Nourishing

REFLECTIONS OF RESILIENCE

Courtney Bae

LONDON EXHIBITION

Tuesday 1 - Friday 11 September 2026

This September, Sworders’ London Gallery is honoured to present Nourishing: Reflections of Resilience, a selling exhibition by contemporary artist Courtney Bae.

Bae gained national recognition as a semi-finalist on Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year in 2025. She has held solo exhibitions at Bermondsey Project Space, London, and Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, while her work has also been exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery, The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York.

Bringing together a powerful collection of portraits and landscapes, Nourishing explores the complexities of eating disorders, recovery and human resilience. Through bold brushwork and expressive line, Bae transforms Sworders’ London Gallery into a space for empathy, awareness and reflection.

The exhibition features sitters with lived experience and has been developed in partnership with SWEDA, a charity supporting those affected by eating disorders across the South and West of England. In support of the charity’s essential counselling and guidance services, 20% of the proceeds from every work sold in the exhibition will be donated directly to SWEDA.

Bae uses portraiture and landscape as a means of care, connection and understanding. Her relationship with the subject matter is deeply personal, informed by a long-standing close relationship with a loved one living with an eating disorder. As a result, her work reflects not only the challenges faced by those on the journey to recovery, but also the emotional impact on the relationships that surround them.

Nourishing: Reflections of Resilience looks beneath the surface of lived experience, acknowledging vulnerability, shame and quiet internal battles, while also presenting these moments as catalysts for growth. Through this sensitive and deeply human body of work, Bae seeks to dismantle stigma, raise awareness and offer a message of hope.

AN EVENING IN CONVERSATION

Join us for a private evening viewing of the exhibition, featuring a special panel discussion with Courtney Bae, as well as art critic, writer, speaker, curator and podcaster Tabish Khan, and writer, editor and curator Anna McNay (#thecriticwiththedog).

Thursday 10 September | 6.30-8.30pm

Tabish Khan

@londonartcritic

Tabish Khan is an art critic, writer, speaker, podcaster and curator dedicated to making art accessible to all. He writes regularly for Londonist and FAD, and has contributed to Artsy, Elephant and the New York Observer.

He is co-host of The Good, The Bad and The Arty podcast, has judged numerous art prizes, and is a trustee of City & Guilds London Art School and Discerning Eye.

Anna McNay

@annamcnay #TheCriticWithTheDog

Anna McNay is a writer, editor and international curator, contributing regularly to art and photography publications including Studio International, Art Quarterly and The Flux Review.

She lectures, hosts panels and in-conversation events, and has a particular interest in representations of the body, gender and sexuality, mental health, chronic illness, and the role of art in therapy and medicine.

Courtney Jinsook Bae

b.1986

A Korean-American artist, born in Australia and based in London. Bae paints in oil, depicting raw and expressive portraits and landscapes. She is drawn to the relationship between traumas and resilience, exploring identity formation and human purpose. Bae uses her painting as an impetus for cultural movement.

Bae paints with fluid strokes, contrasted against whimsical marksmanship. Her artistic practice is defined by a balance between reality and an internal dialogue which is linked to visceral experiences and emotions.

Bae graduated with a BA in Graphic Design from Southern New Hampshire University in New York in 2015. She gained national recognition in the UK when she was featured as a Semi-finalist on the national television series, Sky Portrait Artist of the Year in 2025. Bae has held solo exhibitions in at the Bermondsey Project Space, London and the Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn. Her work has featured at the Saatchi Gallery, The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York.