Green Grammar Sets the Scene
Green Grammar was created as a happy accident. Three years ago, London-based artists Chang Wang (Chloe) and Moyu Yang (Momo) set out to organize a single exhibition, bringing together their own work with that of friends and artists they admired. Chloe studied Fine Art at Chelsea, while Momo studied Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins. Their respective backgrounds would soon inform a shared visual sensibility to their approach in exhibition-making. The name Green Grammar was, in the beginning, conceived as the title of their inaugural exhibition. When the project was well received by the public, the gallery invited them back, and what had begun as a one-off exhibition took shape as a collective. Since then, the duo has organized around ten exhibitions at venues such as Art'otel Hoxton, FILET and The Koppel Project in London, as well as UNTITLED in Berlin.
Looking at their programme, Green Grammar gravitates towards themes that are multidisciplinary and in continuous evolution. Some of these curatorial concerns emerge as the fragility of connection, in the form of language failing in Rebuilt Babel, love as entanglement in Nothing Holds on Its Own, or belonging as a vegetal network of roots in Roots of Roots. One recurring principle in all of their shows, however, is that they keep the framing loose. As curators Green Grammar’s process often starts with an open dialogue, providing the basis of the title with an introductory text, and then letting the emotional and visual affinities between the artists do the connecting. The result is a layered, tactile aesthetic in which sound, image and texture are absorbed into conversations where a given explanation would fall short or reductive.
Behind their curatorial vision is a platform built on limited resources and a great deal of trust within the collective goodwill of peers and practitioners. That community also shapes where Green Grammar is heading in their career. After several years of producing four or five shows annually, they are now pausing to build something more durable. Currently they are focused on artist interviews, editorial projects along with translating their work into Chinese for audiences in China. Looking ahead, the duo hopes to explore new contexts in Shanghai, Hangzhou or Paris, curious on how new environments might respond to the same ideas. Green Grammar’s most recent shows, Rebuilt Babel presented in London and Berlin, suggest what can be expected ahead– exhibitions that mutate through their encounters with different spaces and communities, and relationships that stay open to change.
Nothing holds on its own. Group Exhibition, Oct 2025.
Green Grammar seems to have developed quite organically. Could you tell us about how it began?
Chloe: Our platform started as a beautiful accident, I would say. We started doing an exhibition together around three years ago. Momo and I are both artists, and we were trying to find a place where we could organize an exhibition, not only for ourselves but also for our friends whose work we admired. We also wanted to meet artists we'd discovered on Instagram or elsewhere, people living in London whom we wanted to connect with in person.
I think I first contacted Momo about finding an exhibition space, and we managed to get a gallery for a certain time slot. I was living in another city at the time, so I brought a few artist friends whose works deserved more exposure, and they were excited to show it in London.
In the end, we had around seven or eight artists in the exhibition. It went really well, and both the gallery and the people working there were happy with the result. They kept in touch with us and started asking us to organize more exhibitions. That's how it naturally evolved.
At the beginning, Green Grammar was actually just the name of the exhibition. We created an email address to contact artists and respond to people applying through our open calls. It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but more people found us, and we kept using the same email for three years. Now we've done around ten exhibitions.
Momo: We both studied at UAL. I was at Central Saint Martins, and Chloe was at Chelsea. We had some very good mutual friends, so there was already a certain level of trust between us. When Chloe contacted me, I was really happy because I was already organising exhibitions in London, but I wanted to find someone as talented as her to collectively create something more visually interesting.
After we finished our first exhibition, Veins of Dream, we immediately started thinking about doing something long-term. We sat down together and reviewed what we could do better for the next exhibition. We were literally writing everything on paper and sticking the notes on the wall, asking ourselves what we should improve. It was a very genuine process. Since then, we've been doing around four or five shows a year, which is actually quite a lot. Our most recent one was in Berlin in February, after we presented Rebuilt Babel in London. The Berlin exhibition was our first proper exhibition abroad, which was a challenge.
We're now trying to develop something more durable that works better for us. It doesn't mean we're not going to do exhibitions anymore, but we want to be more thoughtful about the projects we take on and focus on quality rather than keeping up such an intense pace. We're also developing our website and doing artist interviews, talking to people we've built good relationships with and learning more about their backgrounds and everyday lives. That's our current focus.
What do you like about the London art scene, and is there anything you would like to see change?
Momo: I think London actually has many organizations similar to us, but at the same time, the quality is sometimes a bit debatable. Some of them, I feel, lack a certain background, or sometimes things can lean too commercial. Because Chloe comes from fine arts and I do graphic design, we have a particular aesthetic, and we don't see a lot of examples similar to our perspective. We're also trying to be consistent with what we do. We want artists to be able to connect with us and trust us in the long run, so we can expand our practices together.
