Though not bound by any one formal aesthetic, a prevailing aspect of the selection is the exploration of ideas expressed through depictions of landscape, both real and imaginary. The rich diversity of current practice in the UK is reflected in examples by contemporary artists including Charles Avery, Denise de Cordova, James Fisher, Tom Hammick, Nick Goss, John Maclean, Elizabeth Magill, Merlin James and Phoebe Unwin. The show also introduces a number of young painters to the US for the first time, selected by Hammick, who worked for many years as a teacher.
Within the exhibition, there are numerous meeting points: historic artists who have influenced, artists who have taught other artists, friends, partners, siblings. Conceived by an artist and a curator who have known and worked together in London since the late 1980s, One Thing Touches Another presents eloquent evidence of the value of painting as a vital language in the contemporary world.
