Bodies That Draw with Studio Lenca
Somerset House invites Studio Lenca to present Bodies That Draw, an innovative drawing workshop developed in response to Wayne McGregor: Infinite Bodies. In this participatory workshop, Studio Lenca expands on McGregor’s exploration of choreography, the body, and movement by transforming drawing into an embodied act.
| Dates | Tue 3 Feb 2026 |
| Times | 6.30–8.30pm |
| Space | Studio Gallery Embankment Galleries |
| Price | £9/£8 concessions |
We will design and build custom tools that extend from our bodies, turning ourselves into instruments of mark-making. Guided by a collectively devised improvisational dance score inspired by McGregor’s practice, we’ll explore drawing rooted in a deeply embodied perspective rooted in kinaesthetic empathy.
Bodies That Draw invites you to release fixed expectations and immerse yourself in the shared experience of movement and creation. Together, we will explore how drawing can arise from motion, presence, and collective energy. Centring process over product, the workshop becomes a celebration of solidarity, spontaneity, and the traces we leave behind.
We have set aside a limited number of subsidised tickets for those who cannot afford our ticket prices. If there's also anything you require to help make this workshop more accessible for you and your family (eg. BSL interpreter, visual step by step guide etc.) please let us know by emailing visitor@somersethouse.org.uk or calling +44 (0)333 320 2836.
About Studio Lenca
Born La Paz, El Salvador, 1985
Studio Lenca’s practice explores dominant narratives surrounding identity, migration, and belonging. The name encapsulates two core pillars: Studio, a space for experimentation, praxis and community and Lenca, a reference to the Indigenous people of eastern El Salvador. This connection reflects the artist’s own displaced, mixed Indigenous identity and informs his exploration of hybridity and cultural resilience.
Drawing from biographical anecdotes and personal reflections, Studio Lenca recalibrates visual cues to reclaim autonomy over a fragmented and often erased history.
“I paint the same figure my work as a way of reclaiming a fragmented past. As someone of mixed Indigenous heritage, I know little about my family history. Growing up undocumented and queer, my sense of identity was layered with invisibility and erasure. The repeated figure is a stand-in for myself, my family, and my community. This person is moving through different environments, asserting presence wearing vibrant colours and hats. The character becomes a visual anchor, exploring belonging, survival and transformation.”
— Studio Lenca, 2025
Foregrounding joy and belonging as radical acts, Studio Lenca’s work offers counter narratives that centre lived experience and ancestral knowledge.
Header image: Parrish Art Museum, 2023