An International Contemporary Art Exhibition: For a Little While

For a Little While For a Little While is a juried international contemporary art exhibition presented by ArtOrb and curated by Xin Liu, bringing together 17 selected artists whose practices explore the fleeting nature of human experience. Taking place at Apsara Studio Gallery, London, UK, from 18–20 September 2026, the exhibition considers how people, spaces, emotions, relationships, and moments can be temporary, yet leave lasting traces in memory and perception. Through painting, photography, illustration, moving image, sculpture, and interdisciplinary practices, the exhibition brings together diverse perspectives on impermanence, time, presence, and transformation. The ephemeral is the most natural form of life. We often associate value with what endures. What remains is preserved, documented, and remembered, while what disappears can be easily overlooked. Yet human experience is inherently transient. We are constantly arriving and leaving, forming attachments and learning to let go. A moment may last only seconds, a relationship only part of a lifetime, and a familiar space may acquire an entirely different meaning through memory. For a Little While begins with this condition of impermanence and asks what it means to give attention to things whose significance lies precisely in their inability to remain. As a juried exhibition presented by ArtOrb, the selection brings together artists from different cultural and artistic backgrounds whose works engage with the theme through distinct perspectives and visual languages. Rather than presenting a single interpretation of the ephemeral, the exhibition creates a dialogue between practices that examine time, memory, presence, absence, embodiment, and change in different ways. The works are brought into conversation not simply through subject matter, but through the ways in which each medium allows artists to approach experiences that are difficult to hold, define, or preserve. Art has always maintained an intimate relationship with the ephemeral. A painting can retain the residue of a passing perception. A photograph can suspend a moment that has already disappeared. Sculpture places body and material within a shared duration, while moving image makes transformation inseparable from time itself. Across these different forms, the exhibition reflects on a shared reality: time cannot be possessed or stopped. It can only be encountered as it moves through bodies, materials, spaces, and memory. Rather than treating impermanence as loss, For a Little While considers transience as an essential condition of being alive. The fact that something will pass does not necessarily diminish its value; it can instead sharpen our attention to its presence. The exhibition invites viewers to slow down and encounter what exists only temporarily—not to preserve it indefinitely, but to recognise its significance while it is here. Presented by: ArtOrb Curated by: Xin Liu Artists: Bingge Liu · Brea Freeburn · Chao Liu · Chenyu Wang · Ember Wanbo Li · HAO JIANG · Hengtai Zhang · Lauren Royall · Jiangyu Huang · Mathew Duan · Mingzhu Wu · Muyao Li · Nare Joo · Xiaoming Ai · Yue Wu · Yun Wen · Zimeng Zhang Exhibition Dates: 18–20 September 2026 Location: Apsara Studio Gallery, London, UK