In the Pipeline

This section presents a single artwork by the artist/artists whose exhibition is next in the program. It is a space directed by the artist, selected to reveal particulars of their current practice or potentials for the future whilst providing essential context ahead of an exhibition.

Zachary Merle
‘Traces of a gaze VI’, 2025 (online only)

Zachary Merle
‘Traces of a gaze VI’, 2025
Pigment transfer on fabric with artist made frame
63.5 x 32 cm

‘Traces of a gaze VI’ by Zachary Merle is presented in advance of Headcanon, as an introduction to the upcoming group exhibition’s central concerns. Headcanon brings together four artists who approach repetition as an act of revision. The title comes from fan culture, it describes a personal version of a story, one which might differ from the original version. Merle’s practice demonstrates how the process of repetition can destabilise as well as preserve.

Living with epilepsy has produced false and unreliable memories for Merle. His work is not concerned with preserving the past, but with exposing the cracks where identity slips away. Part of an ongoing series, ‘Traces of a gaze VI’ begins with a family archival photograph. A fragment is isolated from its original narrative and context, and through a pigment transfer process the image is manually reworked. The repetition involved in transferring and handling the image does not clarify it, instead it exposes its fragility.

By remaking a memory through a slow, manual process, Merle introduces central themes in ‘Headcanon’ relating to time, labour, and obsession. The upcoming exhibition looks at repetition as a double-edged method, one that invites both trust and doubt. Repetition can be rhythmic and absorbing, but it can also become compulsive, wearing something down through insistence rather than restoring it. 

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Zachary Merle (b.1997) lives and works in London. He completed his BA in Graphic Communication at Bath Spa University (2020), followed by an artist residency at Emerge, Bath (2021–2023). In 2025 he was the recipient of Palmer Gallery Studios online program as well as being a listed artist on Contemporary Arts Society’s On Our Radar Autumn 2025 edition. Selected group shows and fairs include: All That’s Left Behind (duo), The Florence Trust, London (current); Cardboard House, Palmer Gallery, London (upcoming); August Sundays (Online) Pipeline, London (2025); Minor Attractions Art Fair, Season 4 Episode 6, London (2025); Paradoxical Field: Prelude I, Purist Gallery, London (2025); Only Shallow, Lee Scully x TwoPlusTwo, London (2025); Full Disclosure, D Contemporary, London (2025). Merle’s work is featured in Artists (2023), a publication by Brynley Odu Davies in collaboration with Guts Gallery. 

Headcanon

16 April - 23 May, 2026

Anais Comer
Esther Gamsu
Anna Pederson
Zachary Merle