brave podcast

Melania Toma: Skins, Rituals, and Living Entities

Artist Melania Toma joins host Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for a conversation on skins, textiles, transformation, and the strange life of materials. Working between painting, sculpture, and textile, Toma reflects on collecting discarded objects, travelling with animal skins across borders, Catholic iconography, bodily memory, and the porous boundary between the self and the more-than-human world. Speaking through ideas of energy, intuition, and interconnectedness, the episode moves through questions of material agency, abjection, hierarchy, and the emotional weight objects carry over time. The conversation also explores London’s artistic ecology, residencies as transformative experiences, and the role of instinct in building a practice that continuously shifts.

Nick Hemming-Brown & Thomas Hjelm: Rethinking the Gallery Model

Nick Hemming-Brown and Thomas Hjelm join Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for this episode of the brave podcast to discuss their collaborative practice and the thinking behind HBH Gallery. Working through a nomadic model, they reflect on building exhibitions outside of fixed spaces, using flexibility as a way to support emerging artists and experiment with new formats. From their first meeting to curating international group shows, the conversation traces how a shared approach to art and audience has shaped their partnership. They also discuss the limitations of the traditional white cube, the importance of narrative in exhibition-making, and how digital culture continues to reshape both the production and experience of art. Throughout, they emphasise a commitment to artist-led thinking, documentation, and creating exhibitions that feel both accessible and engaging.

Mike Silva: The Incidental Moment

Mike Silva joins Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for this episode of the brave podcast, recorded in his studio as he prepares for an upcoming exhibition in Copenhagen. Working primarily in painting, Silva reflects on his shift away from traditional portraiture towards more incidental, intimate moments, where light, memory, and observation take precedence over representation. Using photography as a starting point, he describes painting as a process of translation shaped by intuition, touch, and the act of looking. The conversation also touches on vulnerability in his work, the influence of analogue culture, and the balance between spontaneity and control in his process. Reflecting on his career, Silva speaks candidly about navigating the art world, from being dropped by a gallery to rediscovering visibility through social media, as well as the changing conditions of image-making today.

Jacob Barnes: Season 4 Episode 6

Jacob Barnes joins Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for this episode of the brave podcast, recorded inside Season 4 Episode 6, the London-based gallery he founded. Working primarily across sculpture and installation, Barnes reflects on building a programme rooted in ambition, clarity, and a refusal to follow established models. He discusses the gallery’s evolution over its first 18 months and its focus on presenting work that is direct, forceful, and capable of provoking strong reactions. Recent exhibitions are explored, including David Atwood’s use of industrial washing machine components to examine domestic labour, alongside The Bar, an immersive, rule-based project testing endurance and social interaction. The conversation expands to the London gallery landscape, where Barnes advocates for greater urgency and originality while critiquing repetition within the ecosystem. He outlines how initiatives such as Minor Attractions and Summer Sessions connect contemporary art with music, performance, and public programming. An upcoming exhibition by Japanese artist BIEN is introduced, whose work bridges painting and sculptural form while engaging with literary references. Together, these threads point towards a programme that continues to evolve through experimentation, international dialogue, and a sharpened engagement with painting.

Paula Parole: A Promise Is A Spell

Paola Parole joins Victoria Comstock-Kershaw for this episode of the brave Podcast, recorded inside A Promise is a Spell, her first solo exhibition in London. Working across painting, sculpture, and installation, Parole discusses how themes of womanhood, childhood, domesticity, and storytelling shape her practice. Drawing on the symbolic language of fairy tales, she reflects on passivity in female narratives, the tension between fantasy and reality, and the emotional power of personal memory. The conversation also explores the materials and motifs in the exhibition, from thorns, birds, and cages to her papier-mâché rocking horse, as well as the pressures of making a first solo show and her work co-founding Filthy Fox Auction Club, which supports recently graduated artists in London.