New Exhibition Series Brings Asia’s ‘Extraordinary Breadth of Artistic Talent’ to the UK

A new initiative from the Bagri Foundation is set to support artists from Asia in presenting their first institutional solo exhibitions in the UK. 

The initiative, titled Springboard, opens at St Cyprian’s Church in London with a site-specific exhibition by Mongolian multidisciplinary artist Nomin Zezegmaa. On view from 10–24 October, the show is timed to coincide with Frieze week.

“Springboard reflects the Foundation’s belief that there remains an extraordinary breadth of artistic talent yet to be fully represented within the UK cultural landscape,” said Chelsea Pettitt, director and curator of the Bagri Foundation. 

Of Zezegmaa’s exhibition, she added that it will transform St Cyprian’s Church into “a contemplative environment” inviting visitors to “slow down, listen closely and enjoy a moment of calm”.

This atmosphere will be shaped by Zezegmaa’s response to the church’s architecture and choral tradition. The artist will draw on Urtiin Duu, a Mongolian vocal form distinguished by elongated melodic lines and subtle rhythmic variation, using sculpture, drawing, calligraphy, and architectural intervention to translate its musical structures into a spatial composition unfolding throughout the nave.

Born in Berlin and now based in Ulaanbaatar, Zezegmaa works across sculpture, painting, film, performance, land art, and silversmithing. Drawing on vernacular craft traditions, ecology, and embodied systems of knowledge, her multidisciplinary practice has gained increasing international recognition. 

Most recently, she received the RAK Art Foundation Prize in 2025 and the Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Prize at the 2026 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, while participating in the 2025 Ulaanbaatar Biennale and the 2025 Bukhara Biennial. Her rise coincides with growing international interest in contemporary art from Mongolia and the wider Inner and Central Asian region.

Springboard also revives a small but memorable tradition of Frieze London: church exhibitions. Previous interventions at St Cyprian’s include Oren Pinhassi’s The Crowd (2017), Jodie Carey’s Stand (2018) and Dawn Ng’s Into Air (2022). Meanwhile the nearby Fitzrovia Chapel has hosted projects by Yinka Shonibare in 2018 and Jonathan Baldock in 2019, briefly turning Victorian ecclesiastical interiors into some of the week’s most distinctive exhibition spaces.