An exciting moment for artist Cara Nahaul who opens her first solo exhibition at Frestonian Gallery tomorrow. Livelihood is a large collection of new oil paintings of scenes in Mauritius, the birthplace of the artist’s parents, an island celebrated for its beauty but with its own difficult colonial past. Nahaul’s scenes – devoid of human figures but certainly not of life – show the layers of cosmopolitanism and history intertwined in the tropical island’s streets.

It’s easy to see why Nahaul would be drawn to paint in Mauritius – from the lush vegetation to pretty fishing boats, to deserted roadside stalls and makeshift structures. In these still scenes, without the distraction of figures (but with the exception of a few animals) the viewer contemplates up close the meaning of the show’s title Livelihood: with clues as to the lives lived and labour that has taken place at these now absent sites, a subtle interrogation of what might be important, what richness and wealth might mean beyond economic gains.

Nahaul – who trained at Goldsmith’s and then Parson’s, New York – employs a distinctive lucid, brightly-coloured palette in her oil paintings, contrasting her with a room of sketches in charcoal and pencil on paper. The inclusion of these studies also shows how colour changes the narrative of these vistas into gloriously compelling and celebratory tableaux. Nahaul is one to watch in 2025.

One of the successes to emerge from the pandemic, Guts Gallery in East London has forged a path ‘championing’ rather than representing young artists in a new approach to the often exploitative commercial gallery model. The Gallery’s first show of 2025 is a radical rethink of the body in contemporary art.

The group exhibition – featuring works by five young artists – presents fluid and expressive forms, bodies that are both sensual and fleshy, but at the same time malleable and ever changing. As the show’s title implies, this show galvansies bodies’ potential to communicate our rich inner world and psychic experiences.

We particularly love Shadi Al-Atallah’s large-scale mixed media works of genderless forms in flux, referencing queer ballrooms and folkloric dance traditions from across the African diaspora. They have an intense and irrepressible rhythm and energy, with chalky, bold lines and hazy, otherworldly washes of colour applied with speed and urgency to the canvas.