Events
Event
Previews
Exhibition Preview: Thresholds of Becoming
from
20
February
2026
18:00 - 20:00
2026-02-20
Join us for the preview of 'Thresholds of Becoming', featuring works by Nicole Coson, Xin Liu, Charmaine Poh, Minoru Nomata, Yang Yongliang, and Yin Aiwen.
Event
Guided tours
Saturday Guided Tour: Thresholds of Becoming
from
28
February
2026
until
25
April
2026
14:00–14:30
2026-02-28
2026-04-25
Every last Saturday of the month, join a staff member in the Gallery for a free guided tour of 'Thresholds of Becoming.'
Event
Music
Performances
Workshops
Sounding the Northwest: Folk Music, Poetry, and Migration
from
4
March
2026
18:00–20:00
2026-03-04
Join us for a workshop-led performance with BuYi Band that explores how music carries memory, place, and lived experience.
Event
Screenings
Sine Screen Presents: ‘Whose Homeland’
from
7
March
2026
13:00–17:15
2026-03-07
Across two screening programmes featuring films by So Yo-hen, Erika Tan, Richard Fung, and Fiona Tan, 'Whose Homeland' considers migration, labour, and return as lived, embodied processes rather than fixed narratives.
Event
Workshops
The Work of Becoming: the individual and the collective
from
15
March
2026
14:00–16:00
2026-03-15
On the occasion of ‘Thresholds of Becoming’, dr dima mekdad has envisioned this workshop as a shared space for sensing and practising becoming together.
Event
Talks
Data, Meeple, and What Happens When It Happens
from
9
April
2026
18:00 - 19:30
2026-04-09
Join curator and writer Milia Xin Bi's talk on a body of work that explores the material, cultural, and temporal dimensions of data and digital infrastructures.
Event
Workshops
Liquid Dependencies: Guided Game Session
from
16
May
2026
12:00-17:00
2026-05-16
Join us for a guided game session for ‘Liquid Dependencies: What does a decentralised, caring society look like?’
Event
Talks
Yuen Fong Ling: A Changing Appetite – A Reflection on ‘British-Chinese’ Art Making and Curating from the Late 1980s to the Early 2000s
from
6
June
2026
18:30-20:00
2026-06-06
Join us for a talk with artist and curator Yuen Fong Ling, who will reflect on a period of creativity, hybridity, and possibility centred around Manchester, when artists of ESEA heritage were building connections across a widely dispersed and often fragmented artistic community.
Event
Previews
Exhibition Preview: Chris Zhongtian Yuan 'Two Improvisations'
from
12
June
2026
18:00-20:00
2026-06-12
Join us for the preview of 'Chris Zhongtian Yuan: Two Improvisations', the first UK institutional solo exhibition by Chris Zhongtian Yuan.
Event
Music
Hardcore Raver in Tears ft. Lu Yan – UK Debut Performance
from
13
June
2026
20:30 - 22:00
2026-06-13
Join us at SOUP, Manchester, for a live performance by Wuhan-based music band Hardcore Raver in Tears featuring Lu Yan.
Event
Guided tours
Artist-Led Tour: 'Two Improvisations'
from
13
June
2026
14:00–15:00
2026-06-13
Join artist Chris Zhongtian Yuan for a guided tour of ‘Two Improvisations’ — his first UK institutional solo exhibition at esea contemporary.
Event
Guided tours
Saturday Guided Tour: 'Two Improvisations'
from
20
June
2026
until
13
September
2026
14:00–14:30
2026-06-20
2026-09-13
Join a member of the programme team for a free guided tour of Chris Zhongtian Yuan's solo exhibition 'Two Improvisations.'
Event
Screenings
Undead, Unmanned: A Screening of Y7’s 'Undead Internet Theory'
from
25
June
2026
18:00 – 19:30
2026-06-25
Join Y7 and Milia Xin Bi for a screening of ‘Undead Internet Theory’, exploring the eerie conditions of an internet increasingly shaped by non-human agencies, including bots, algorithms, synthetic content, and automated systems.
Event
Talks
esea Talks: Cultivating A.I. Beyond Artificial Intelligence
from
9
July
2026
18:00 – 19:30
2026-07-09
Join Penny Yiou Peng and Milia Xin Bi for an engaging conversation that revisits the concepts of intelligence (zhìnéng, 智能) and wisdom (zhìhuì, 智慧), exploring how these ideas are understood, challenged, and reimagined in contemporary artistic and cultural contexts.
Event
Screenings
Screening and Conversation with Nakrob Moonmanas and Alex Ungprateeb Flynn: 'Thailand and the Making of Modernity'
from
17
July
2026
18:00-21:00
2026-07-17
Join us for 'Thailand and the Making of Modernity,' a screening and conversation event presented in dialogue with Nakrob Moonmanas's exhibition 'รูปสุวรรณศิวิไลซ์: Metamorphosis in Gold,' curated by Alex Ungprateeb Flynn, at Warin Lab Contemporary, Bangkok.
Event
Workshops
Rip, Copy, Paste: A Zine-Making Workshop on British and Singaporean Punk Archives
from
25
July
2026
14:00-16:00
2026-07-25
Join us for a creative workshop exploring punk zines, DIY publishing, and archival practice, led by Charmaine Wah of Shoes Off, held in conjunction with Chris Zhongtian Yuan’s solo exhibition ‘Two Improvisations’ at esea contemporary.