Gallery Talk: Govinda Sah 'Azad' in Conversation with Katie Hill

Join Govinda Sah ‘Azad’ in discussion with Dr. Katie Hill, Academic Lead Asia and Senior Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, on the occasion of his solo exhibition at October Gallery.

This exhibition highlights Sah’s latest large-scale oil and acrylic paintings on canvas and presents selected smaller scale works. Journey to the Heart of Light weaves together the artist’s personal journeys through both inner and outer realms. Beginning his artistic career in the Himalayan mountains close to where he was born, Sah first moved to London to study at Wimbledon College of Arts, before moving from London to Margate, where he recently opened a purpose-built studio.

The conversation will examine Sah’s creative process and unpack the influence of the different environments that the artist has lived in upon his artistic progress.

The talk takes place on the gallery’s ground floor and has disabled access.

About Govinda Sah 'Azad'

Govinda Sah ‘Azad’ (Born in 1974, in Rajbiraj, Nepal. Lives and works in Margate, UK) joined the MA Fine Art course in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2006, but soon thereafter acquired sponsorship and moved to London to study. Govinda obtained a MA in Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Art in 2008.

His first solo exhibition at October Gallery, Transcriptions, was held in 2011. In 2012 his work was included in the Summer Exhibition at Royal Academy of Arts, London. In 2013 October Gallery held his second solo show Lightness of Being and Tibet House, New York, USA presented the solo exhibition, The Universe Within. Boundless Possibilities (2016) was his third exhibition, followed by a fourth solo exhibition, Absence Presence (2022-2023) at October Gallery. In 2024, Sah presented a solo exhibition during the Infinity Festival at ARK, Margate, UK followed by the duo exhibition Govinda Sah 'Azad' + Judy Tuwaletstiwa: Boundless at Pie Projects, Santa Fe, USA. The artist’s work was included in Turner and Changing Visions of Landscape, at Norwich Castle Museums, Norwich, UK, 2024 – 2025. Govinda Sah’s works can be found in private collections worldwide.

About Dr. Katie Hill

Katie Hill is the Academic Lead, Asia and Senior Lecturer on the MA in Art Business at Sotheby's Institute of Art, London. She is a curator and writer specialising in contemporary art from the People's Republic of China and the Chinese diaspora. She recently curated Strange Wonders, an exhibition of contemporary Chinese ink painting held at SOAS Gallery, London (Oct - Dec, 2024), which included a specially commissioned performance Silent Ink by Echo Morgan (Xie Rong) with musicians Beibei Wang and Dr Cheng Yu. Her research spans visual modernity and cultural hybridity in the Asian context, postcolonialism and the complexity of representation of artists from the global Asian diaspora. Hill is founder/director of the Office of Contemporary Chinese Art OCCA, an arts consultancy based in Oxfordshire. She has worked with numerous artists, collaborating as a curator, writer and speaker with organisations and galleries including the Hayward Gallery, Pearl Lam Gallery, Asia House, Pace Gallery and Lisson Gallery. She is a trustee of the LYC Foundation, promoting and preserving the legacy of Li Yuan-Chia (1929-1994) and a curatorial partner and academic advisor for 3812 Gallery, London and Hong Kong.

Image: Govinda Sah 'Azad': Incandescence, (Detail), 2025. Acrylic on canvas,
180 x 140 cm. © Govinda Sah ‘Azad’. Courtesy the Artist and October Gallery, London. Photo © Jonthan Greet.

Image: Govinda Sah in Margate. Photo © Janie Airey, 2022.