There are places we move through without thinking. Corridors, stairwells, windows, thresholds. The quiet in‑betweens that hold no destination, only transition. For Birmingham‑based artist and art psychotherapist Anita Roye, these spaces are anything but empty, they are charged, emotional, and alive with possibility.

Liminal Spaces is Anita’s largest and most ambitious body of work to date, and we are proud to present it in full at Seventh Circle. This collection was born, in part, from Anita’s early visits to our gallery while it was still being built. Her first encounter was quiet and observational; she photographed the raw corridors and stairwells, drawn to their stillness. When she returned, the space had transformed — larger, brighter, full of unexpected pockets and turns. “Every turn felt like a new discovery,” she wrote. That sense of transition, of becoming, sits at the heart of this exhibition.

Anita’s practice is rooted in emotional truth. Her canvases are textured, spontaneous, and deeply personal metaphors for destruction, repair, and self‑discovery. Paint becomes skin. Surface becomes memory. Her dual role as artist and art psychotherapist brings a rare depth to the work: “In therapy… it is the in‑between spaces, the spaces without words where change really occurs.”

Rather than smoothing over chaos, Anita strips back. She begins with energetic gestures, then waits sometimes hours, sometimes months. The second stage is one of elimination, not addition. “I eliminate the unnecessary, allowing the necessary to speak.” The result is a collection that resonates with the emotional residue of childhood, the labour of healing, and the quiet reckoning of age. Influences from Rothko, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler and Joan Mitchell echo through the work, but Anita’s voice is unmistakably her own.

Liminal Spaces is not simply a series of paintings. It is an invitation to pause, to reflect, to step into the thresholds that shape us. These works are meant to be experienced up close to see the texture, the colour shifts, the layers of gesture and erasure. To feel the space between what is held and what is released.

We are honoured to show this collection as it was meant to be seen: together, in one place, in all its emotional and material richness.

EVENT

Digbeth First Friday - Meet the Artist

Friday 6 March, 6–9pm

Join us for a relaxed late‑night opening where you can meet Anita, explore the work, and spend time with the paintings in an unhurried, intimate setting. Everyone is welcome.

Check out the full collection and then come see it in person! We all know that nothing compares to standing in front of an artwork and experiencing the texture, the scale, and the touch of the artist’s hand.