Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin and Élise Legal

Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin and Élise Legal  

DUO SHOW 4 

Private View - Friday 4th September, 6pm 

Exhibition:  5th – 19th September 2026    

EUCA Annex is proud to present new works by Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin and Élise Legal in the fourth of a series of two-person shows.

Moving between the poetic and the political, two practices which have emerged in distinct contexts converge in a shared exploration of anti-capitalist and postcolonial systems, bringing forth the seen, the unseen and the hidden. 

Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin reflects on transatlantic movement of energy and material. Reimagined and recontextualised ceiling fans speak to cultural preservation and resilience. Seeds, once smuggled, are concealed within the bodies of the sculptures. Her work converses with palms planted in London as sites of memorialisation and adaptation to the changing climate in the UK.

In tandem, Élise Legal presents two text-based works drawing on the archives of Lloyds Bank in London, with an interest in the circulation of language and capital. Her work pulls from the poem ‘Dream Vendor’, published in the bank’s Dark Horse staff magazine (1922-23). She interrogates the power of language in influencing political decisions and the supposed role of poetry today.

Ocean Baulcombe-Toppin is a London-based multidisciplinary artist centering slow praxis. Her work engages connectivity, temporality, ecology and memory through a lens of Afro-Caribbean diasporic identity. Via coded forms of communication, she works across installation, print, language, light and nuanced interactions. Consciously collecting and assembling, she works with the poetics of placing, staging and site. Ocean has exhibited her work at Metroland Cultures as part of the Brent Biennial, London; Sainsbury Centre, Norwich; Chapter, Cardiff; NEVEN, London; G31, Somerset House, London; South London Gallery and presented events in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery and Cell Project Space. In 2027 she is the Magnetic Laureate at Bétonsalon, Paris and Fluxus Art Projects.

Élise Legal is an artist and writer based in Nantes. Through a multidisciplinary approach that blends found images, drawing and poetry, she pays particular attention to the way in which language and bodies coexist. She is especially interested in poetry’s capacity to produce political effects, both through the images it conveys (such as the figure of the ‘poète maudit’) and through its friction with administrative, managerial or political languages. Élise is currently engaged in a research-creation PhD at Paris 8 University, and her texts have been published by Burn~Août, Même pas l’hiver and Ma Bibliothèque. Her work has recently been exhibited at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Fondation Pernod-Ricard, Paris; La Ferme du Buisson Art Center, Noisiel and Galerie GB Agency, Paris. 

About the Duo Show series 

This curatorial programme invites a creative dialogue between pairs of artists, an evolving process of overlapping exhibitions will see EUCA Annex’s Britannia Row space transformed. 

The programme's ambitious sequential structure reimagines the conditions of display and how practice is performed in exhibitionary contexts, with others (co-exhibitors), and through material encounters; objects, structure and technology. The series will include a wide range of artists with different practices and approaches to the production and display of art, each pairing will both encounter and leave traces of their presence as the chain of exhibitions extends throughout 2026

About EUCA Annex

Euca Annex is a site for contemporary art production and cross-disciplinary research, it provides a platform to foster dialogues between emerging and established artists, to offer more agile and commutable forms of address, through public discourse and site sensitive dissemination. EUCA Annex recently moved from a purpose built space to a new home in Britannia Row, Islington. EA is in partnership with The Florence Trust.

Curated by Ben Fitton & TC McCormack

With support from The Florence Trust, UAL and ADMRC (SHU)

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EUCA Annex 

Britannia Row, 35a Britannia Row, London N1 8QH    

Open: Thursday to Saturday 12-6pm *or by appointment 

info@eucaannex.com / www.eucaannex.com / @euca.annex