Miart Gallery London enters a new chapter of its journey with Origins II. Opening on 4th October, Origins II is presented at a moment of unprecedented achievement for the gallery. In 2025, the gallery was honoured with the Gallery of the Year award by the Innovation & Excellence Awards across 21 countries, marking the second consecutive year it has claimed this distinction and establishing its status as a prestigious multi-award winning gallery.
Alongside this accolade, Miart Gallery has been featured among The 20 Best Galleries and Museums in the World, affirming its reputation as a leading international destination for contemporary art. These honours follow its recognition in 2024 as the Best Gallery in the UK (World Art Awards / American Art Awards) and Gallery of the Year (Corporate LiveWire).
Strengthening its global presence, Miart Gallery expanded in April 2025 with the opening of two new galleries in Istanbul – which launched with the largest exhibitions of Lorenzo Quinn sculpture to date – marking a significant milestone in its growth.
Against this backdrop of recognition, expansion, and curatorial excellence, Miart Gallery proudly presents Origins II — a group exhibition that reimagines “origin” not as a fixed point, but as a layered dialogue between past and present. Origins II continues an artistic dialogue which commenced with Origins I, while deepening the narrative of the first chapter. The exhibition represents a shift from ideas of cultural, spiritual and personal genesis to the reformation and transformation of those foundations.
Origins II has an international feel and the featured artists – Çağlar Tağcı, Johnathan Schultz, Kadir Akyol, Lars Beusker, Selda Güneş and Thannyo De Freitas – are from Cuba, Germany, South Africa and Turkey.
At the heart of the Origins II exhibition are themes of layered origins, material as memory and tensions in balance.
· Layered Origins: Moving beyond a singular narrative to a multi-temporal dialogue.
· Material as Memory: Gold leaf, textiles, light, and shadow as carriers of value, fragility, and resilience.
· Tensions in Balance: Tradition versus innovation, chaos versus order, ephemerality versus endurance.
Origins II featured Artists
Johnathan Schultz (b. 1982, South Africa)
Schultz unveils gilded poppy compositionson 23k gold leaf backgrounds, where growth and decay coexist. Previously acclaimed for Out of the Darkness – a diamond-studded reimagining of Nelson Mandela’s fingerprint – Schultz’s work interrogates how symbols can oppress and liberate simultaneously. He treats precious metals not as ornament but as vessels of meaning in his works: sacred yet flawed, enduring yet fragile.
Now based in the U.S., Schultz has exhibited internationally, from Art Basel Miami to his London debut at Miart. in 2025 when Schultz presented his first major solo exhibition in South Africa. Also in 2025, Schultz presented his inaugural solo exhibition in South Africa, titled Lasting Impressions: Tracing Identity & Resilience, the exhibition opened in September in Cape Town.
Lars Beusker (b. 1973, Germany)
Beusker’s intimate black-and-white portraitsof wild animals capture dignity, vulnerability, and the immediacy of eye contact. Rejecting long lenses, he positions himself within striking distance of his subjects, collapsing the boundary between observer and observed. In 2022, his series Outlast won Nature Photographer of the Year at the International Photography Awards in New York.
Thannyo De Freitas (b. 1976, Panama)
De Freitas creates serene, symbolic landscapes of floating islands, mystical terrains, and guayacán trees. Drawing affinities with Cuban painter Tomás Sánchez, his meticulous style balances photographic precision with ethereal atmospheres, while subtly addressing deforestation in Panama. His works offer imagined sanctuaries that bridge earthly and spiritual realms.
Kadir Akyol (b. 1984, Turkey)
Known for oil-on-fabric portraits, Akyol merges Eastern ornamentation with Western iconography, layering myth, heritage, and contemporary imagery. Influenced by the cultural and visual shifts of 1980s Turkey, his works ground modern identities in traditional textiles, suggesting that cultural memory is constantly rewritten.
Çağlar Tağcı (b. 1990, Turkey)
Inspired by nebulae and cosmic creation, Tağcı’s abstractions explore “origin” as sensation rather than definition. Using dripping and splattering techniques, he captures the dual nature of chaos and order. His works invite contemplation of the unknown as a realm of possibility, extending his lifelong fascination with the universe.
Selda Güneş (b. 1978, Turkey)
Rooted in geometry and architectural sensibility, Güneş’s works transform static forms into dynamic experiences through light and shadow. By suggesting origins as states of flux rather than fixed points, her practice aligns closely with the central dialogue of Origins II: identity and meaning as processes of continual formation.
Origins II is curated by Irem Deniz, founder and director of Miart Gallery, and the exhibition embodies the gallery’s ongoing mission to champion bold, interdisciplinary, and globally diverse artistic voices. Deniz, whose curatorial vision has previously brought together works by Banksy, Auguste Rodin, Lorenzo Quinn, Lars Beusker, and Wolfgang Stiller, approaches this exhibition not simply as a continuation, but as a reimagining of the very concept of “origin.”
For Deniz, Origins II is less about locating a single beginning than about mapping the cycles of memory, inheritance, and transformation that shape both art and life. By placing side by side artists who traverse different geographies and mediums–ranging from gilded symbolism and ethereal landscapes to cosmic abstraction and intimate portraiture–she constructs a space where tradition and innovation are held in productive tension.
The exhibition ultimately serves as a meditation on transformation itself: a reminder that every beginning carries the possibility of renewal, that fragility can give way to resilience, and that identity is always in the process of being redefined. In this sense, Origins II reflects not only Miart Gallery’s curatorial ethos but also its wider ambition to bridge East and West, past and future, permanence and change–inviting audiences into an encounter that is both personal and universal.
Origins II is at Miart Gallery, 31-32 St James’s Street SW1A 1HD, London from 4th October, 2025.
