London
GRAVITY considers the weight of the body and its relation to paint. 11 to 15 works. First shown at 6 Navigator Square, London N19, 18th July 2026. Followed by a second presentation at Art Floor Gallery, Taipei, September 2026. Only a selection is shown here.
A forthcoming duo exhibition bringing together analogue oil painting and digital image-making. McGiff and Solojov will each develop a body of work in response to the other, opening a dialogue between material, screen, body and perception.
My work concerns the idea that art cannot fully be verbally translated. I explore the distance between what is felt and what can be said. Philosopher Joseph Levine names this the “explanatory gap,” and my practice moves within that space, using material and gesture to approach what resists articulation.
Questions of belonging, emotional inheritance and self-perception shape the way I think about identity and psychological life. My practice has largely centred on figuration, using the body as a site to explore internal states and the tensions that emerge within relationships, memory and the self.
In many of my paintings the figure appears unstable or partially dissolving. I am interested in how the body can hold emotional weight without needing to describe a clear narrative. By allowing forms to break down or drift between representation and abstraction, the figure becomes a space where inner experience can surface in less controlled ways.
Fundamentally my practice is concerned with the materiality of paint itself. Through working and reworking the surface, I explore how gesture, colour and texture can carry emotional meaning where language begins to fall short.
Niah McGiff (b. 1999) is a London based artist whose paintings use the figure as a site of psychological and emotional inquiry.
She trained at the Essential School of Painting, graduating with distinction from the Foundation Diploma in 2019, before studying Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL. She has exhibited widely across London and actively curates group exhibitions supporting emerging artists and community led initiatives.
McGiff was awarded First Place in the RISE Emerging Artist Competition and will present work at the Henley Festival in July 2026. Her current body of work, GRAVITY, will be shown in a solo exhibition in London this July, followed by a second presentation at Art Floor Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan in September, her first international showing.
She is also curating and exhibiting in Common Matter on 11th June at One Navigator Square, Archway, London.
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