Open Space

Open Space Open Space supports emerging creative practices and promotes dialogue in the arts through an annual programme of projects in unexpected spaces.

Initiated and developed by Huma Kabakci, Open Space Contemporary is an international contemporary art project that looks into promoting cross-cultural dialogue between artists, curators and art practitioners internationally. The first edition took place in London. This particular moving project space aims to create recognition, present artists and curators coming from diverse cultural backgrounds, experiences and artistic practices. By calling itself ‘open,’ Open Space Contemporary aims to explore various art media through talks, performances, moving images, screenings and dialogues. One of the key objectives of the project is to further the curatorial and artistic discourse and open up to other exhibitions and symposiums. Open Dialogue Istanbul Initiated by Billur Tansel, is a collaborating project that focuses on educational programmes, talks and dialogues.

I had included seven names in 2024. It’s thirteen now. I would have loved to add more, this is just a mixed bag 👀✨🍑🍒🥑“13...
20/09/2026

I had included seven names in 2024. It’s thirteen now. I would have loved to add more, this is just a mixed bag 👀✨🍑🍒🥑

“13 Artists and Designers Exploring Food As A Medium & Subject To Follow Now” as Part II is now live on Substack. A list made to shed more light on the incredible creatives working with food as material, ritual and language, and on the processes we quietly share.

Giuseppe Burdo Maisongb Kiki 💮M u r d e r · C a k e💮 Andrea Ferrero andreaferrerop Gab Bois Gab Bois Shared Space Studio shared space studio Yasmeen Ayyashi Yasmeen | ياسمين Maayan Sophia Weisstub Maayan Sophia Weisstub Lucy Ellerton Lucy Ellerton Mark Purves Mark Purves Olivia Strange Olivia Strange Bompas & Parr Bompas & Parr Olivia Sterling olivia sterling 🌝 Bex Massey Bex Massey

Follow them, book their tables, visit their shows. Link in bio 🤍

I’ll be switching off my socials until further notice and go off whatsapp too. You can reach me on email or iMessage. Pe...
07/09/2026

I’ll be switching off my socials until further notice and go off whatsapp too. You can reach me on email or iMessage. Peace ✌️🕊️

Courtesy: Guy Bourdin

Thank you everyone for visiting our booth at Food Art Fair ✨ Bed in Breakfast… (And other bad habits) was a collaborati...
07/09/2026

Thank you everyone for visiting our booth at Food Art Fair ✨ Bed in Breakfast… (And other bad habits) was a collaboration between Mia Wilkinson 💮M u r d e r · C a k e💮 and I. Enjoy the mix of action and install shots by Sophie le Roux .

Special thanks to Food Art Fair Maisongb Dhruv Duggal ✨🙏

That’s a wrap, thank you all for visiting our booth “Breakfast in Bed…(And Other Bad Habits) with Mia Wilkinson 💮M u r d...
06/09/2026

That’s a wrap, thank you all for visiting our booth “Breakfast in Bed…(And Other Bad Habits) with Mia Wilkinson 💮M u r d e r · C a k e💮 at Food Art Fair Ladbroke Hall ✨🐣🧁 Special thanks to Art Observed for featuring us with so many other great artists and designers 💫👀

Art Observed with .repost
・・・
Food Art Fair Food Art Fair opened yesterday at Ladbroke Hall in London. In its inaugural edition, the two-day fair brings together over 100 participants across many distinct mediums – edible, visual and experiential art, alongside performances, a series of workshops and a curated publications and objects market.

1. ‘Breakfast in Bed... (and other bad habits)’ by Mia Wilkinson in collaboration with 💮M u r d e r · C a k e💮 , curated by Huma Kabakci curatorial
2. ‘Sugar padlocks, metal chains’ candy sculptures by Andrea Ferrero andreaferrerop Copperfield
3. Tablescape installation by Gab Bois
4. ‘Wet Paint’, an edible painting by nuun | creative contemporary cake and LEEN
5. ‘Display this if you lose my ashes’ by Dohyun Baek 백도현 白導鉉
6. ‘Bread Wardrobe’ by shared space studio
7-8. Installation views of Food Art Fair’s main exhibition.

With less than a week left for out exciting presentation and collaboration at Food Art Fair produced by Maisongb at Ladb...
30/08/2026

With less than a week left for out exciting presentation and collaboration at Food Art Fair produced by Maisongb at Ladbroke Hall here are some teasers of all of our practices including what we’ll be presenting ✨💫🤩

Excited to be curating Breakfast in bed... (and other bad habits), presenting a new installation by painter Mia Wilkinson in collaboration with Kiki of Murder Cake, at Food Art Fair 2026.

The work stages the female appetite, both literal and erotic, across the two most charged sites of domestic life: the table and the bed. It asks where, and how freely, women are permitted to eat, desire and take up space.

