Regina Torres Thompson is a London-based Mexican artist working primarily with ceramics. Her practice explores the body as a shifting and unstable site of transformation, combining material experimentation with philosophical and conceptual research. Through sculptural forms, she investigates embodiment, hidden systems, and cosmological understandings of the body. She is currently undertaking a professional ceramics diploma at City Lit and is a resident artist at Culford Studios in London. Before turning fully to the arts and humanities, Torres Thompson completed a Bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Science at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where she engaged with formal logic and mathematical structures that continue to shape her approach to research and problem-solving. Her long-term practice of Aṣṭāṅga Vinyāsa yoga led her to the study of classical Sanskrit and yoga traditions, informing both her MA in Textual Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at SOAS, University of London, and her current MA in Indology at the University of Hamburg. Torres Thompson has exhibited and sold work through platforms including the Margate Ceramics Market at Turner Contemporary, ST.ART Gallery, Casa Ágape, Warbling Collective Gallery, Culford Studios, and various North London Makers Markets. Alongside her artistic and academic work, she co-founded El Cuerpo del Yoga, a Latin American feminist research collective dedicated to critically exploring yoga, body politics, and decolonial thought. Website: https://reginatorresth.com Instagram: @reginatorresth.arte

Seongeun Lee is a textile artist and researcher based between London and Busan, South Korea. She holds a PhD from Pusan National University and an MA in Textiles from the Royal College of Art in London (2024), as well as both an MA and BA in Textiles and Metal Art from Pusan National University. Her research-driven practice explores the relationship between textile, sculpture, and architectural space through material experimentation and spatial investigation. Working primarily with soft sculpture, Lee approaches textile as an extended sculptural medium. Through modular knitted forms and accumulative structures, she explores how individual units assemble into adaptive spatial configurations shaped by gravity, tension, and movement. Her installations often unfold across ceilings, floors, and surrounding surfaces, inviting viewers to experience shifting perspectives and spatial relationships through the softness and flexibility of textile. Lee has presented solo exhibitions including Arrangement at PNU Arts Center in Busan (2025), Connection at Hansae Gallery (2022), and Eternal Web at PNU Arts Center (2020). Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Royal College of Art and Saatchi Gallery in London, Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum in Tokyo, and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing. In 2025, she received the International Prize Artist of the Year from the Effetto Arte Foundation in Florence. Website: www.seongeunlee.co.kr Instagram: @lseunly

Farnaz Gholami is an Iranian visual artist born in Dublin and raised in Tehran. She graduated with distinction from the MFA Painting programme at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2019, and also holds a Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts and a Post-Baccalaureate in Studio Art from Brandeis University. Her practice explores place not as a fixed location, but as a shifting psychological and emotional state shaped by memory, displacement, and cultural forces. Drawing on her diasporic experiences of living across different countries, Gholami creates landscapes in which the natural world is interrupted by psychological and material distortions. Through fluid brushwork, playful forms, and vivid colour, her paintings channel feelings of dislocation and rootlessness while opening space to question ideas of belonging, identity, and otherness. Within these fractured environments, a fragile sense of freedom and renewal emerges. Gholami has exhibited internationally, including at Nuweland Gallery and Zona Maco Art Fair in Mexico, What If The World Gallery in South Africa, Niru Ratnam and Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix in London, as well as the Royal Academy of Arts and Saatchi Gallery. She was shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2019 and was a finalist for the UKNA Robert Walters Award in 2022. Website: https://www.farnaz.net Instagram: @farnaz.gholami

Ana Benavides is a Mexican painter based in London. She holds a Master’s degree in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2023) and a BA in Advertising and Marketing Communications from ITESM (2018). Her practice explores emotional depth, vulnerability, and the complexities of human experience, translating internal states into an expressive and intuitive visual language. Through gesture, layering, and colour, she materialises emotional conditions such as tension, introspection, and fragility, focusing on what is often unspoken or difficult to articulate. Her paintings function as spaces of encounter, inviting viewers to engage with psychological states that are typically concealed or suppressed. Rather than relying on narrative, her work offers a sensory and affective experience in which the invisible dimensions of emotion are brought to the surface. Benavides has presented solo exhibitions internationally, including Breakthrough (2025) at Hope 93 Gallery in London, and Why Are We So Afraid of Feeling? (2023) at Lupo Gallery in Milan, curated by Martha Onsola. In 2025, she presented work in In Flux at Kenin Projects in Dubai, Two at Haricot Gallery in London, and Celebrating Women in Arts at the Mexican Embassy in London. Previous exhibitions include Tear Rubber at Ojiri Gallery, Under the Canopy at the Mexican Embassy, A Journey into the Unknown at Haricot Gallery, and Waves Wash Over at Wilder Gallery. Internationally, she has exhibited in How Things Hold at T293 Gallery in Rome, as well as with Tabula Rasa Gallery in Beijing and Shanghai. Website: https://anabenavidesart.com Instagram: @anabenavidesart

Hands-on is delighted to introduce the guest speakers who will support our artists during the fourth edition of our residency programme: Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys is a London-based independent curator, art advisor, and founder of Art Elsewhere. Her research-driven practice explores ecology, migration, and identity. She has curated exhibitions across London and beyond, and has collaborated with Tate Patrons, Lehmann Maupin, and Podbielski Contemporary since 2013. Lawrence Van Hagen is an art and design advisor working with private, corporate, and institutional collections worldwide. As a curator, he has organised major exhibitions in Paris, Mumbai, and London (2025), as well as India’s first Pop Art exhibition at NMACC (2024). He advises brands including Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and sits on the arts board of Sisley Paris. Hettie Judah is a London-based writer, critic, and curator. She has contributed to publications including The Guardian, Frieze, and Apollo, and was chief art critic for The i (2016–2024). She recently curated Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood (Hayward Gallery, 2024–25), touring major UK institutions. Maria Positano is a visual artist working between Italy and London, whose practice spans sculpture and installation. A graduate of City & Guilds of London Art School and the Royal College of Art, she has exhibited internationally, including at Artissima and ArtVerona, and is a recipient of the Gilbert Bayes Award (2024). Céline Seror is an independent curator and consultant. She co-founded Artness (2013) and co-created The Art Momentum (2018), and has contributed to publications amplifying diverse artistic voices. Since 2021, she has co-curated the travelling exhibition Memoria: accounts of another History, presented internationally.