On Wednesday, 26 November, Meso Ventures inaugurated its group exhibition, Between Worlds: Exploring Cultural Hybridity, Identity, Tradition and Globalisation, transforming The Hilight in Battersea—Ghelamco’s new luxury residential landmark—into a site of cross-cultural dialogue and contemporary artistic exchange. The opening drew collectors, creatives, and cultural figures into a vibrant evening animated by conversation, music, and a sense of shared curiosity.

Adam Jacob showcasing Terai Gin, Rampur Asava whisky and the non alcoholic mixer Bartisans Raid & Run

The event was generously supported by Maharaja Drinks, with founder Adam Jacob curating a tasting experience that included Fratelli Gran Cuvée Brut, Indian Rampur Asava whisky, and an Indian Terai gin cocktail crafted specially for the night. The night introduced a non alcoholic beverage as well, Bartisans Raid & Run cocktail mixer served on ice or with Terai Gin. The atmosphere was documented by photographer Anya Levi, whose images captured the warmth and energy of the gathering.

Loukia Sivena, Eirini Meze and Paris Georgoudis

Curated across multiple mediums and perspectives, Between Worlds brought together twelve artists whose practices trace the complexities of identity, belonging, memory, and the shifting landscapes of diaspora. Their works articulated both personal and collective histories, offering intimate and expansive reflections on what it means to inhabit “in-between” spaces.

Featured Artists

The artists presented in Between Worlds span generations, geographies, and disciplines, yet are united by a shared engagement with identity as something fluid, layered, and continually negotiated. Through painting, installation, and interdisciplinary practices, each artist brings a distinct visual language to questions of memory, migration, belonging, and cultural inheritance—offering perspectives that are both deeply personal and globally resonant.

Jessie Makinson (b. 1985, London)

Jessie Makinson is a British artist whose richly detailed paintings draw from folklore, mythology, and the symbolism of medieval and Renaissance visual traditions. Known for her intricate surfaces and dreamlike narratives, Makinson constructs fantastical worlds that blur the boundaries between the historical and the imagined. Her work often explores themes of transformation, power, femininity, and the subconscious, weaving together fragments of art history with contemporary concerns. Within Between Worlds, her paintings offered a lyrical counterpoint to the exhibition’s broader dialogue on hybridity—suggesting identity as something performative, mutable, and shaped as much by imagination as by lived experience.

Eirini Meze next to Jessie Makinson’ work and Osman Yousefzada’s Murano glass sculpture

Osman Yousefzada (b. 1977, Birmingham)

A British-Pakistani interdisciplinary artist, writer, and social activist, Osman Yousefzada is known for merging autobiography, fiction, and ritual to explore migration, displacement, and the lived experience of diaspora. Working across textiles, installation, sculpture, and garment-making, his practice channels both personal history and broader social narratives. His contribution to the show deepened its exploration of cultural multiplicity and the politics of belonging.

Joya Mukerjee Logue (b. 1976, Springfield, Ohio, USA)

Joya Mukerjee Logue’s oil and watercolour paintings examine cultural identity, intimacy, and everyday life. Drawing from her mixed heritage and memories shaped by movement between Ohio and India, her portraits of women and domestic scenes carry a quiet emotional resonance. Her ongoing research into her cultural lineage and her frequent travels to India lend her work a sense of rootedness braided with longing.

Mary Pye (b. 2001, UK)

A recent graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art (BA, 2025), Mary Pye has already exhibited widely, including a debut solo exhibition with Bvlgari in Mayfair. Her meditative, layered paintings explore a tension between presence and absence. By depositing and withdrawing pigment in subtle gestures, Pye creates surfaces that seem to breathe, inviting viewers into a contemplative encounter.

Temitayo Famakinwa next to Mary Pye artwork

Lydia Hamblet (b. 1995, Kent; based in London)

Working across painting, print, and large-scale public installation, Hamblet is an RCA graduate whose work has appeared in prominent contemporary contexts—including a solo exhibition with Bvlgari this summer, produced by Meso Ventures. Her practice often engages with spatial interventions and the aesthetics of public visual culture, interrogating how images shape collective experience.

