Still from the performance Into Air by Alex Mills, presented on the occasion of the exhibition Into Air by Dawn Ng, curated by Jenn Ellis, 2023, Saint Ciprian’s Church

‘Look How Brightly’ is a bold interdisciplinary exhibition co-curated by composer Alex Mills and curator Jenn Ellis. Conceived as a listening and viewing space, using music as a starting point for a multisensory experience with contemporary art, it takes its name from the new album by acclaimed London-based composer and artist Alex Mills, which showcases his output from the last decade. Presented by Apsara Studio and Hypha Studios with support from the Arts Council England, Better Bankside and Marchus Trust, the exhibition marks the launch of the seminal album and places audiences at the core of the musical and emotional journey that Mills takes us on. Overlapping with London Gallery Weekend, the exhibition stands uniquely as a distinct viewing, listening and discovering moment.

The exhibition invites together artists who are thinking about identity, existence, cyclicality, absence and presence. ‘Look How Brightly’ responds to the bodily, as well as the site’s raw interiors and own ‘emptiness’ that we are filling or inhabiting. Set across three chapters, it unpacks and investigates themes of sanctuary and surrender, conflict and fragmentation, spiritual expansion and integration. The exhibition is accompanied by a dedicated listening and programming room.

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Jenn Ellis FRSA is a curator and founder from Switzerland, Colombia and the UK based in London following half a decade in Hong Kong. Passionate about the considered meeting of art, space and context, she has created meaningful projects and connections between artists, institutions and galleries globally. As the founder of curatorial studio and project space APSARA, she has collaborated with international institutions, galleries, residencies and foundations including Tate, Michelangelo Foundation, Xenia, the Swiss Cultural Fund and Frieze. In 2024-2025, Ellis was appointed the Frieze x Breguet curator and commissioned projects responding to ‘time’ in Seoul, London and New York. Ellis is equally the co-founder and co-curator of TERRA, a monumental exhibition across the UNESCO heritage vineyards in Burgundy, and the co-founder of acclaimed platform AORA, which combines art, architecture and music to instill a sense of calm and wellbeing. 

Ellis’ projects have gained critical recognition in publications such as Art Newspaper, Artforum, Frieze, CN Traveller, BBC, Evening Standard. Ellis guest lectures at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, is a Tate Young Patrons Ambassador and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Ellis hold a Law Degree from King’s College London and a History of Art Degree from the University of Cambridge.

Alex Mills is a Welsh composer based in London, working across opera, choral, orchestral, chamber, film, and art installations. The Guardian has described his work as “music of supernatural poignancy, melodic but otherworldly, narratively urgent but poetically impressionistic.” He is interested in creating work that engages audiences with important societal issues. His acclaimed opera Dear Marie Stopes—created in partnership with the Wellcome Collection—explores attitudes to sexuality, contraception, and bodily freedom, and was hailed as “a first-rate addition to the catalogue of one-act operas” by The Stage. He is also interested in writing music that encourages deeper connections with ourselves and what it means to be human, such as his body of work in which musicians create meditations for audiences by moving through the music to the rhythm of their own breath.

His music has been performed at leading venues and festivals around the world, including the Barbican, Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, the National Gallery, Melbourne Recital Hall, and Tokyo Opera City, and has been broadcast widely on BBC Radio 3 and 4. His debut album, featuring a decade of his chamber music, will be released on Delphian Records in May 2026.