Join us for a conversation over a cup of hibiscus tea and an opportunity to pay deeper attention to human-plant relationships. It is an invitation to draw out the hedonistic and the pleasurable, aesthetic and physical personal histories with plants, borrowing the session format from colloquial herbalist practices. 

Book on to one of two afternoon sessions, either 2–3:15pm or 3:30–4:45pm. These will be held on Zoom and a package of tea will be sent out for you to use in the session.* There will be a maximum of six participants in each session. 

This event is priced on a sliding scale in order to make it more accessible. Please give what you can to support the artist and the gallery's public programme.

A link for the workshop will be sent to participants prior to the event.

Inspired by Matthew Beach's exhibition The Herbarium's Shadow which will open online from 3 April with a small series of virtual events and then will open physically at San Mei Gallery to the public from 15 April.

*If you are outside of the UK, please contact us at intern@sanmeigallery.co.uk as you may have to pay additional shipping costs. Please also be aware that international shipping times vary and whilst we will try our best, we cannot guarantee you will receive your package in time. Please allow up to10 working days for your package to get to you. You can also email us for tea alternatives to use in the session if you do not receive yours on time.

About Olha Pryymak

Olha Pryymak’s work is driven by curiosity in plant-human relationships, using both oil paint and participatory performance as a tool to think through them. Painting allows for paying undivided attention to what is deemed important: the emotional flavour of lived experiences with the plants, on the way that the plants make you feel, savouring each brushstroke as a point of meditation on this interdependent relationship. These experiences usually stem from the performative side of Olha’s practice – staged encounters with plants in the form of participatory tea sessions – part Ukrainian peasant healer seance, part tea ceremony, rooted in her heritage of Ukrainian folk herbalism.

Olha’s work has been shown across the UK at the National Portrait Gallery, Lewisham Arthouse, Arthouse1, Transition and Alice Herrick gallery, as well as included in shows in the US, Italy and Japan. Follow Olha on Instagram or visit their website to find out more.