Immaterial Gelatine: Amélie McKee, Li Li Ren and Marieke Bernard-Berkel

About

'Immaterial Gelatine' brings together three bodies of work that intentionally deviate from the traditional principle that form follows function, prioritising aesthetics, symbolism, or expression over strict functionality. McKee and Ren utilise ambiguity and the language of functional design, while Bernard-Berkel looks to overabundance of both colourways and material surface to exact a wrongness in the subject. Their practices encompass the reimagining of a past, pseudoscientific invention, the obfuscation of the traditional relationship between viewer and landscape painting, and the recontextualisation of components of machinery to suggest novel applications and divine inspirations. The artworks are replete with gestures towards ritualistic human behaviours, meaning-making and objects of spiritual use, human versus nonhuman impact and design, and obsession with wellbeing or conspiracy theories. These concepts, having guided these objects into existence, entangle in the space, allowing imagination to inhabit them and pointing to the complex dichotomy of objecthood.

–

Marieke Bernard-Berkel (b. 1988, Laon, France) is a French-German artist living and working in Paris. She received her MA Fine Art from Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2013. Solo exhibitions include All the world's a stage (2024) and Preludes (2024), both at Sherbet Green, London. Group exhibitions include PRÉSENTATIONS, Radicants, Paris (2022), Cloud Point, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Paradise Row, London (2022) and Nils Alix-Tabeling: Maison Catabase, PUBLIC Gallery, London (2022).

Amélie Mckee (b.1996, France) is a visual artist based in London. Her practice spans installations, singular objects, and collaborative curatorial projects, with a focus on the conditions set by industrial infrastructures. She co-runs Plicnik Space Initiative, in London, with Melle Nieling. Her recent projects include Good Eye Projects Spring residency, London (2025); LOG 3: Interceptor, Plicnik Space Initiative, London (2024); Post Fascism, Loods6, Amsterdam (2024); Scrap Yard Screenings, Sara’s Worldwide, New York (2023); The Amazing Sex Show, inter.pblc, Copenhagen (2023); and Eternal Maze Residency, Petrohradská Kolektiv, Prague (2023). She holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from The Royal College of Art, London (2021) and a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, London (2018).

Li Li Ren (b. 1986, Heilongjiang Province, China) lives and works in London, where she gained her BA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, in 2010, and her MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2017. ​Solo exhibitions include: The World Forgetting, by the World Forgot, Sherbet Green, London (2024); Sunset as Burning Bruise, Magician Space, Beijing (2022) and Frantumaglia, Qimu Space, Beijing (2021). Group exhibitions include: Ennova Art Biennale, Ennova Art Museum, Hebei (2024-2025); Art-o-rama, Marseille (2024); Art Basel Hong Kong (2024); The Flow of Art and Value, MOCA Yichuan (2024); Embodied Rituals, Times Museum, Guangdong (2024); Oddkin: Beast, Body, Biome, Cob Gallery, London (2024); ANTIDOTE, Informality Gallery, London (2024); Frieze Sculpture, London (2023); Home is where the haunt is, X Museum, Beijing (2023); Sculptural vibe cutting through (in) accessible sites, Gravity Art Museum, Beijing (2023); Into My Arms, Sherbet Green, London (2023); We Borrow Dreams from Others, Like Debt, MadeIn Art Museum, Shanghai (2022- 2023); Memorias del subdesarrollo, Qimu Space, Beijing (2021); In/Out, Guardian Art Center, Beijing (2020); Silence in Violence, Spectrum Art Space, Shanghai (2018); and Camden Arts Centre, London (2017).