When we did our first exhibitions, we started meeting some really amazing people. Because we keep doing exhibitions, we can continue connecting with them and see how their ideas develop, how they explore new things and how their practices change. It's really nice that we can grow together.
When we went to Berlin, we brought five or six artists from London. Some we didn't know that close before. We had worked together on different projects, but had never travelled together, which ended up as a nice experience to get to know them better.
That's also why we want to do interviews. We're not so focused on their ideologies or what they think about a particular subject. We're more interested in their personal lives, what they do every day and conversations like that. We want to have a more personal touch rather than approaching everything from a professional or academic perspective.
Do you think it takes a lot of time and emotional labour to create a public or a community, or does it happen more organically?
Momo: It definitely takes time. There are artists who have joined our exhibitions two or even three times, and as time passes, every chance we talk about their artwork, we learn even more about their lives and the stories behind them.
I think every time we support one another's achievements, it helps us build our own little community. It's not only between us and the artists, but also between the artists themselves. When they join our exhibitions, they connect with each other which often generates collaborations.
Rebuilt Babel Berlin. Group Exhibition, 2026 Feb.
When you're organizing exhibitions with limited resources, how do you manage funding? Do you apply for open calls and grants, or do the venues help cover expenses such as artists' travel?
Chloe: We mostly don't have funding, or very little of it. That's also a problem because we're both Chinese, and it's really difficult for us to apply for certain funding opportunities in Europe. Sometimes the funding isn't available to us because of our backgrounds or eligibility.
Of course, it would be the best situation if we could aid the artists' transport and travel, but we can't always guarantee that. There are instances where we try to ask the gallery to contribute a little bit, and sometimes they agree and sometimes they don't. For the Berlin exhibition, the artists paid for their own travel to come with us. I think it's also a big sign of trust because the artists understand our struggles, and that's why they continue supporting us.
Sometimes, when we have an exhibition, we can't even be there all the time because Momo and I have full time jobs. There's a lot of work involved in installation, so we're always trying to find people who can help us. The artists we've collaborated with often volunteer to come and help, whether it's staying in the space or helping the install.
We've also met a lot of photographers, people working in galleries and writers who review exhibitions. Many of them are really happy with what we're doing, so they try to encourage us and offer us lower fees. One time, we were mounting a rented television for an exhibition, and it fell because we hadn't paid for a technician to help us install it. We had to pay for the television out of pocket. We were waiting for the photographer to come and document the whole exhibition. When he arrived, I told him what had happened, and he could see that I was really upset. After I transferred the money for the shoot, he sent it back to me. He said he understood that we were trying to do something and wanted to support us. People are willing to help each other, even when we don't have much funding to work with.
How do you approach artist fees when you're working with a low budget? Is paying artists something you're able to promise?
Chloe: We don't pay artist fees at the moment. I think it's quite common in London, especially for small exhibitions like ours. They're usually short-term exhibitions rather than shows that stay in a space for two months or something like that. In general, artists aren't paid for these kinds of exhibitions unless it's an established name. We mostly work with people who graduated a few years ago or are still at university.
We haven't really been involved in other kinds of projects so far. Sometimes, if someone is interested in buying a work, we try to explore that, but it's not really working in a consistent way because we're not a gallery, and it's difficult for us to manage sales. What we do offer after each exhibition is a good press report. We have connections with some bigger magazines, and we try to give the artists that opening. It's a way for us to exchange resources and opportunities.
Roots of Roots. Group Exhibition, 2025 Jul.
Your exhibition Rebuilt Babel was presented in London and Berlin. How did you choose those locations? Was it through existing gallery relationships, or were there personal or cultural reasons behind the decisions?
Chloe: The London venue was the place where we held our first show. We built a relationship with the gallery and the gallerist who helped us a lot with our curation. She's also tried to give us other opportunities to collaborate, so she's always welcoming us back to do more.
For Berlin, it was actually recommended by one of the artists we were working with. A few of the artists we work with had exhibited in that space before, and one of them contacted me and suggested that we reach out to them if we wanted to do something abroad. We had always wanted to organize exhibitions somewhere else because our previous works have always been in London. We wanted to connect with artists from other cities as well.
Is there a particular city you'd like to exhibit in next, or perhaps two cities you'd like to connect through a project?
Momo: I want to do something in China, or somewhere else in Asia. We've done exhibitions here many times, and travelling from London takes around twenty hours. We're curious to see how the same curation would look in a different place and environment.
Cities like Shanghai and Hangzhou are also very international, and we'd like to see more Asian artists' work. The process of preparing an exhibition there would also be interesting because we'd have to approach things in a different way.
Chloe: I really want to do something in Paris. We've talked about it before because there are so many beautiful venues there. One of our close friends moved to Paris to study cooking, and we're also really interested in food design.
We started introducing food design into our exhibitions around the second one, and it's been super fun. I've also talked about the idea with our friends in Paris, and they're really keen on doing something together if we come. So I'm quite interested to see if we can make that happen.
