Carla Wright, Richard Phoenix, James William Murray, Kaixiang Zhang, and Babalola Yusuf

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Join us for the opening on 11th September 2025, 6-8pm

Alice Amati, 27 Warren St, London W1T 5NB

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Incidental Music is a group exhibition that explores the feeling and sensory world around us, bringing together artistic practices that share an affinity for deep listening, embodiment and transformation. A term sometimes used in theatre and film, incidental music has a subtle poetic force: a soundscape that elicits a particular emotional response to an unfolding narrative, without the audience becoming conscious of it. Spanning object making, ceramics, painting, sound and durational intervention, each artist in their own particular way seeks to tune into an emotional frequency that is otherwise hidden or ungraspable.

The exhibition presents a snapshot of the vibrant creative scene along the South Coast of England, showcasing artists working in Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings and Brighton. Incidental Music attempts to capture a sense of place and practice: how the landscape and creative environment of the region informs, and is shaped by, the people making work here today. Alongside the exhibition is a curated display by Collective Books, Devonshire Collective's artist-led and open submission bookshop, stocking a range of publications, zines and poetry by artists across the region.

Incidental Music is a unique collaboration between Devonshire Collective and commercial gallery Alice Amati to strengthen relationships in the ecosystem and provide exposure to artists and institutions working outside the capital.

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Opening Performance:

An Imprecise Art: Part III

The performance is an expanded listening of the sound piece on vinyl Richard is presenting in the exhibition. Collaborating with the artist Shepherd Manyika and musician Maria Marzaioli in an improvisation in the gallery on turntable, violin, flute and handmade guitar. Richard will be using ceramic ‘spinners’ he has made to interrupt, loop and reconfigure the piece whilst they explore together new possibilities within the work.

Shepherd Manyika is a London-based artist-educator whose works take on multiple formats and mediums. He is interested in memory, place, space and repair as restoration. Themes of workshops, play, music and sound are used to create transformative art spaces from within and outside the institution.

Maria Marzaioli is a musician and composer who explores sonic and musical representations of the landscape around us – both the natural and built environment. Through sound, her work seeks engagement with the physical world in alternative ways and encourages people to explore and (re)evaluate their relationship with place and space differently.