WITHIN
Gusty Ferro (BR)
16/07- 01/08/2026
Within a period of a month you have been using Dom gallery as a studio, experimenting with the space and making a site responsive installation. Drawing is at the core of your practice where the desire to take risks, try new directions and approach art-making in an interdisciplinary, non linear way is expressed. Can you talk about this process?
“I think of drawing in an expanded way, I can relate it to walking and exploring the city, following the line of desires and getting lost. Traveling has something to do with seeing through the eyes of a foreigner. I observe how solutions are created, materials are used and props are made in the public space, as if they were architectural prosthetics. I am particularly drawn to the metallic pipes and the rails surrounding them, curved and bent structures that go around the architecture, giving a passing glimpse of an animated character.
My work sits in the intersection of visual arts and experimental music. I started making work in the gallery to create the conditions for my sound practice to happen. In this way, the graphic marks made directly on the walls and ceiling activate the space, creating an abstract narrative, something that informs my sonic explorations. I transit between sound and spatial work. One thing informs the other.
The idea of taking risks is connected to a certain state of mind. At times, I focus on what I feel driven to make, allowing space for unconscious desire. At other times, I step back and think about the ‘other’ – the audience I am inviting in and what I want to show them. This brings me to vulnerability: following a path that is not yet clear even to me, while sharing the process with strangers. Ultimately, the desire is to create connections, and the work acts as a kind of web – a shared space for vulnerability.”
Tell us more about the title of the show WITHIN. You blocked the main entrance of the gallery, so people will need to walk around, get into the back yard of the building and access the gallery from behind. There is some sort of effort that is required from the public, why this choice?
“People need to discover the space, or re-discover it to get inside. The fact that the main entrance is blocked doesn't mean it is inaccessible, but, yes, it will require at least curiosity to get in. Once you get there you are invited to sit down and remove your shoes before finally going through the curtains to the main room. WITHIN is a very intimate exhibition, I am showing pages of my journals and pieces of writing that are private. I am inviting people inside a space that is dark, whilst it is summer and bright outside. I won’t give much more away but reflections on identity and altered states of mind have a big play in this show.”
My last question is in relation to the materials you use and the sound you make. You’ve been using perforated metal sheets and contact mics in your recent works. Where does it come from?
“I have been thinking about this fictional place called TRANSMEAD, that is also the name of my radio programme on experimental music at rtm.fm. I live in a Estate in South East London that is going through a phase of redevelopment and partial demolition. The whole environment surrounding where I stay has been shaping my lived experience in the city and one of the materials that I am interested in this context is the perforated metal used to ‘cage’ empty properties. I started to experiment with this metal mesh in relation to light and the shift in perception that happens depending on the spatial conditions created. It also changes the behaviour of sound in space and the contact microphones attached to it capture resonance and generate feedback loops – that is something I explore in my live performances where I improvise with modular synthesisers, sampling field recordings, patching modulations and effects to create temporal distortions and granular synthesis.”
Gusty Ferro is a Brazil-born, London-based cross-disciplinary artist whose work explores the relationship between architecture and the body, as well as the materiality of everyday objects, urban infrastructure and displacement. Gusty develops site responsive installations that often incorporate elements of sound, sculpture, drawing and moving- image. They studied contemporary art practice at the Royal Academy Schools and School of the Damned in the UK, and have previously studied visual arts in São Paulo.
Selected exhibitions include Night Shift, Standpoint Gallery, London, 2025; East London Art Prize, Nunnery and Whitechapel Gallery, 2025; Royal Academy Schools Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2025; Hello Neighbours, TACO!, London, 2024; Turning Into, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2023; Grinding Series, SWG3 Gallery, Glasgow, 2016; Ground Control, Sé Galeria, São Paulo, 2016; Piquetes Anônimos, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, 2015; Situação CCSP, Centro Cultural São Paulo, 2010; Encreuament, Institut Français, Barcelona, 2010. Ferro was recipient of the Janet Paradise Award for Painting, 2025; Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac Hon RA Prize, 2025; Salaman-Seeling Art Prize, 2024; Arts Council England, National Lottery Project Grant, 2020.