Across the weekend, a selection of Wilkinson’s paintings and hand-painted china plates, Kabakcı’s publication Tender Touches, and Kiki’s jelly cakes will be available, alongside tasting experiences. DM for further interest 👀

Come misbehave with us. To book your tickets 🎟️ go on Ladbroke Hall ‘s website or

SAVE THE DATE“In the Middle Absent”Amanda Camenisch & Ilyas KassamCurated by Huma KabakciWe invite you to an exhibition ...
20/08/2026

SAVE THE DATE

“In the Middle Absent”
Amanda Camenisch & Ilyas Kassam
Curated by Huma Kabakci

We invite you to an exhibition of painting and sculpture exploring art as a space of remembering, where hidden connections between matter, consciousness, nature and spirit become perceptible. Drawing on psychoanalysis, alchemy and ancient traditions of sacred making, the works unfold as a kind of psychic excavation, surfacing traces of memory, ritual and myth.

🏛📍Swiss Church, 79 Endell St, London, WC2H 9DY

🥂 Private View: 1 Oct, 17:00 to 20:00

🖼 Exhibition: 2 to 3 Oct, 12:00 to 18:00

🗣 Panel Discussion: 2 Oct, 18:00 to 19:30.

ℹ️ More information will follow soon.

👀 SAVE THE DATES 👀Delighted to be taking part in Food Art Fair 2026 with a new installation: Breakfast in bed... (and ot...
10/08/2026

👀 SAVE THE DATES 👀

Delighted to be taking part in Food Art Fair 2026 with a new installation: Breakfast in bed... (and other bad habits).

Working with painter Mia Wilkinson and Kiki of 💮M u r d e r · C a k e💮 , we’re staging the female appetite, both literal and erotic, across the two most charged sites of domestic life: the table and the bed. The work asks where, and how freely, women are permitted to eat, desire and take up space.

Mia’s paintings set the scene, whereas Murder Cake’s sculptural jellies make the banquet edible. Through my curatorial framing I hope to creatively explore my ongoing research into food, conviviality and ritual.

Come misbehave with us :)

📍 Ladbroke Hall, 79 Barlby Rd, London W10 6AZ
🗓 5-6 September

Breakfast in bed... (and other bad habits)
by Mia Wilkinson in collaboration with Murder Cake
Curated by Huma Kabakcı

I wrote a new, short peace on and which seemed timely ❤️‍🩹🌱 It is now live and can be accessed on the link on my pro...
06/08/2026

I wrote a new, short peace on and which seemed timely ❤️‍🩹🌱 It is now live and can be accessed on the link on my profile or on https://substack.com/Huma Kabakci curatorial/note/p-209831312?r=1pjzao&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

Shadow and light have always played an important role in my life and being, more than just metaphors. “The Sun and The M...
23/07/2026

Shadow and light have always played an important role in my life and being, more than just metaphors.

“The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial” at Saatchi Gallery unfolds as a single 24-hour cycle across nine galleries, moving from dawn through zenith and dusk into the darkest hours. I was impressed to see over 170 artists alongside Celtic sun gods, armillary spheres, alchemical manuscripts and opera costumes. It was a mixed bag but a poignant show about how we have organised belief around two objects we cannot touch.

Here are some works that really stayed with me: Sinta Ta**ra sets the register early, her geometry holding light the way architecture does. Sam Douglas builds landscapes that seem varnished by moonlight. Lian Zhang paints figures caught in the soft hour between waking and dreaming. Elisabeth Deane works devotionally, in gilded miniature. And Paula Turmina’s Prayers to Many Circles (2023) stayed with me longest: cosmology drawn as ritual rather than a diagram.

Which is where my own curatorial and anthropological work keeps landing. Whether it is about writing on rituals, divination through Turkish coffee grounds or upcoming projects and thoughts I have been having, the moon phase and the sun play an important part. The exhibition can be seen until 8 September.

I am currently writing my dissertation for my MA in Anthropology of Food, titled “Conviviality of Turkish Coffee: Gender...
16/07/2026

I am currently writing my dissertation for my MA in Anthropology of Food, titled “Conviviality of Turkish Coffee: Gendered Spaces and Fortune-Telling,” focusing on the Turkish diaspora living in London. Conducting the interviews has been the most exciting part, especially around cup reading and samimiyet (intimacy).

It was really interesting to find that none of my participants defended the reading based on accuracy. Instead, they relocated its value to the encounter itself. One interviewee stated bluntly, “the only added value is the connection, not the reading itself,” and another said, “The conversation opens so many doors. Things come out that no one would expect.” Turkish coffee, they suggest, becomes a way to skip formalities.

What I found even more interesting is that none of the five participants I have interviewed so far claimed they were taught. “No one really taught me, but I was sensing something,” said one, while another learned by inventing stories with his university friends.

Who would have known I’d go back to my actual roots and write about Turkish coffee? But its influence on my upbringing, my diasporic life and rituals is unavoidable. There have been ups and downs, frustrations and struggles along the way, and I have until early September to submit while continuing with my other curatorial projects. The work still excites me.

📷 From our Freudian Coffee Cups workshop with Seçil Erel, taken by Emma Witter.
📷 The last two are images from

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