A new month means fresh First Thursdays picks, so don’t miss tonight’s highlights! The walking route will be approximately one hour and forty minutes long and comprise three galleries.

The first stop will be at Gallery 46 for The Garden of Delights on Earth, a group exhibition that invites viewers to imagine a sustainable future through the power of art. The exhibition features 19 women and non-binary artists, whose work addresses the need for action during the current climate crisis. Bringing together artists who work with live performance, film, print, textile, sculpture and installation, the artworks on show offer a feminist perspective to tackle environmental sustainability in this Anthropocene era, as well as to explore ecosystems in practical, material and visual practices, through things that are familiar and haptic, such as cotton, earth and food, collective pleasure, desire and joy —our emotions and senses. The invited artists are Henrietta Armstrong, Cecilia Bengolea, Xenia Bond, Lottie McCarthy, Jane Hoodless, Sae Yeoun Hwang, Jane Hoodless, Linda Pearl Izan, Seulgi Lee Kang, Lana Locke, Hannah Lees, Portia Yuran Li, Martha Orbach, Raksha Patel, Divya Sharma, Sophie de Stempel, Tatiana de Stempel, Faye Wei Wei, Diyou Yu.

Afterwards, the walking route will lead to BEERS London for “The Narrator” by Tang Shuo. This solo exhibition features a collection of paintings by the London-based Chinese artist, whose work seeks to bridge the gap between fact and memory within the rural landscape of Southern China. Through evocative depictions of labour, intimacy, and social interaction, Tang captures the essence of rural life. His works, in some respects, function as memento mori, compelling viewers to internalise the powerful scenarios and messages, reminding us of our finite existence. Tang explains, “I want to contrast the different states of mind among these individuals, juxtaposing their suffering with notions of innocence.” While the artist’s portrayals of field workers and peasants evoke the style of Mexican painter Diego Rivera, they uniquely incorporate self-portraits, adding a personal dimension to each role. This introspective approach invites viewers to reflect on their own identities and connections to these universal human experiences.

Our final destination brings us to P21 Gallery for “When The Grapes Were Sour,” a solo exhibition by Palestinian artist Rasha Al Jundi. This show features a multimedia documentary project that blends digital black-and-white portrait photography, archival images from private and open sources, traditional Palestinian embroidery stitched on photographs and audio interventions. Al Jundi’s work seeks to capture personal accounts of individuals who identify as Palestinian exiles, exploring conversations such as the states of mind, the feeling of loneliness, the sense of identity, and the feeling of constant loss. The historical context of Palestine is therefore pivotal in this exhibition, as the gallery affirms in their press release: “It has been 76 years since the Palestinian people suffered the traumatic events that led to the Nakba, or catastrophe, which started in the early months of the year 1948. While the Nakba climaxed on May 15th and led to the forced expulsion of more than 800,000 Palestinians, it continued throughout that same year. Many argue that it continues, to this day, in the form of gradual ethnic cleansing.”