Silian Gallery is delighted to present Thank You for Being a Friend, a group exhibition featuring artists Annette Harvest, Connor Phillips, Deshna Shah, Shayna Fonseka, and Samuel George. The show is on view from 8th May to 4th July 2025.

Spanning painting, sculpture, installation, film, and conceptual language, the exhibition reflects on creative friendship — not as subject, but as condition. Each artist presents a distinct visual language, yet the works are subtly linked by a shared rhythm: the imprint of time spent together, and the quiet exchanges that shape artistic practice in ways both visible and invisible.

Curated as a journey through independence, exploration, and collective presence, Thank You for Being a Friend honours the nuances of growing in parallel.

A tender acknowledgment of influence, a shared breath, a pause to say: I saw you. You were there.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS |

Annette Harvest

Annette Harvest (born 1998) is an artist currently living and working in London and Oxford. Having completed her bachelor’s degree in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins in 2020, Annette Harvest investigates the concept of "country-core," a term coined by the herself that examines a self-expressive aesthetic that integrates multicultural storytelling with contemporary maximalism. Through a comprehensive analysis of artmaking, fashion styling, and home décor, Harvest’s approach explores how individuals with multicultural backgrounds, or those influenced by cultures beyond their homeland, often adopt this subculture unconsciously. By drawing parallels with the Chinoiserie movement dolly-kei and lived experience, Harvest’s works advocates for an inclusive approach to cultural fusion, proposing a contemporary methodology similar to a call to action.

For Harvest, embracing a Maximalist aesthetic does not entail haphazard accumulation, but rather discovering the delicate balance of multiple choices. Harvest’s works have been featured in exhibitions at Leyden Gallery in London, as well as Arkila Space and SxS Gallery in Shanghai. Harvest is also recently an artistin-residence at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel.

Connor Phillips

Connor Phillips (b. 2001) is an oil painter who is currently undertaking the MFA at the Ruskin School of Art after graduating from the University of Cambridge in BA(Hons) Architecture.

His work is figurative and focuses on the representation of skin and flesh as a multilayered and chaotic mass that is as much a vessel of entrapment as freedom. His architectural background informs the compositions and installations of the work while an interest in the baroque is translated through the lighting and dynamism of the figures. To compose the paintings, Phillips uses video to capture references and refers to this instead of a still image to better represent a body for its 4-dimensionality. These videos sometimes form parts of the final presentation of work but in fragments that try to subvert the absoluteness of digital video. Phillips’ research currently centres around a conceptualisation of ‘the intimate’ as an ever-present metaphorical space that is finite and constantly influenced by all stimuli.

His last major project was a permanent series of murals at the historic Cambridge Union, one of the oldest debating societies in the world. Entitled 'Lilith's Earthly Genesis amid an Indifferent Universe', the work uses ancient mythology and renaissance stylisations to offer a modern retelling of the story of creation and death, one that is entirely non-moralist.

Deshna Shah

Deshna Shah’s artistic practice functions as a symbolic mind map, where ideas, mediums, and experiences interweave. A key aspect of her work is the gamification of communication, explored through workshops, paintings, and sculpture, which create interactive spaces for audience engagement. A recurring element in her practice is her Twilight Language, a cryptographic script blending Hindi, English, and Gujarati, acting as both mask and bridge to explore deeper meanings. Shah draws on influences ranging from quantum physics to Jain philosophy, using these frameworks to articulate new ways of understanding connection.

Shah holds a BFA in Fine Art from the University of Oxford, graduating with the Emery Prize. She further expanded her practice with the William Alexander Fleet Fellowship in Art History, Criticism, and Conservation at Princeton University. Shah’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including My East Is Your West at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2022), and What Is The Future of Art? at Tate Modern (2016). She has also exhibited widely in the UK, with recent shows in Manchester and Oxford.

Samuel George

Samuel George is a conceptual sculptor from Leeds UK. Having studied at Central Saint Martins (2020) & Ruskin School of Art (2025), they have been working with equipment as a medium to create and reflect life & being in its most material form. SG focuses on the half-stolen bicycle, concrete pavement slab or roadside chair to stop and mediate on the things we often overlook, reflecting on a world we’ve constructed together.

With a devoted connection to community, much of the work SG makes is rooted in queer theory, embedded in non-conventional ways of looking and understanding. This philosophy informs the work to produce concepts that are both joyful expressions of play and meditative re-evaluation of our existence.

SG has exhibited in galleries around Leeds, London, Lisbon and York. Most notably, Tate Modern, Lethaby Gallery and 108 Fleet Street.

Shayna Fonseka

Shayna Fonseka (b. 1994, London) is currently studying an MFA at the Ruskin.

Fonseka’s work explores urban spaces that access a transcendent and innate sense of being. Drawing inspiration from experiences within these spaces grounds her, amid an escalating sense of instability. One aspect of her exploration centres on the ‘placeless’ space a rave occupies. The hyper-stimulation of sound, visual minimalism, linguistic shifts and altered temporal perception collectively tap into something fundamental and authentic about being human - a scarce experience in a synthetic city. As part of her creative process, she photographs city walks with no expectation of arrival. Those who meander, whether on foot or through the mind, allow themselves to discover the unexpected. Through this serendipitous exploration, she collect connections with objects found unintentionally, intending to evoke a sense of transcendence. In a time marked by growing disconnection, she navigate how to restore our sense of being within an urban environment, identifying spaces that nurture these connections.

Fonseka was recently awarded the Erna Plachte Award 2024 and shortlisted for the Oxford Review of Books Art Award. Recent exhibitions include: Questions on Drawing, Exvoto Gallery, London, 2024; Carry on baggage, Galeria Augustine, Lisbon, 2023; Can’t take my eyes off you, indigo + madder, London, 2022; A Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary, 2021-2022, amongst others.