Double Q is pleased to present Reflections on Being, a group exhibition that reflects on a person’s identity that is a blurred construction of the internal and the external world. Since ancient civilizations, humans have explored this tension which became a blueprint in our understanding of a person’s existence. This duality is present everywhere: from the separation of body and soul, mind and body, as well as reason and emotion. In Greek philosophy, Plato was among the first to explore this according to whom the soul was free from the body being immortal. In Chinese philosophy, this duality is referred to as yin and yang, where opposite forces are seen as dependent on each other, and it is a dynamic balance that humans aim to achieve.

Time plays an additional layer to this, where past, present, and possible futures affect the conflicted self-image. What we perceive is often sourced from our past experiences affecting how we see our present and what our possibilities are in the future. The artist, in the moment of creation, is negotiating within this complexity where they not only meditate on this existential thought, but they are also aiming to create artworks that reflect their intangible understanding of all this. If being an artist was already a challenging career to pursue, exposing themselves to burning thoughts like this provides a further difficulty.

The artists present in this exhibition have mastered the challenge and evolved through it, inviting visitors to reflect on their own stories through their works. They reveal their world through the paintings and sculptures present at the show, while keeping something for themselves that remains hidden. What they reveal functions as thought-provoking door-openers to the audience, and what they kept hidden awaits personal interpretation. The overall product therefore will be always different to every visitor because their life experience becomes an integrated part of the whole while visiting the exhibition. As Emily Thorne said: "Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. One that we reveal to the world and another we keep hidden inside." 

Each of the eight artists brings a different perspective on the idea of self-image, creating a richly layered view on the topic. Zsófia Antalka, a Hungarian artist based in Budapest, is known for her fragile curtain-like works where the surface itself in various shapes becomes the canvas. This innovative approach has been applauded early on, putting her among the ultra-contemporary surrealists who create space and time for values that are otherwise suppressed in a logical world. The current piece is titled Tátorján, a word used in the Hungarian Great Plain, a geographical area where the artist was born. The word refers both to a sudden storm and to a specific plant species. The latter got its botanical nomenclature because it can only reproduce in strong winds and storms. Tátorján literally implies “in the wind.” The patterns on the curtain were inspired by the stigmas – a part of the female reproductive organ in a flower designed to receive pollen grains – of the tátorján flower.

Ewa Czwartos, a Polish artist based in Kraków, revisits Old Masters’ works in a contemporary manner to reflect on feminist concepts that are often in contrast with their originals. In Today, Tomorrow, the Day after Tomorrow (2025), the artist revisited the pioneering Venetian artist, Giovanni Bellini’s last painting where the protagonist of the painting is the goddess of love, beauty, desire and fertility. Venus in the Young Woman at Her Toilette is looking into a mirror, whereas in Czwartos’ work the mirror becomes absent making her look at her past, present and future self.

David Farcaș lives and works in Baia Mare, Romania. He is known for his figurative paintings that deny temporality. He revisits modernists pictorial languages to question contemporary life where rural and urban activities are at the centre point. Through his works, time ceases to exist, forcing the visitor to slow down their pace. Thanks to the slower rhythm, nature is unleashed and becomes an ever-changing character where the figure is a connecting point to access this tranquil realm.

Shuang Jiang, a Chinese-born, London-based artist, uses abstract forms, lines, and sharp edges to capture the shifting states of life within chaos. The inner tensions of life generate a force that keeps all things in constant motion and transformation. The works reflect on the subtle connections between the individual and all living things. Life carries both sharpness and inherent fragility, and all things move between conflict and harmony, where resilience and vulnerability coexist. According to the artist: “No life truly disappears — it only changes form and continues in different ways within the universe.”

The British artist, Elena Rivera-Montanes, draws inspiration from photographs taken by the artist herself. Her work The Day Passed Me By, Like The Rolling Fields (2025) depicts a window in a room which seems to be an outlook from a moving train. The viewer is confused by the impossibility of a moving landscape seen from a static room. This tension emphasizes the idea of memory, the passage of time and transitional spaces. 

Rita Süveges is a Hungarian artist whose paintings are visual explorations of the human civilization presence on Earth. In her paintings, the aesthetics of industrial materials reveal an interplay between raw and processed materials. What was extracted from nature has become an everyday good for modern constructions, shaping human possibilities and what urban living is today. The light and shadow, the density and the monochromatic characteristics are building elements in the artist’s works. The steel as an industrial monolith that often remains unnoticed is magnified. It becomes the protagonist of the painting, reflecting on the concept of unnoticed things in life. The artist questions social paradigms and traditions by forcing the visitor to recognize the importance of overlooked materials that are often at the base of everyday life.

Ivana Vozelj - a Slovenian-born, London-based artist - evokes the tension between presence and absence. Her introspective narratives feature recurring subjects and settings, serving as extensions of her subconscious. In doing so, she blurs the boundaries between truth and myth, conjuring false memories of a non-existent past while the omnipresent gaze of the sea lingers as a constant observer. This surreal triptych draws inspiration from the works of René Magritte and David Lynch, particularly their cinematic atmospheres, through which Vozelj explores the haunt of multiple temporalities within a disjointed narrative.

Polish artist Karolina Żądło’s painting, The Pomegranate Flower (2025), presents the invisible bonds that connect people: a shared fate and subtle emotions. It reflects on one’s identity, intimacy, and the way we perceive one another in the realm of inner experiences. The work highlights the influence we have on one another in experiencing the world. In The Garden of Delights (2025), the depicted woman alludes to the biblical Eve, embodying both the burden of guilt traditionally assigned to her and the moment of awakening from a pattern of submission. Her gesture of surrender becomes not a sign of weakness, but a conscious act of reclaiming control over her own body and story.

- Eszter Csillag