The artists taking a closer look at sexuality, politics and gender-fluidity

I Hope This Finds You Well at Gallery 46 and curated by Eve Leibe Gallery is a "romantic response to the opening of a conversation, one in which individuals are willing to engage with again after a long period of detachment". In fact, the show could be perceived as a reflection of our surroundings, both in our private lives and in public society as a whole.

For example, Christopher Hartmann's ambivalent and ambiguous scenes of interpersonal relationships take place in non-descript places or times. Visually estranged bodies long for intimacy that remains unanswered, a reaction to the changes we are seeing within society.

Sarah Thibault's work is inspired by Instagram selfies – the social media of choice that is dominating most of our lives. This includes iconography from historically religious paintings that have traditionally been deemed feminine, she acts as both artist and muse, consumer and creator of imagery and culture.

Illustrating abjection, violence, intimacy and isolation, Eleni Odysseos's works reflect on the current reality of political instability and division that is widespread across the globe. Her paintings deconstruct the complexities of personal companionship, and also of hierarchical power systems.

In Pouyan Jafarizadeh's installation, the video work gives a meditative reflection on the isolation of antidepressants and sexual experience, something that feels timely given the fact that society is now afflicted with rising levels of mental illness.

Meanwhile, Maurizio Bongiovanni's oil painting is a reflection on our readings of mythology. Nude, it comments on the sexualised heroes have been portrayed throughout history. Arms tied back, with an arrow in the torso with bloody lips. Make-up or the remnants of a passionate kiss? It's for you, the viewer, to decide.

Jans Muskee's work depicts love, passion and gender. In careful reproductions of visual reality, he uses nudity as a way to protest and to celebrate the power of bodies – of all genders – equally.

Within his photography work, Jaime Welsh stages performative male encounters within interior spaces. He uses mirrors as psychological devices to reflect on the social commentary of life, death, time and space, as well as the fluid identity, private acts of contemplation, individual narcissism and homoeroticism.

Meanwhile, Ian Caleb Molina Zoller draws biomorphic, zoomorphic and sexual symbols to explore the revolution attacking boundaries around gender and sexuality within society.

I Hope This Finds You Well is curated by the Eve Leibe Gallery and launches on 4 December and runs until 18 December 2019. Find out more at www.gallery46.co.uk.