‘Faigh Amach’: Ella Bertilsson, Kathy Tynan, Emily Waszak

Roughly translating as ‘discover’, 'Faigh Amach' brings together three artists selected through an open call process in 2024: Ella Bertilsson, Kathy Tynan, Emily Waszak. One of the three exhibiting artists will be invited to present their first international solo exhibition at SPG Lake Gallery in Spring 2026.

Ella Bertilsson uses images and materials related to pop culture and the aesthetics of nostalgia to evoke a shared sense of memory and place. Her installations, which often incorporate film and performance, use the visual language of magical realism and absurdism to conjure darkly humorous and dreamlike sensory environments.

Kathy Tynan’s paintings of familiar cityscapes and domestic scenes illuminate moments of affection, intimacy and curiosity. Rather than focussing her gaze on monumental landmarks, Tynan instead attributes value to that which is otherwise overlooked. Her semi-autobiographical subjects include her own family and friends but speak more broadly to shared enthusiasms, experiences of care, community, and relationships.

Emily Waszak’s textile and assemblage works are informed by rituals of her Japanese cultural heritage, experiences of grief and the landscape of her home in Donegal. Using both ancient and contemporary weaving techniques, alongside the collection and display of found materials and other hand-made objects, Waszak combines processes that transcend time and place to find meaning in loss and understand how to access otherworldliness.

Southwark Park Galleries is an interdisciplinary arts organisation in South East London. Through a locally relevant and internationally significant programme of exhibitions, performances and public engagement, their mission is to connect people using the intersection of art, nature and culture to facilitate meaning and wellbeing across communities. Established in 1984, they have a thriving reputation as a test site for experimental practice by commissioning artists at a critical stage to make their most ambitious work for exhibition.