Liminal Gallery is pleased to present Fragma, a solo exhibition by Natalka Liber, taking place in The Cupboard. As the artist's time in Thanet draws to a close and she prepares to return to London, this new work marks a moment of resolution and emergence. The exhibition’s title, derived from the Greek word for an internal barrier, speaks to the complex psychological terrain navigated by the artist in recent years. Her move to Thanet, Kent, was marked by a prolonged and invisible struggle to access healthcare and chase diagnosis in order to reclaim a sense of self.
The intimate installation centres on a single, commanding sculpture: a double-faced head, adorned with feathers, leaves and ether, which acts as a totem of a personal mythology. It nods to folk and classical deities, and resonates with the artist’s cultural lineage. While not explicitly autobiographical, Fragma is informed by the artist’s identity within her Ukrainian and English heritages, and the psychic weight of inherited dislocation; generational and fresh traumas (and triumphs) have shaped and ultimately distorted the artist’s inner landscape.
The two faces of the sculpture, human and otherworldly, exist in tension and reflect the duality of her journey: one is serene, decorated, but boundaried; the other wild, joyous, and foolish. Together they embody a spiritual and emotional metamorphosis, shaped by pain but propelled by fierce determination. The work invites reflection on the contradictions that shape us, between strength and softness, memory and fantasy, concealment and revelation.
Feathers, a recurring symbol in the artist’s practice, evoke themes of transcendence and healing, while the sculpture’s base, ringed with hand-dyed sand collected from the Thanet coastline, references the layered rituals of memory and place. The vibrant material also calls to mind the nostalgic charm of childhood seaside souvenirs, subtly anchoring the work within its local context while pointing to broader questions of belonging.
This sense of contradiction, between sacred and frivolous, ancestral and invented, is central to Fragma. Part spiritual relic, part kitsch artefact. ‘Fragma’ offers a quiet monument to internal change, cultural & generational inheritance and ownership, and the shifting persistence of spiritual resilience.