Graphic design: Anna Malicka
Supported by: State Culture Capital Fond
Photo: Ieva Viese un Gusty Ferro
Gusty Ferro (BR)
16/07- 01/08/2026
Within a period of a month you have been using Dom gallery as a studio, experimenting with the space and making a site responsive installation. Drawing is at the core of your practice where the desire to take risks, try new directions and approach art-making in an interdisciplinary, non linear way is expressed. Can you talk about this process?
“I think of drawing in an expanded way, I can relate it to walking and exploring the city, following the line of desires and getting lost. Traveling has something to do with seeing through the eyes of a foreigner. I observe how solutions are created, materials are used and props are made in the public space, as if they were architectural prosthetics. I am particularly drawn to the metallic pipes and the rails surrounding them, curved and bent structures that go around the architecture, giving a passing glimpse of an animated character.
My work sits in the intersection of visual arts and experimental music. I started making work in the gallery to create the conditions for my sound practice to happen. In this way, the graphic marks made directly on the walls and ceiling activate the space, creating an abstract narrative, something that informs my sonic explorations. I transit between sound and spatial work. One thing informs the other.
The idea of taking risks is connected to a certain state of mind. At times, I focus on what I feel driven to make, allowing space for unconscious desire. At other times, I step back and think about the ‘other’ – the audience I am inviting in and what I want to show them. This brings me to vulnerability: following a path that is not yet clear even to me, while sharing the process with strangers. Ultimately, the desire is to create connections, and the work acts as a kind of web – a shared space for vulnerability.”
Tell us more about the title of the show WITHIN. You blocked the main entrance of the gallery, so people will need to walk around, get into the back yard of the building and access the gallery from behind. There is some sort of effort that is required from the public, why this choice?
“People need to discover the space, or re-discover it to get inside. The fact that the main entrance is blocked doesn't mean it is inaccessible, but, yes, it will require at least curiosity to get in. Once you get there you are invited to sit down and remove your shoes before finally going through the curtains to the main room. WITHIN is a very intimate exhibition, I am showing pages of my journals and pieces of writing that are private. I am inviting people inside a space that is dark, whilst it is summer and bright outside. I won’t give much more away but reflections on identity and altered states of mind have a big play in this show.”
My last question is in relation to the materials you use and the sound you make. You’ve been using perforated metal sheets and contact mics in your recent works. Where does it come from?
“I have been thinking about this fictional place called TRANSMEAD, that is also the name of my radio programme on experimental music at rtm.fm. I live in a Estate in South East London that is going through a phase of redevelopment and partial demolition. The whole environment surrounding where I stay has been shaping my lived experience in the city and one of the materials that I am interested in this context is the perforated metal used to ‘cage’ empty properties. I started to experiment with this metal mesh in relation to light and the shift in perception that happens depending on the spatial conditions created. It also changes the behaviour of sound in space and the contact microphones attached to it capture resonance and generate feedback loops – that is something I explore in my live performances where I improvise with modular synthesisers, sampling field recordings, patching modulations and effects to create temporal distortions and granular synthesis.”
Gusty Ferro is a Brazil-born, London-based cross-disciplinary artist whose work explores the relationship between architecture and the body, as well as the materiality of everyday objects, urban infrastructure and displacement. Gusty develops site responsive installations that often incorporate elements of sound, sculpture, drawing and moving- image. They studied contemporary art practice at the Royal Academy Schools and School of the Damned in the UK, and have previously studied visual arts in São Paulo.
Selected exhibitions include Night Shift, Standpoint Gallery, London, 2025; East London Art Prize, Nunnery and Whitechapel Gallery, 2025; Royal Academy Schools Show, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2025; Hello Neighbours, TACO!, London, 2024; Turning Into, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2023; Grinding Series, SWG3 Gallery, Glasgow, 2016; Ground Control, Sé Galeria, São Paulo, 2016; Piquetes Anônimos, Paço das Artes, São Paulo, 2015; Situação CCSP, Centro Cultural São Paulo, 2010; Encreuament, Institut Français, Barcelona, 2010. Ferro was recipient of the Janet Paradise Award for Painting, 2025; Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac Hon RA Prize, 2025; Salaman-Seeling Art Prize, 2024; Arts Council England, National Lottery Project Grant, 2020.
Graphic design: Anna Malicka
Supported by: State Culture Capital Fond
Photo: Ieva Viese un Gusty Ferro