This is London November 2026 - Flipbook - Page 22
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BEYOND BAYEUX: TAPESTRY NOW
Beyond Bayeux: Tapestry Now
presents a once-in-a-generation
opportunity to reflect on tapestry’s past
and shape its future. The exhibition is
currently open at the City of London
Corporation’s Guildhall Art Gallery.
The exhibition complements the arrival
of the Bayeux Tapestry in the UK for
the widely anticipated exhibition at the
British Museum.
Guildhall Art Gallery's exhibition will
highlight how, since the 20th century,
Dovecot’s highly skilled weavers in
Edinburgh have collaborated with artists
to demonstrate the continuing relevance
and potential of tapestry as a
contemporary art form.
In the past, tapestry has been
commissioned to mark key moments in
history. One of the stand-out artworks is
a new commission with Turner Prizenominated artist, Hurvin Anderson.
Measuring an impressive six metres in
width, the tapestry will be unveiled in the
exhibition before it is installed in the
University of Oxford next year to mark
the 600th anniversary of Lincoln
College.
Other key artworks include a tapestry
version of David Hockney’s 1963
painting, Play within a Play,
commissioned by the artist. Hockney,
who died in June this year, was drawn to
tapestry for its narrative qualities and
chose to live for many years in
Normandy close to the Apocalypse
tapestries and the Bayeux Tapestry.
More recent collaborations
demonstrate how artists are playing with
the medium, pushing the power of warp
and weft to embody storytelling and
symbolism. Dovecot and Farshid
Moussavi created The Garden Carpet for
the V&A Dundee in 2025, using the
heritage of Persian textile to explore a
paradise populated by plants and wildlife
at risk in Scotland today.
Similarly, Dovecot has worked with
Yinka Shonibare to interpret traditional
African masks with a modern mix of
coloured hanging warps, knots, single
and double weave in Modern Spiritual
(Fang Ngil, Kumbaduba).
Dovecot’s tapestries with Alberta
Whittle on Ring Around the Rosy and
with Rachel Maclean on Goo Gaa
present particularly creative expressions
interpreting shaped outlines and digital
imagery respectively.
During the exhibition’s five-month
run, the events programme will include
historical tours and insights from artists
and weavers on new ways of thinking
about the art of tapestry and
collaboration.
ROB HUNT – TWO HEARTS CONNECT
Rob Hunt’s vibrant oil paintings are
inspired by those fleeting moments
when light transforms a landscape;
sunlight dappling through trees,
reflections shimmering on water, the
warmth of golden hour, or the intensity
of a sunset. An exhibition of his work
will be at j/m Gallery from 11-17
November.
At the heart of Rob’s work is
connection. His paintings explore our
instinctive relationship with the natural
world and the simple pleasure of really
seeing it. They invite us to pause, really
notice the beauty around us and
reconnect with the present moment.
That connection extends beyond the
landscape. Rob hopes each painting
might spark an emotion, evoke a
memory or transport the viewer back to
a particular place and feeling. Subtly
hidden within each painting are two
hearts, a recurring signature in his work.
One represents our connection with
nature; the other, the connection between
the painting and its viewer.
Two Hearts Connect brings these
ideas together: the transformative beauty
of light, the expressive power of colour
and movement, and the connection that
can happen when something makes us
stop, look and feel. Rob is a British artist
living and painting in the foothills of the
Chilterns in Buckinghamshire, where the
surrounding landscape and its everchanging light provide a constant source
of inspiration.
Sunset Bloobs.
T H I S I S L O N D O N M A G A Z I N E • T H I S I S L O N D O N O N L I N E • w w w. t i l . c o m • @ t h i s i s l o n d o n m a g
