ONE THING TOUCHES ANOTHER: A GROUP EXHIBITION

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. 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.

FEATURING WORKS BY:

eileen agar

remi ajani

karolina albricht

ned armstrong

charles avery

basil beattie

maria chevska

prunella clough

andrew cranston

martyn cross

denise de cordova

joseph dilnot

peter doig

james fisher

nick goss

phil goss

susie hamilton

tom hammick

marcus harvey

celia hempton

roger hilton

paul housley

andrzej jackowski

merlin james

ken kiff

deborah lerner

john maclean

elizabeth magill

kathryn maple

scott mccracken

jeff mcmillan

margaret mellis

roy oxlade

carol rhodes

dan roach

lorna robertson

william scott

myra stimson

graeme todd

phoebe unwin

alice walter

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.

The title of the exhibition is premised upon the words of painter Maria Chevska, writing in 2023:

The common factor—one thing touches another thing
Using the language of small gestures... tenuous, empathic, transforming, holding, listening,
and the tensions held between bodies and spaces...

Thematic strands run through One Thing Touches Another that relate to landscape, still life, mythmaking, and folklore, but what connects all the work is a sense of the artist approaching painting as a site of perception. Axiomatically the exhibition also examines the materiality of paint as a medium. 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.

Guest-curator Emma Hill founded Eagle Gallery / EMH Arts in London in 1991. Throughout her career, she has championed emerging artists through innovative exhibitions, artist publications and off-site installations. Renowned as one of London’s pioneering alternative art spaces in the early 1990’s Eagle Gallery has nurtured talents now celebrated globally. Hill is currently a guest curator at Turps Gallery, London and has curated institutional exhibitions including Ken Kiff: The Sequence at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Art (2018) and Stephen Chambers; The Court of Redonda for the 57th Venice Biennale (2017). Her visionary initiatives have fostered collaborations with esteemed institutions including Aldeburgh Music, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venezia, and now Maya Frodeman Gallery.

Hill’s co-curator Tom Hammick is an artist living and working in London and East Sussex in the UK. Hestudied art history at the University of Manchester and later fine painting at Camberwell College of Art and NSCAD, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Canada. He has an MA in printmaking, also from Camberwell, and until recently taught fine art painting and printmaking for many years at The University of Brighton. Hammick is the proud father of three grown children as well as a lover of music, theater, film, opera and poetry, all of which informs his work in a profound and tangible way. His work is held in various public and private collections worldwide, including the British Museum, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, U.K.; Towner Eastbourne, U.K.; Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; New York Public Library, NY; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Bibiothèque National de France, Paris; and The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Hammick was selected to join the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in New Haven, CT as an artist-in- residence in 2023.