Opening: 25 March 2026
26 March – 2 April 2026
Performance by Dyana Gravina and Book Release Anniversary — 25th March | Wednesday | 19:00-19:30
Curatorial tour and art brunch — 28th March | Saturday | 11:00-12:00
Somers Gallery is pleased host the exhibition ‘Becoming Through Pain‘ Curated by Huma Kabakcı
Artists: Pauline Batista, Sena Başöz, Shannon Bono, Dyana Gravina, Jennifer Nieuwland, Lolita Pelegrime, Aziza Shaden, and Gülce Tulçalı.
The exhibition brings together eight women artists — Pauline Batista, Sena Başöz, Shannon Bono, Dyana Gravina, Jennifer Nieuwland, Lolita Pelegrime, Aziza Shaden, and Gülce Tulçalı — whose practices confront pain as a dynamic force rather than a static condition.
Through feminist theory and lived experience, the exhibition examines women’s pain across medical, social, and political terrains, foregrounding repair as a creative and political act.
Becoming Through Pain proposes that the act of repair — whether physical, emotional, or political — is one of the most profound creative acts. Historically, women’s experiences of pain have often been dismissed, pathologised, or rendered invisible within medical and social contexts. Becoming Through Pain challenges this narrative, insisting that the body is a site where harm is registered, resisted, and reimagined.
The artists in this show explore the idea of repair not as a simple return to an unbroken past, but as a creative and political act. By bringing the material, emotional, and psychological realities of female experience into sharp relief, their practices transform the wound itself into the material for making, rethinking, and becoming. The exhibition understands women’s pain not as a purely personal experience, but as a shared cultural and political condition that contemporary artists are confronting and reinterpreting.
Dina Mostovaya, founder of Sensity Studio, comments: “The exhibition ‘Becoming Through Pain’ reflects Sensity Studio’s mission to empower women artists and amplify unheard voices. We focus on supporting emerging artists from developing countries, helping them build sustainable careers in Europe and the UK and gain visibility on the global stage.”
Featured Artists
The diverse practices of the featured artists demonstrate the breadth of this theme:
Sena Başöz (Turkey) explores healing and regeneration through installation and performance, focusing on embodied processes and movement to reactivate what feels lost or inert. Her work offers a sophisticated approach to care, trauma, and repair.
Dyana Gravina (Southern Italy), an artist and activist, connects the politics of migration and intergenerational feminist organising to collective memory-making. Her work, including the book Embodied Histories, advocates for a deeper understanding of our shared pasts.
Aziza Shaden (Uzbekistan/UK) uses collage and “visual absurdist poetry” to navigate identity, memory, and the dislocation of immigration. Her practice brings together fragments of past and present to construct new meanings of belonging.
Gülce Tulçalı (Turkey) employs fictional rituals within her moving image and performance work to examine women’s experiences within systems of power, reimagining women-centred coping mechanisms against patriarchal authority.
Jennifer Nieuwland and Lolita Pelegrime explore the quiet moments of solitude, connection, and vulnerability through painting, capturing the emotional resonance that surfaces through human gestures.
Pauline Batista and Shannon Bono contribute their multimedia and painting practices to this vital conversation, expanding the exhibition’s focus on resilience and transformation.
For more information, interviews and images, please contact:Irina Kuznik, Art & Communications manager, irina@sensitystuio.com
ABOUT SENSITY STUDIO
Sensity is a London-based art management and production studio dedicated to empowering female artists and amplifying unheard voices. We focus on supporting emerging female artists from developing countries, helping them build sustainable careers in Europe and the UK and gain visibility on the global stage.
We collaborate with women-led galleries to unlock their full potential and expand their reach. We also work with brands, offering tailored solutions that connect businesses with art, creating meaningful partnerships and cultural engagement through the power of women’s creativity.
Guided by our team of experienced art professionals, curators, and board of advisors, Sensity Studio bridges the gap between artists, galleries, and audiences, shaping a more equitable and representative global art landscape. Our mission is to give voice to those silenced by circumstance, driving social change and inspiring the next generation of artists.
ABOUT CURATOR HUMA KABAKCI
Huma Kabakcı is a British-Turkish independent curator, writer, creative consultant, and custodian of a private art collection in Turkey. Currently based in London, she is recognised for curatorial projects that bridge cultures, disciplines, and communities through the lenses of diaspora, gender, and identity politics. Her work frequently engages food, hospitality, and rituals as mediums of exchange, positioning art as a space for collective inquiry and cultural translation. Kabakci is the former founding director of Open Space, an itinerant arts organisation she established to promote dialogue in the arts through annual, research-led programming in unexpected and non-traditional locations. Her experience spans over a decade of work across galleries, museums, biennials, and auction houses in the UK, Turkey, and internationally, foregrounding inclusivity, dialogue, and cross-pollination between art and everyday life. Educated in Advertising and Marketing at the London College of Communication, Kabakci went on to complete both a Master of Arts and a Master of Philosophy in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, and she is currently pursuing a second MA in the Anthropology of Food at SOAS, University of London, continuing her long-standing interest in the social and symbolic roles of food within art and culture.