Rex Southwick (b. 1997)

Known for his vivid pink ground and electrifying colour palette, Rex Southwick reimagines the glossy aesthetics of luxury living through a more candid lens. Educated at Leeds Art University and recipient of the AON Community Art Award, he paints the raw and unglamorous labour behind aspirational homes—construction workers, unfinished pools, exposed frameworks—subverting narratives of wealth and desirability. His work contributes a sharp commentary on aspiration, consumerism, and the spectacle of modern living.

Naira Mushtaq (b. 1990)

A London-based artist and educator, Naira Mushtaq’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, collage, audio, public art, and collaborative work. With degrees from the National College of Arts, Pakistan, and Central Saint Martins, she investigates memory as an “impalpable archive,” exploring the slippages between truth, half-truth, and inherited histories. Her decolonial approach weaves the personal with the political, creating layered visual languages. Mushtaq currently teaches as a senior lecturer at Camberwell College of Art.

Naira Mushtaq artwork at the HiLight Battersea

Tiyana Mitchell

An American/Jordanian painter and recent RCA graduate, Tiyana Mitchell works primarily in oil on linen, reinterpreting archival photographs from her grandfather’s collection—spanning the 1920s to ’70s across the Middle East and Europe—alongside her own contemporary film photography. Rather than centring the obvious subject, she draws attention to what is overlooked: shadows, backgrounds, absences. Her paintings evoke an uncanny sensation, as though one stands both inside and outside the frame of memory.

Kubra Aliyeva (b. Baku, Azerbaijan; based in London)

An Azerbaijani artist based in London, Kubra Aliyeva is pursuing a Graduate Diploma in Art & Design at the RCA, following her foundation studies at City & Guilds. Her recent work, True Colours, exhibited in this group show, confronts themes of the body, memory, and women’s lived experiences. With raw, expressive brushwork, she addresses inequality while foregrounding resilience and identity.

Mengmeng Zhang (b. 1997, Jiangsu, China; based in London)

Mengmeng Zhang’s intuitive, atmospheric paintings employ acrylic, gouache, ink, and pastel to navigate memory, displacement, and fragmented realities. She completed her MFA at the Slade and held her first solo exhibition, Out of Place, at Bonian Space in Beijing (2024). Her work’s dreamlike quality offers a poetic counterpoint to the exhibition’s broader themes of hybridity and transition.

Chiedu Okonta (b. 1979, Nigeria; based in London)

Chiedu Okonta examines corruption, resource exploitation, and collective memory through his paintings. A Sir Frank Bowling scholarship recipient and current RCA MA Painting candidate, his work has featured in exhibitions including Ancestral Utopias at HSBC and the upcoming RCA degree show. His contribution brings a sharp socio-political lens to the exhibition’s narrative.

Tallulah Hutson

Trained in classical figure drawing at Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence and newly graduated from the RCA, Tallulah Hutson’s work has been exhibited internationally, including during a residency in New York City. Her first solo show, Flowers on the Underground (Bomb Factory Artway Gallery, 2024), marked a critical moment in her trajectory. This year, her work will appear at the National Portrait Gallery in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award, underscoring her growing prominence.

Guests at Between Worlds, hosted by MeSo Ventures

A Dialogue Across Borders

Between Worlds succeeded not simply as an exhibition, but as a conversation—one animated by the intersections of memory, migration, ancestry, and the shifting terrains of global culture. Each artist approached hybridity from a distinct vantage point, yet together they wove a powerful narrative about the fluidity of identity in a globalised world.

At The Hilight, a space defined by contemporary architecture and international ambition, these works found an apt home: a setting where ideas, cultures, and experiences meet.

For Meso Ventures, this debut group show marks the beginning of a dynamic programme dedicated to elevating emerging and established voices who engage critically and imaginatively with today’s global realities. Between Worlds is both a statement of intent and an invitation—to look closer, to listen deeper, and to step into the spaces where identities are shaped, challenged, and continually reimagined.

Between Worlds: Group Show at The Hilight