Veins Of Dream. Group Exhibition, Sep 2024.
Your exhibitions sometimes touch on identity, migration and displacement, but you also seem to leave a lot of room for different interpretations. How do you approach these subjects?
Chloe: We're interested in identity and migration, but we haven't done an exhibition that focuses on those subjects yet. We did an exhibition called Roots of Roots, which was about the idea of roots, but we wanted to keep it broad so people could approach it from their own readings.
It didn't have to be specifically about immigration or displacement. It could even be about roots as a plant, or something related to vegetal thinking. We gave the exhibition a title and a very short introduction, and artists could apply if they felt the theme was suitable for them.
It really depends on the artists and how they relate to the subject. We're trying not to distract them too much or explain everything with too much jargon.
Momo: People can feel it when they're inside the exhibition. We also encourage artists to talk to the audience and introduce how they think about their work.
It really depends on each person and how they feel about the subject. We don't want to force a particular idea that we want to project or tell people and prefer to keep it very soft.
Given your backgrounds and your experience with different languages and cultures, how does cultural translation work in your exhibitions? Is there anything that gets lost between translations?
Momo: To be honest, when we're curating, we don't really put our own languages or backgrounds as the priority. We don't necessarily try to emphasize the differences between the artists, because the London art scene is already very diverse, and the artists in each exhibition come from different backgrounds.
We mainly focus on the emotional connections between the works, or how they come together visually in the exhibition. We've talked about this before in another interview, and we've been thinking that perhaps in the future we could do an exhibition that focuses more specifically on language and the differences between people's backgrounds.
Nothing holds on its own. Group Exhibition, Oct 2025.
Did you notice different audience reactions when you presented Rebuilt Babel in London and then in Berlin?
Chloe: I think the audiences were already very different, but not necessarily just because one was in Berlin and the other was in London. It also depends on what kind of venue you're working with.
The London venue we exhibited was a really fancy place, a high-end hotel with a gallery inside, so the audience was already quite precise. In Berlin, the space was an office belonging to a techno label. They had two offices, and one of them was abandoned and had been turned into an exhibition space. The space already had a very strong visual identity. I think it's not only about the city itself, but also the venue you choose and the demographic it attracts.
Momo: I also think this connects to the question about how we build our community. Every time we organise an exhibition, the community becomes more diverse, and we meet different audiences as well.
Has your curatorial process changed the way you think about what an artist can be? We're interested in your approach to artists who might not have a formal art education.
Chloe: Through our curatorial process, we've learned a lot from the people and artists we've met. We're still figuring things out, but recently I've become really interested in finding artists who haven't studied art at university. There are people whom I think are artists, and I want to include them in an exhibition, even if they don't necessarily come from an art-school background.
I found an elderly woman in China who makes little drawings on pieces of clothing that have been left over or are no longer being used. She used to be a farmer, but after she injured her leg, she couldn't farm anymore. She wanted to find something to do to fill her time, so she started making little drawings on these pieces of fabric.
I thought the work was super beautiful. She was drawing natural scenes from the farm, and for me, she's a wonderful artist. Her practice developed very naturally, without necessarily being part of the art world.
There's also another woman who works in a factory making cloths for washing dishes. She was doing the same thing every single day, so she started organising workshops to teach people how to make them in different shapes. They could be butterflies or all kinds of different forms. We wanted to support her, so we sold some of her unusual dishcloths at our London exhibition Mew Dew.
When we have a theme, we try to find people whose practices might not fit the conventional idea of an artist, but whose work we find really fascinating. I think these people are real artists because they're naturally teaching themselves to become artists, experimenting with what they have and developing their own ways of making things.
Rebuilt Babel London. Group Exhibition, 2026 Jan.
Is there anything coming up that you're particularly excited about?
Chloe: We're not doing any exhibitions for now. We're trying to focus on interviews and translation. Everything we produce, we're translating into Chinese and posting on Chinese social media. We also have our own platform in China, so it's a lot of work. We're trying to document all our previous works in London and share it with audiences in China, to make a small impact there as well.
Are you both working other jobs alongside Green Grammar?
Momo: I'm doing event management for a wedding dress company, organizing their pop-ups. It's actually quite relevant to what we're doing with Green Grammar, because it's also about operations and organizations. The upcoming event I'll be working on is in a gallery space, so hopefully I'll be able to build more connections for us in the future as well.
Chloe: I work part-time in graphic design, mostly for a Chinese company. Sometimes I have a project with a really short deadline, so I have to finish a huge amount of work in three days. Other times, there's almost nothing to do. Honestly, the work can be monotonic. Sometimes I'm designing instruction manuals for electronic devices, drawing things like where the battery goes and how everything works.
The Green Grammar. Group Exhibition, Jun 2025.
