From 6th to 11th October 2025, the exhibition “Nostalgia and Selfhood Becoming” was on view at Fitzrovia Gallery. Featuring photography, moving image, and painting, the group exhibition explored memory, spirituality, and identity in the continuous navigation for selfhood in contemporary society, reflecting on how personal and collective experiences shaped contemporary understandings of the self. Participating artists included K M Bosy, Lukas Leisinger, Melissa Magg, Yaxuan Liao, and Zesheng Li, and the exhibition was curated by Ruoru Wang.
The exhibition was organised thematically around concepts in three different layers: “Memory and Nostalgia”, “Spiritual Exploration” and “Identity”. Within these sections, the artworks reflected different artists’ perspectives on how individuals navigated memory, belief, and selfhood in modern society. K M Bosy investigated the interaction between individual perception and the natural environment, using light, space, and the body to evoke the fluidity of self-awareness. Melissa Magg examined cultural portrayals of vulnerable women through dreamlike, figurative paintings, revealing the tension between fear, desire, and female agency. Lukas Leisinger used oil painting to blend personal and archival imagery, creating unsettling scenes that questioned nostalgia, memory, and perception. Yaxuan Liao visualised psychological states and memory through moving images, translating inner emotions and cognition into immersive visual experiences. Zesheng Li combined landscape, spirituality, and animal interactions in meditative photography, inviting reflection on the intersection of time, space, and consciousness. Together, these artists offered a multifaceted exploration of how memory, spirituality, and identity shaped contemporary experience.
Memory, reflection, and identity shaped how the self was experienced in contemporary life, often in subtle and multifaceted ways. By bringing together diverse artworks, “Nostalgia and Selfhood Becoming” offered a renewed perspective on these ongoing processes. Across different media, the exhibition traced how nostalgia, perception, and transformation informed artistic exploration, and the questions it raised about how we remembered, imagined, and inhabited the self remained compellingly relevant.
Special thanks to London Art Collective for supporting and sponsoring the exhibition.
