Savannah Marie Harris: Undo, at Gathering Ibiza - 12/07-30/08
September 2025 Colstoun Arts resident Savannah Marie Harris opens a new solo exhibition, Undo, now showing at Gathering's Ibiza space. Savannah joined us at the beginning of her journey to realise the works for her two exhibitions this year, ‘Gloria‘Undo’ brings together seven new paintings that have been created over the course of months, for an exhibition that will run from 12 July to 30 August 2026. It is Harris's first show with Gathering, marking potentially Harris’s largest single presentation of work in a solo exhibition to date, Gathering was “conceived on principles of collaboration and cultural exchange, it is committed to presenting innovative contemporary practices in dialogue with historically significant artists, Since its inception, the gallery has established an international presence through participation in leading global art fairs, alongside a series of off-site exhibitions and collaborative projects spanning cities such as Mexico City and Cologne” (text from Gathering’s own website)
Harris’s practice is extremely physical, just as much as it is a visual one. Building up her canvases up in layers, applying sand by hand and working it into the paint, before scraping the surface back down once it has dried. The cycle repeats: sand, paint, erosion, sand again. What is left behind is not a finished image so much as a record of what has been removed, almost in the same fashion as an archeological dig reveals an image for interpretation below many layers. The surfaces read as weathered, sedimentary, closer to textual canvas developed geology than to conventional painting.
This is a body of work concerned with time as a physical force rather than an abstract idea. Harris is not illustrating erosion, she is enacting it, and the paintings carry the evidence of that labour in their texture. There is a rawness to the results, a matte, worn quality that resists any sense of polish. Nothing here looks arrived at easily, you can feel the intensity of process, the physical labour.
The sand itself is not incidental. Harris has spoken about its connection to her heritage, and the material carries that weight into the work. It is present in the grain of the canvas, in the way light catches or is absorbed by the surface, in the sense that these paintings hold something accumulated rather than simply depicted.
Where Harris's process becomes especially interesting is in its refusal of a single, settled outcome. Each canvas goes through so many stages of building and stripping back that the final surface feels provisional, as though it could still be altered again. That instability is the point. Undo is less about arriving at resolution than about staying inside a process of continual revision, echoing the way landscapes themselves are never finished, only ever mid-transformation.
Harris's career has moved quickly since her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art, and Undo lands at a moment when her position in the wider conversation around painting feels increasingly assured. Recognition through the Artsy Vanguard Prize brought her work to a broader audience, and that early momentum has carried through into a practice now confident enough to take real risks with material and process. This exhibition does not read as a young artist testing ideas. It reads as an artist who knows exactly what she is trying to do, and is doing it with increasing precision.
What distinguishes Harris within process-driven artists is the specificity of her material language. The sand is not a device borrowed for effect. It is structural to how the work is made and what it means, tying the physical act of erosion to questions of memory, geography and inheritance. That coherence between method and meaning is not easy to sustain across a full body of work, and it is one of the more compelling aspects of this show.
For those able to visit, Gathering's Ibiza space is open Thursday through Sunday, from seven in the evening until eleven at night, an unusual rhythm that suits the quieter, more contemplative viewing the work rewards.
Savannah Marie Harris CV:
Solo Exhibitions
Undo, Gathering Ibiza, Ibiza, July-August 2026
Gloria’s, Harlesden High Street, London, June-July 2026
Immanence, Vadaxoglou, London, July 2025
An Ocean of Storms, Harlesden High Street, London April 2024
Looking into the Shimmer, Harlesden High Street, Feb 2023
Group exhibitions
Morena Di Luna/Maureen Paley, Hove, 29 June 2024
Bump, Matt Carey-Williams, No.9 Freize Cork Street, 2024
Link me at the Sound System ‘23, London, 2023
Degree Show, Royal College of Art, London, 2023
Heteronymous Painters Group Show Works on Paper, Studio 127, London, 2023
No. 34, PM/AM London, 2023
Raw, Soho Revue, 2022
Fairs
Independent Art Fair, NY, May 2025 (solo)
Frieze, London, October 2024 (solo)
Minor Attractions, London, October 2023 (solo)
Independent Art Fair, NY, May 2023 (group)
Residencies
Colstoun Arts, Scotland, Sep 2025
Awards
Artsy Vanguard Prize, Times Square New York, Feb 2024
Selected Press
Frieze 91 Feature
Financial Times (PDF Version here)
Savannah Marie Harris Artsy Vanguard Prize Winner 2024
Online art fairs prove their renewed value for small galleries, Financial Times, Feb 2024
A Constant Reworking, by Alycia Gaunt for Curatorial Affairs, July 2024
Education
2021 - 2023 MA Painting, Royal College of Arts
2017 - 2020 BA Fine Art: Painting, Wimbledon College of Arts
FAQS:
Who is Savannah Marie Harris?
Savannah Marie Harris is a painter born in 1999 based in south London, known for a process-driven practice that combines sand and oil paint on canvas. She holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2021 to 2023) and a BA in Fine Art Painting from Wimbledon College of Arts (2017 to 2020).
What gallery represents Savannah Marie Harris?
She is represented by Harlesden High Street, a London gallery focused on supporting under-represented artists.
What is Undo about?
Undo is a solo exhibition of seven new paintings that explore sedimentation and erosion. Harris builds up layers of sand and paint on each canvas, then scrapes and sands the surface down, repeating the process to create a weathered, geological quality in the work.
Where and when is Undo showing?
Undo is on view at Gathering Ibiza, Carrer Vicent Serra 4, Sant Miquel de Balansat, from 12 July to 30 August 2026. The space is open Thursday to Sunday, from seven in the evening until eleven at night.
Is Undo a Gathering-represented exhibition?
No. Undo is a hosted exhibition at Gathering Ibiza rather than a mark of formal gallery representation.
What themes run through Savannah Marie Harris's work?
Her practice engages with erosion, memory and material history, drawing in part on her Caribbean and Cuban heritage through her use of sand as a primary material.
What prizes and recognition has Savannah Marie Harris received?
She won the Artsy Vanguard Prize in 2024 and has been featured in the Financial Times.
What previous solo exhibitions has Savannah Marie Harris held?
Her previous solo exhibitions include An Ocean of Storms at Harlesden High Street (April 2024) and Looking into the Shimmer, also at Harlesden High Street (February 2023).
Has Savannah Marie Harris shown at any art fairs?
Yes. Her work has been shown at Frieze London (October 2024) and the Independent Art Fair in New York (May 2023), among other group presentations.
Does Savannah Marie Harris have any connection to Colstoun Arts?
Yes. She previously undertook a residency as an artist in residence at Colstoun Arts, prior to the development of the work shown in Undo.
