To climb the night and find

What does it mean to traverse darkness—both the literal night and the shadowed periods of a life? To delve into this question, EY PROJECTS is pleased to present Joana Galego’s solo show To Climb the Night and Find. In the show, Portuguese-born, London-based artist Galego presents a body of work revolving around her long, ongoing change in life: both personal and artistic, intimate and universal.

The exhibition takes its title from an introspective thread running through Galego’s recent practice. Nights, for the artist, are not singular. They are slow and impenetrable, thick as mountains to be climbed; they are also thrilling, sensual, crowded with desire and words awaiting to be said. Night as loss, confusion, doubt. Night as shivers, quick glances, and adventure. And beyond the daily cycle, “night” stands for the nocturnal phases of life—periods of shadow, struggle, and conflict. Galego’s paintings do not simply depict these states; they hold them, question them, and finally seek what lies on the other side.

What has she found? “Many hands, warmth, doing and living together. Soft and gentle acceptance. Doubt, but more hopeful, and shared.” These paintings speak of climbing the night of the soul and discovering care—for oneself and for others. Reconciliation, solace, consolation. The new day’s chance to try again, less alone.

In her early work, Galego was primarily concerned with guilt—the guilt of leaving home, moving abroad, and pursuing one's own desires—as well as the limitations of language; her recent work, however, has shifted toward acceptance and connection. Her figures—resting, playing, embracing, or half-hidden—inhabit a parallel space, suspended from the rush of the real. Whether in small, intimate portraits or larger immersive compositions, her carefully orchestrated brushwork and restrained compositions generate a powerful psychological charge: a sense of fleetingness, of moments held just before they dissolve.

Climb the Night and Find invites viewers to ask themselves: What do these paintings make you feel, if they make you feel anything at all?