Image: Nasher Museum of Art, London
The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University will present ‘Contemporary British Art,’ an exhibition bringing together multiple generations of artists working in England. The exhibition will be on view in the museum’s Modern & Contemporary Gallery in Durham, North Carolina, from July 18, 2026, through July 4, 2027.
Organized by Marshall N. Price, the Nasher’s chief curator and Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the exhibition includes Michael Armitage, Dame Sonia Boyce (RA), Charlotte Edey, Thomas Houseago, Marc Quinn, Michaela Yearwood-Dan and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. The museum describes the presentation as a small but diverse group intended to reflect the vitality, ambition and range of current art-making in England.
The exhibition brings together established and emerging voices whose practices move across painting, drawing and sculpture. According to the museum, the works create fantastical worlds, address political subjects and current events, and consider personal themes including identity and intimacy. The selection therefore places different generations and approaches within a shared institutional presentation rather than focusing on a single medium or movement.
Among the works identified for the exhibition is Michael Armitage’s ‘The Fourth Estate’ (2017), an oil painting on Lubugo bark cloth measuring approximately 79 by 130 inches. The work depicts figures gathered around a tree-like form, with people seated along its branches and a crowd below in a hazy landscape. It is part of the Nasher Museum’s collection and was given by Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida in 2025.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is represented by ‘Blood Soaked South’ (2015), an oil painting on linen from the collection of Patricia and Thruston Morton. Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s ‘do what you gotta’ (2022), made with oil paint and ceramic on canvas, entered the museum’s collection as a gift from Jason Swartz. The presentation also includes Sonia Boyce’s ‘Untitled (2 Faces)’ (c. 1986), a pencil-and-paper work with cut-outs; Charlotte Edey’s ‘Heavy Lidded’ (2023), a soft-pastel work on paper; and works by Thomas Houseago and Marc Quinn.
The exhibition forms part of the Nasher’s stated commitment to international contemporary art. The museum, located at 2001 Campus Drive on Duke University’s campus, has built a contemporary collection focused on amplifying historically underrepresented voices, with holdings that include North Carolina-based, national and international artists. Its wider 2026–27 programme also includes exhibitions drawn from the collection and presentations addressing American civic history and public life, but ‘Contemporary British Art’ is devoted specifically to artists working in England.
‘Contemporary British Art’ will remain on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham from July 18, 2026, to July 4, 2027.
