Tether

Tether presents a new body of drawings by Sylwia Narbutt, with the painting Hissing in Soft Red. The exhibition explores connection, restraint and care—how something bound can stay alive and moving. A tether holds but also produces tension; it sets distance while continuing a relation. In this dualism, Narbutt finds a metaphor for attachment and displacement, especially through migration and womanhood.

The works explore encounters between the wild and the domesticated, examining how instinct is determined by social expectations. Positioned between the personal and the political, Tether locates tenderness within resistance. The artist’s restrained palette—colours drawn from make-up, such as blush, lipstick and flesh tones—functions both materially and conceptually. It references the learned gestures of femininity while carrying their emotional charge: desire, exposure and endurance. Red recurs as a pulse, an alert to both danger and vitality.

Sylwia Narbutt is a Polish Visual Artist, curator living and working in London since 2006. Narbutt has participated and curated many exhibitions, projects and art initiatives. Her work is held in public institution like Cambridge University Hospitals art collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (MSU Zagreb) and many private collections in the UK and abroad. Recent projects include a solo exhibition at The Bomb Factory Window Gallery in Holborn in 2025, a solo exhibition at Outhouse Gallery in Camberwell in 2025 and inclusion in the Derwent Art prize exhibition 2026.

For more information

www.sylwianarbutt.com

Tannery Projects

Tether is a part of Tannery Arts’ occasional exhibition and events programme run by and for Tannery Artists. Tannery Projects aims to encourage new discourse between Tannery Artists and engagement with London contemporary art, through excellence and innovation.