Recapping Materiality Live: An art & music event
On 22 and 23 September 2026, music became something audiences could not only hear, but see.
Across two intimate evenings at The Handbag Factory in Vauxhall, No Place Art presented Materiality Live in collaboration with Markson Pianos: a meeting of live piano performance and painting, featuring four distinctive musicians and multidisciplinary artist Jake Andrew.
The performances formed part of No Place Art’s Edition Two: Materiality, an exhibition bringing together 90+ contemporary artists working across painting, printmaking, sculpture and mixed media. Its exploration of materials, creative processes and the physical act of making provided a fitting setting for two evenings devoted to artistic exchange.
Night 1: Teodor Doré & Jay Verma
Teodor Doré opened with the atmospheric Les Reflets dorés, as Jake Andrew laid down long, flowing blue strokes before introducing yellows and a broader spectrum of colour. The set included a personal tribute to Teodor’s grandfather and selections from Portraits of Cities, an album inspired by the sounds and musical traditions of cities he visited. Teodor discussed the inspiration behind the album in our recent Keys to Life interview.
During The Sun over the Bosphorus, Jake switched to a smaller brush, his movements echoing the music’s intricate rhythms, before adding lighter details during Spring in Barcelona. By the end of Teodor’s set, long bands of blue and pale colour remained prominent through the centre of the canvas. Framed by darker, textured marks, they gave the painting a light, open, flowing quality.
Jay Verma followed Teodor’s contemporary classical set with jazz improvisation, bringing a contrasting style that moved between energetic and more relaxed passages.
What made the exchange particularly fascinating was that both Jake and Jay have synaesthesia. Jay frequently turned towards the canvas, drawing inspiration from Jake’s painting as Jake, in turn, responded to his music — a unique two-way conversation between the two artists and their art forms.
During Jay’s set, the painting became fuller, more turbulent, and more densely layered, with stronger pinks and darker accents building around the pale centre.
For the finale, Jay invited fellow pianist Karim Kamar to suggest notes for an improvisation. Karim began with B-flat and F, a harmonious pairing. “You don’t have to be nice,” Jay joked, inviting something more challenging. Karim added C-sharp and G, introducing some harmonic tension for Jay to play with. From those four notes, Jay created an improvised finale that moved between lyrical passages and moments of dissonance and suspense.
Night 2: Karim Kamar & Camden Stewart
Materiality Live returned the following evening with performances from London-based pianists and composers Karim Kamar and Camden Stewart. This time, the evening unfolded through a fluid exchange between the musicians, who swapped places at the piano and moved between solo performances and spontaneous duets.
Karim opened with a sunny, sentimental piece in his signature romantic minimalist style, as Jake Andrew began painting in warm oranges and reds. During a more energetic number, Camden joined Karim at the piano, standing beside him to play.
Camden then took his seat for the haunting, evocative Lost, with Karim now standing to join him at the keys. The exchange continued as Karim took over the piano and Camden began singing opera, before returning to the keyboard himself.
With the first painting complete, Jake unexpectedly asked for another canvas, beginning a second work to Karim’s peaceful, cinematic playing.
Karim followed with a slow, romantic piece dedicated to his wife, before shifting the mood with Under the Circus Tent, set on a circus’s opening night. His upbeat, playful music prompted Jake to work quickly with contrasting bright pinks and blues, capturing something of the spectacle and chaos of the scene. Camden later returned to the piano, singing opera while playing, as Jake added finer details.
The two finished canvases offered their own contrast: the first fluid and sweeping, the second bolder and more sharply divided.
One piano, four musical voices
At the centre of both evenings was a Steingraeber & Söhne B-192 grand piano, supplied by Markson Pianos.
Handcrafted in Bayreuth, Germany, the B-192 is a 192cm salon grand designed to offer the depth and power of a considerably larger instrument. Its unusually long bass strings create a rich lower register, while its responsive action and tonal clarity allow subtle differences in touch to come through.
That versatility made it particularly suited to Materiality Live. Across the two evenings, the same instrument became the voice of four very different musicians, moving between delicate textures, expansive harmonies, contemporary composition, and song.
Celebrating creative collaboration
Materiality Live demonstrated what can happen when boundaries between art forms are removed. Visitors were not simply presented with a completed painting or a conventional recital. They witnessed creative decisions being made in the moment, surrounded by the work of dozens of other artists.
We were delighted to collaborate with No Place Art, Saltu Studio, Daler-Rowney, Renaissance-21, and Off the Page to help bring these performances to life.
Thank you to Teodor Doré, Jay Verma, Karim Kamar, Camden Stewart and Jake Andrew; to the No Place Art team; and to everyone who joined us at The Handbag Factory.
To find out more about the instruments we supply for performances, exhibitions and special occasions, explore our piano event hire service.
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