Alison Watt: From Light

5 Mar-1 Jun 2025

Alison Watt, The Day After (detail), 2023, Oil on canvas. Credit: Alison Watt

Overview

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery is delighted to announce the upcoming exhibition—From Light—by the award-winning artist Alison Watt, running from 5 March to 1 June 2025. This will be Alison Watt’s first exhibition in a public gallery in London since 2008.

The exhibition features a new series of paintings which resonate with the architecture and collection of Sir John Soane, the architect of Pitzhanger Manor. Watt’s practice, rooted in a fascination with light, echoes strongly with Soane’s innovative manipulation of light to shape space and create atmosphere.

Alison Watt reflects: “Pitzhanger had a great personal significance for Sir John Soane. It is a house that tells us something not only of his intellectual life, but also his emotional one—a place that once held his hopes and aspirations. In its own way, a form of biography. Soane was an artist, who created an art object in which to display art. Like a painting, light is part of the very substance of this house.”

Watt’s works, displayed across the historic manor and contemporary gallery, engage in dialogue with figures from Soane’s circle, including architect Robert Adam. Paintings such as Parker draw on the symbolism of Soane’s collection, while works like The Day After explore the motif of the rose—a symbol of innocence, purity, and mourning—echoing Soane’s preoccupation with themes of decay and memorialisation.

Clare Gough, Director of Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, said: “We are delighted to be working with Alison Watt in her first major public exhibition in London since her show as Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London. Watt’s exploration of light beautifully echoes Soane’s use of shadows and reflection as an architectural tool. The extraordinary body of new works, that demand quiet contemplation, will create a fascinating dialogue with Soane’s designs.”

Further details about the exhibition, including programming and public events, will be released closer to the opening date—subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated on this exciting exhibition.

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Alison Watt: From Light press release
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