What happens to an artwork when the artist is no longer its sole creator? Can a portrait emerge from interactions between complete strangers? These are the questions at the heart of Shared Portraits.

For five hours, Arc Space will be transformed into an open art laboratory. Visitors will have the opportunity to take on several roles: observer, sitter and artist. Participants will be able to pose, watch others at work and add their own marks to portraits that already bear traces of previous encounters.

Katya Tsareva will work alongside visitors, responding to their creative decisions and allowing the images to develop in unexpected ways. Gradually, different faces, gestures, perspectives and emotions will become intertwined within each portrait. The resulting artworks will no longer be attributable to a single creator.

The central idea of the project is to turn portrait-making into a living dialogue between artist and audience, in which everyone has the opportunity to influence the final outcome.

Katya Tsareva is a London-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, textile installations and object-based art. Her work explores the human body, perception and the emotional connections that emerge between people. Her recent practice has focused particularly on large-scale watercolours and textile installations, in which recognisable human figures gradually shift towards abstraction.

Shared Portraits takes these explorations beyond the traditional artist’s studio. Rather than simply examining how we perceive another person, the project gives those being portrayed the opportunity to participate directly in creating their own image.

The event marks the launch of Creative Lab, a new series initiated by the independent artist-led platform Rabbits’ Choice. Its aim is to create opportunities for artistic experimentation and collaboration between artists, practitioners from different disciplines and audiences.

“We are interested in what happens when an artist opens up their practice to something they cannot completely control,” says Maria Cohen, Founder of Rabbits’ Choice. “The Creative Labs are not about participation for its own sake. They are about creating the conditions for an encounter to change the work and potentially change the artist’s practice along with it.”

Shared Portraits invites audiences to experience art as a process of communication, mutual influence and shared discovery. By the end of the day, the portraits will become visual records of encounters between people who may never have met before, carrying traces of everyone who contributed to their creation.

Shared Portraits

Date: Saturday, 7 November 2026

Time: 12:00–17:00

Venue: Arc Space

Address: 13 Tottenham Mews, London W1T 4AQ, UK

Tickets and registration: Eventbrite

https://www.rabbitschoicestudio.com/event-list

Instagram: @rabbits_choice, @katyatsareva_artist