New Art Projects gallery in London is presenting a solo exhibition of Anna Thew, an artist whose practice spans painting, performance, filmmaking, and music. The show brings together historic and recent works on paper and film, including pieces never before shown or screened, and will feature a new multi-screen projection created for the duration of the exhibition. Thew first made a film in 1980 and gained a reputation for challenging the Structuralist Materialist school of British experimental cinema through works that emphasize emotive content, poetic editing, and spoken word soundtracks.
This exhibition matters because it reexamines the career of an artist who has worked at the intersection of art, music, and poetry for over four decades, yet remains relatively underrecognized. By juxtaposing early works like 'Hilda was a goodlooker' (1986) and 'Cling film' (1993) with recent pieces, the show highlights Thew's enduring exploration of optical counterpoint and assemblage. It also underscores the role of smaller commercial galleries like New Art Projects in supporting mid-career and experimental artists whose practices resist easy categorization.