The Space Between
4th December 2025 - 24th January 2026
Monti8 Gallery, Rome
Monti 8 Gallery is pleased to present 'The Space Between,' a solo show by Manchester-based artist Gwen Evans. Featuring anonymised figures and elusive silhouettes that interrupt the stillness of domesticity, the exhibition invites viewers into a world where the ordinary is subtly destabilised.
Reassuring reference points such as facial features are removed or obscured and ambiguous narratives render the characters inscrutable and their intentions unknown. This uncertainty leaves viewers to question whether the paintings capture a moment of quiet repose or the prelude to something more sinister.
Quilts, tablecloths, and other domestic textiles suggest warmth and comfort, serving as a counterpoint to the uncanny presences that inhabit these liminal spaces. This sense of the familiar is deepened through imagery drawn from the artist’s upbringing and childhood home in Wales, such as a quilt crafted by a family member in ‘Visitor’ and references to Welsh love spoon in ‘Impasse’.
Boundaries and thresholds recur throughout the work—in the form of windows, doorways, and household objects that both separate and seclude, placing the figures within in-between spaces that reflect uneasy states of mind. This liminality continues beyond the confines of the painting, into the gallery itself, where the fourth wall both draws us in and holds us captive. Whether spying through windows or half turned towards us, as in ‘Housework’ we wait for the encroaching figures to meet our gaze, positioning us as active participants—or voyeurs—in the unfolding narrative.
About the artist
Gwen Evans (b. 1996, Bodelwyddan, Wales) lives and works in Manchester. A graduate of Manchester School of Art (2018), her most recent solo presentation ‘TRYST’ marked the inaugural exhibition at William Hine Gallery, London. Her work was also the subject of a solo institutional display, ‘Cipher’ at HOME, Manchester in 2023, after being awarded the Granada Foundation Gallery prize.
Selected exhibitions include: More News About Flowers, Division of Labour, Manchester (2024); Manifestations, Pink, Manchester (2024); CIPHER, HOME, Manchester [solo] (2023); Bankley Exchanges, Bankley Gallery, Manchester (2023); Manchester Open, HOME, Manchester (2022); Open, The Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, Wales (2021); Talking Sense, Portico Library, Manchester (2020); Upside Down Bucket, OA Studios, Salford (2019); Twice As Nice, Ps Mirabel, Manchester (2018).