Cicek Gallery to present The Hugging Machine, a deeply intimate solo exhibition by artist Emily Hana, curated by Berfin Cicek.
Join us in experiencing The Hugging Machine – a show that doesn’t just ask you to look, but to feel. Let us reimagine the ways we reach, touch and yearn for connection.
A Gesture Made Monumental- Rooted in a childhood memory of making a hugging contraption from pillows and marigold-yellow gloves, The Hugging Machine evolves that gesture of self-comfort into a
powerful visual investigation of skin hunger, artificial intimacy, and human isolation. Hana’s work explores what happens when intimacy is engineered, when touch becomes mediated, when we hunger for connection.
In each piece, human figures engage with machine-like forms, forms that mimic closeness yet ultimately lack the warmth of genuine contact. The recurring motifs of sterile gloves and tender hands embody the tension between absence and desire, artifice and authenticity. These works offer a quiet, haunting meditation on how we cope in a world increasingly disconnected and whether unconventional gestures might yet contain hope.
Emily Hana The Hugging Machine 16th – 22nd October 2025 Cicek Gallery
Private View 16th Oct, 6PM–9 PM
About
Emily Hana (b. 1990) is a Tokyo-born Australian artist whose work spans painting, sculpture, and multimedia installations that explore themes of light, memory, and emotional intimacy. Her current series, The Hugging Machine, draws from a childhood invention to investigate loneliness and artificial comfort, transforming discarded materials into layered visual narratives. Since 2020, she has expanded into woodwork and painting, fusing soft sculptural forms with light and texture. Her work has been shown in exhibitions such as the Royal British Arts Rising Stars (2023) and Glimpses (2022), and she was shortlisted twice for the RBA Rome Scholarship. Now based in London, Hana creates pieces that reclaim beauty from the disregarded and evoke deeply personal moments of connection.
Berfin Cicek is an artist, the founder and curator of Cicek Gallery, bringing emerging voices and thoughtful shows to London’s contemporary art scene.
