HURVIN ANDERSON, “Hawksbill Bay,” 2020 (acrylic paint and oil paint on canvas). | Tate. Lent by Tate Americas Foundation, Courtesy Mala Gaonkar, 2023. © Hurvin Anderson. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
VIBRANT AND TRANSCENDENT, works by British artist Hurvin Anderson (b. 1965) capture an array of interior and landscape scenes. Blending abstraction and figuration, the paintings are beautiful and meaningful, embedded with complex symbolism and layered narratives.
A new exhibition at Tate Britain in London assembles more than 80 paintings by Anderson, surveying his entire career—from 1995, when he was a student, to works made this year and exhibited for the first time. The solo show is the largest-ever museum exhibition of Anderson, a major figure in British contemporary art. The Birmingham-born, Cambridgeshire-based artist is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. A finalist for the 2017 Turner Prize, he is one of the most critically acclaimed Black painters working today.
Grounded in cultural history and personal experience, Anderson’s work captures singular moments that speak to important arcs of time. He often paints multiple iterations of the same image. Years ago, in an interview with Culture Type, Anderson said the iterative process was about experimentation, pushing boundaries, and exploring more than one idea in an image.
Paintings of lush landscapes channel Anderson’s Jamaican heritage and childhood adventures with his brothers. Country club tennis court scenes viewed through fencing speak to matters of race and agency, who is welcome and who is excluded. Depictions of barbershops document the lived experiences of the Windrush generation, Caribbean migrants, including Anderson’s parents, who arrived in the UK in the 1950s and 60s. Feeling othered by white Brits, the new arrivals pursued a sense of belonging and community by creating their own gathering places—Black churches, bars, and barbershops, often in home environments.
The exhibition features key bodies of work, including Anderson’s Ball Watching series (1997-2010), Country Club series, Barbershop series (2006-23), Peter’s series (2007-09) and notable works such as “Audition,” which set a record at auction for the artist, and “Passenger Opportunity” (2024-25), which is being shown in the UK for the first time. Paying homage to the Windrush-era emigration from Jamaica to Britain, the monumental 16-panel work is inspired by a pair of 1985 murals by Jamaican artist Carl Abrahams (1911-2005), installed in the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston. CT
“Hurvin Anderson” is on view at Tate Britain in London, UK, from March 26–Aug. 23, 2026
FIND MORE about the exhibition
Hurvin Anderson briefly introduces his Tate Britain exhibition. “What I do is, it’s about questing my history, my place,” he said. | Video by Tate
Hurvin Anderson, 2026. | Tate Photography, Lucy Green
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Shear Cut,” 2023 (acrylic on canvas). | Private Collection. © Hurvin Anderson, Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). Shown, “Some People (Welcome Series),” 2004 (oil paint on canvas). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Grace Jones,” 2020 (Acrylic and oil paint on linen). | Private Collection. © Hurvin Anderson, Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). Shown, “Country Club: Chicken Wire,” 2008 (oil paint on canvas). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Country Club: Chicken Wire,” 2008 (oil paint on canvas). | Private Collection. © Hurvin Anderson, Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
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Exhibition Label: ‘Anderson’s oil painting reminds me of the intensity of light in
Trinidad. I can almost imagine heat bouncing off the asphalt of the tennis courts. ‘Chicken wire’ dominates the picture plane, interfering with our view. It has long been the material of confinement, preventing things getting in or out. By using this term in his title, Anderson evokes the fenced-off enclosure associated with the privacy and elitism of the country club. He positions the viewer as an outsider looking in. Denied access, we glimpse a restricted landscape, encountering colonial mastery over a seemingly tropical environment.’ – Roshini Kempadoo
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Beaded Curtain (Red Apples),” 2010 (oil paint on canvas). | © Hurvin Anderson. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Maracus III,” 2004 (oil paint on canvas). | © Hurvin Anderson. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Hollywood Boulevard,” 1997 (oil paint on canvas). | © Hurvin Anderson, Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
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Exhibition Label: This is one of the rare works in which Anderson depicts himself. He paints a moment with his father, based on a memory of them standing outside a pub in Handsworth, Birmingham. A Black cowboy appears behind father and son. Drawn from a poster for the African American westernmovie, Harlem on the Prairie 1937, the figure points to the importance of seeing Black heroes in popular culture. Anderson often fuses memory with the imagination. He has described his painting process as a search for what his autobiographical work ‘should be.’
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Is It OK To Be Black?,” 2015-16 (acrylic paint on canvas). | Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London © A 70th Anniversary Commission for the Arts Council Collection with New Art Exchange, Nottingham and Thomas Dane Gallery, London. © Hurvin Anderson
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). Shown, from left, “Peter’s Sitters II,” 2009 (oil paint on canvas); “Is It OK To Be Black? 2015–6 (acrylic paint on canvas). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Peter’s Sitters II,” 2009 (oil paint on canvas). | Zabludowicz Collection. © Hurvin Anderson, Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Catherine Wharfe
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). Shown, “Audition,” 1999 (oil paint on canvas). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
“Audition” (1999) by Hurvin Anderson holds the artist’s record at auction. The painting garnered more than $10 million at Christie’s London in 2021.
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Exhibition Label: Anderson painted this work soon after completing his master’s degree. It depicts a municipal swimming complex contained by glass walls and concrete pillars. The painting is based on a set of photographs taken by his brother of Wyndley Swimming Pool in Birmingham. Anderson superimposed multiple views until ‘the whole pictorial field became full of possibilities.’ Combining photographic observation with painterly experimentation, Audition marks a turning point in the artist’s early practice. He tests the boundaries between realism and abstraction, surface and depth.
HURVIN ANDERSON, “Limestone Wall,” 2020 (graphite, acrylic and oil paint on linen). | Private Collection. © Hurvin Anderson. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Richard Ivey
Installation view of “Hurvin Anderson,” Tate Britain, London, UK (March 26–Aug. 23, 2026). Shown, “Passenger Opportunity,” 2024-25 (acrylic paint on plywood). | Tate Photography, Larina Annora Fernandes
READ MORE Culture Type interviewed Hurvin Anderson on the occasion of his “Foreign Body” exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery in New York
BOOKSHELF
Documenting the Tate Britain show, the “Hurvin Anderson” exhibition catalog is currently available in the Tate museum shop and will be available widely in November 2026. For children, “Meet the Artist: Hurvin Anderson” was published to coincide with the Tate show, where it is available now in the museum shop and can be found widely in October 2026. Authored by Michael J. Prokopow, “Hurvin Anderson” provides a comprehensive, fully illustrated overview of the artist’s career. “Hurvin Anderson (Contemporary Painters Series)” from Rizzoli is a more recently published, fully illustrated overview of the artist. “Hurvin Anderson: Reporting Back” was published on the occasion of his survey exhibition at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham UK.
