Once Upon A Time In London

Once Upon a Time in London is a celebration of London, its artists and institutions, featuring commissioned works from contemporary artists as well as major loans drawing from the rich history, diversity and cultural scene of London. For decades, London has been a major artistic crossroads where artists have challenged conventions and redefined the artistic landscape.

The exhibition will survey how the city has evolved, yet remains a constant beating heart of groundbreaking art. Beginning after WWII, featuring violent, psychologically twisted paintings by modern British masters Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, and Lucian Freud, to the golden years of the RCA, where America’s influence grows internationally, David Hockney paints a vision of Arizona as pop culture arrives on British shores. In more recent times, the exhibition explores London in the 90s. A generation of graduate artists who didn’t ask for permission, hosting exhibitions of cutting-edge conceptual art in abandoned shops and London buildings, embodying the punk spirit of the city. Damien Hirst’s medicine cabinets transform art into a science experiment, as painkillers and antidepressants create artificial emotional responses, or a portrait from Jenny Saville’s graduation show, which explores the female figure from entirely new perspectives. More recently, works by Lynette Yiadom Boakye bring a new viewpoint to the figurative painting tradition, or even more recently, Jade Fadojutimi brings a new energy to abstract painting.

Finally, the exhibition will explore the current community of London artists within this historic context. Artists such as Oli Epp and Benjamin Spiers create masterfully painted surreal portraits that delve deep into the human psyche in a post digital world, Slawn brings post-brexit Nigerian chutzpah to the London scene, rejecting the status quo his dynamism and force of nature is undeniable, painted burberry scarfs comments on our obsession with branded luxury goods as symbols of our heritage. These are just a few of the artists who make up today’s thrilling London scene. Once again, we see a new generation of artists challenging the established order. It is this iconoclastic spirit that links our great cities’ artists over generations. The full list of artists included here: Francis Bacon, Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, Bridget Riley, David Hockney, Paula Rego, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, Neil Stokoe, Tracey Emin, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Chris Ofili, Jenny Saville, Grayson Perry, Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Michael Armitage, Oscar Murillo, Danny Fox, George Rouy, Jade Fadojutimi, Oli Epp, Alvaro Barrington, Joanna van Son, Slawn and Cato.