Hurvin Anderson at Tate Britain: a retrospective between memory, identity and landscape
- Redazione
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
In spring 2026, Tate Britain will dedicate its first major retrospective to Hurvin Anderson, an exhibition bringing together around eighty works spanning thirty years of his career.
From early pieces to his most recent paintings — including a room of never-before-seen works — the show offers a broad and layered reading of the British artist’s practice, confirming his place as one of the most influential painters of contemporary art.
At the core of Anderson’s poetics is a constant movement between the United Kingdom and the Caribbean — places he inhabits both physically and mentally. Born in Birmingham to Jamaican parents, the artist channels the complexity of diasporic experience into his painting: the condition of “being in one place while thinking about another,” suspended between belonging, distance and memory. Colour-saturated landscapes, enigmatic interiors, layers of light and visual barriers create worlds in which time bends and memory becomes painterly matter.
The exhibition opens with early photographs and drawings that reconstruct the artist’s family environment. Works such as Bev (1995) and Hollywood Boulevard (1997) already reveal his interest in merging past and present, crafting images where identity emerges as a shifting, evolving process. The path continues with a selection from the Ball Watching series (1997–2003), in which Anderson overlaps places and memories, transforming an everyday scene from Birmingham into a tropical landscape. Painting becomes a space of slippage — where memories contradict, fracture and reinvent themselves.
A key section is devoted to the barbershops, iconic subjects in Anderson’s research. Initiated in the 2000s, the series captures community spaces central to the history of Caribbean immigrants in England: sites of gathering, care and shared identity. Historic works dialogue with recent pieces such as Skiffle and Shear Cut (2023), highlighting the continuity of an imagined world that evolves without ever severing its roots.
Among the most anticipated works is Passenger Opportunity (2024–25), a monumental piece inspired by two murals in Kingston’s airport, here re-presented in a new form reflecting on migratory flows between Jamaica and Britain. Alongside, the Welcome series and the paintings of abandoned Jamaican hotels return the artist to the landscapes of his origins, exploring dynamics of access, exclusion and social stratification through grids, fences and visual obstructions.
The retrospective closes with Is It OK To Be Black? (2015–16), a powerful work addressing race relations through semi-abstract depictions of figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Here Anderson questions the viewer’s position, inviting them into a dialogue that spans history, politics and representation.
Tate Britain
Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
Date
26 March – 23 August 2026