Roots, Realms and Reveries is a two-person exhibition featuring artists Molly Burrows and Woo Jin Joo, whose practices converge through a shared commitment to storytelling across diverse mediums—including embroidery, ceramics, painting, collage, and sculpture. Themes of transformation and imagined worlds unfold through myth-making, with the exhibition taking shape as a narrative journey through the gallery.
The exhibition is accompanied by two distinct soundscapes evoking the repeated whirring of a sewing machine, in one and an arrangement of traditional and classical East Asian percussion instruments, in the other. The score is a response to and intertwines with the works' quiet theatricality - depictions of characters in nature; in landscape, the manifestation of East Asian myths, beliefs, religions and shamanistic rituals which nods to the playful and sincere, curious and reverential, small and fearsome.
London Gallery Weekend 2025 (extended hours)
Fri 6 June: 11.00-18.00
Sat 7 June: 11.00-18.30
Sun 8 June: 12.00-17.00
A family workshop led by artist Molly Burrows (14.30-15.30) exploring the underlying themes of the exhibition. Recommended ages: 7-12Y .
Limited capacity, RSVP: info@a-i-gallery.com.
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About the artists
Molly Burrows (b. 2002, Munich) lives in London. Her practice centres on abstraction as a means of accessibility, reducing the human form to simplified shapes that invite openness and relatability. Through painting and collage, her works often portray individuals at ease within natural environments, blending into their surroundings to evoke harmony and interconnectedness. Burrows’ commitment to accessibility extends beyond her studio. She produces exhibition booklets that demystify artistic processes and offer practical guidance for navigating the contemporary art world, helping make gallery spaces more inclusive. She has exhibited at institutions including the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Drawing Room, Royal West of England Academy, KARST Gallery, The Levinsky, MIRROR Plymouth, Southwark Park Galleries, Copeland Gallery, and Satellite Store. Recent collaborations include New Contemporaries (2024–2025), Yuki Nakayama’s After the Rain at ai. gallery (London Gallery Weekend, 2024), the Camberwell College of Arts Degree Show (2024), and Bold Tendencies’ Summer Programme (2023), including Derek Jarman: Modern Nature.
Woo Jin Joo (b. Korea; living in London) is an artist whose work delves into the boundaries of human perception, drawing from mythology, folklore, shamanism, and alternative modes of knowing. Joo explores how sculptural forms—often initiated from found or discarded objects—offer a passage into the subconscious, merging the realms of the internal and imagined with the external world. For Joo, the act of working with found elements reflects the happenstance nature of our encounters with the everyday, where even the most mundane interactions can harbour potential for transformation and creativity. Through her meticulous process of embroidery and craft, she imbues objects with limbs, symbols, shapes, and colors, blending physical forms with the fluidity of internal narratives and memories.The resulting works are imbued with an uncanny potency and infused with humour as well as mystery. Joo graduated from Royal College of Art in 2021. She has exhibited internationally with ai. gallery at Untitled Miami (2024), play at Ruup & Form (2024), Geen Woorden Maar Draden at Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam (2023) amongst other exhibitions. Joo is a Cockpit Bagri Award holder (2023) and Elephant Trust Award holder (2023).
