The Critics’ Circle Visual Arts and Architecture Section named the recipients of its annual awards at a ceremony held last night, marking a year of notable achievement across artists, exhibitions and the individuals who quietly keep the visual arts moving.
Selected and judged by professional critics, the awards place weight on public reach, artistic ambition and long-term contribution. They recognise headline-making work, but also the less visible labour that sustains exhibitions, institutions and critical dialogue.
The ceremony took place on the evening of 14 January 2026 at the Supporters’ House at the National Gallery, drawing together critics, artists, museum leaders, curators and cultural figures from across the UK.
The Critics’ Circle’s principal award was presented to Es Devlin, whose practice continues to slip between categories. Installation, stage design, publishing, and exhibition making. The work resists being pinned down, and in doing so has consistently expanded how audiences meet art.
Recent projects include the revolving library installations Library of Light at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and Library of Us on Faena Beach in Miami, which together drew more than a million visitors into temporary communities of readers and listeners. Other recent works include Congregation, a public installation at St Mary le Strand featuring portraits of 50 Londoners who have experienced forced displacement, and Come Home Again, a choral installation of drawings depicting 250 endangered London species, staged outside Tate Modern.
Alongside these public works, Devlin continues to reshape stage design across theatres, opera houses, arenas and stadia, collaborating with some of the world’s most high-profile musicians. Her practice is documented in An Atlas of Es Devlin, published alongside an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.
The Critics’ Circle cited her fluency across scale and discipline, her sustained engagement with social and environmental questions, and the way her work transforms audience experience.
The award arrives ahead of the Design Museum’s forthcoming exhibition Es Devlin (18 September 2026 to 11 April 2027), described as the first UK museum exhibition devoted to her work. This year, she also serves as artistic director of Homo Faber, the Venice-based biennial of contemporary craft taking place throughout September.
The Unsung Hero Award was presented to Tracy Jones, founder of Brera PR, in recognition of her long-standing work supporting exhibitions in smaller and regional museums and galleries across the country. Jones has played a significant role in connecting critics and audiences with exhibitions beyond major metropolitan centres, helping broaden both the geographical reach and institutional visibility within the cultural landscape.
The Critics’ Circle recognised Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers for its ambition, clarity of storytelling and the quality of its international loans. Together, these elements produced a focused and accessible account of Vincent van Gogh’s work and life, drawing in a broad public audience.
The award for Best Commercial Gallery Exhibition went to Notes on Water, a solo presentation of Norman Ackroyd’s works at Eames Fine Art. Ackroyd died shortly after the exhibition opened in 2024, lending the show a particular resonance.
The awards presented to Es Devlin and Tracy Jones were commissioned from Rosina Payan Pecorelli, a recent jewellery and silversmithing graduate from Edinburgh College of Art. Payan Pecorelli created wearable awards in the form of brooches, producing a principal piece for Devlin and a minor work for Jones. The commission continues the Critics’ Circle’s tradition of supporting emerging makers, following previous collaborations with practitioners including Marcin Rusak and Juliette Bigley.
Es Devlin said: “My 30-year practice has been indelibly shaped by the rigorous cultural discourse sustained by our community of critics, and, knowing the depth of their forensic and richly informed approach, this award holds special significance.”
Sir Gabriele Finaldi, Director of the National Gallery, London, said: “I’d like to thank all the members of the Critics Circle who voted for the National Gallery to receive this award. Our Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition attracted a record-breaking 334,589 visitors, making it the most popular ticketed show in the gallery’s history, with record overnight openings to meet the intense demand. It is therefore wonderful that the hard work of all the team at the National Gallery who made this possible has been recognised.”
Tracy Jones said: “I’d like to thank everyone at the Critics’ Circle who voted for me to win the Unsung Hero Award – it is entirely thanks to the kindness and generosity of them and their colleagues that I can do the job which I love, which is making as many people as possible aware of all the amazing things happening in museums and galleries around the UK and beyond. It’s such a privilege and an honour to receive this award, and I’m incredibly grateful.”
Rebecca and Vincent Eames, founders of Eames Fine Art, said: “It was an honour to host this exhibition of Norman Ackroyd’s beautiful work. Norman was a firm friend of the Eames Fine Art Gallery, and his annual show in September had become a highly anticipated fixture on the calendar for over a decade. Norman would have loved this evening. It is a triumph for printmaking, and it is also a triumph for his beloved Bermondsey Street, which we know would have made him especially happy. This is a wonderful opportunity to raise a glass and celebrate a brilliant artist, a trailblazing etcher and a magnificent catalogue of work which we were honoured to exhibit.”
Corinne Julius, President of the Critics’ Circle, said: “We were delighted that our award winners reflect the breadth and excitement of the visual arts and their contribution to the life of all of us, across society.”