Image: Rhodes, London
RHODES will present ‘Watching the City’, a new series of original works by award-winning portrait painter Morag Caister, in a forthcoming exhibition running from 2 to 31 October 2026. [F1]
The exhibition brings together a group of sitters from across the creative world, considering the experience of looking at other lives and the distance that exists between one person and another. [F2]
Working from in-person sittings at her Brighton studio, Caister observes each sitter closely, considering not only their appearance but also the space between them. [F3] The resulting paintings become encounters between two perspectives: the sitter looking back at the artist, and the artist attempting to understand a person whose inner world can never be fully known. [F3]
Caister approaches the city as an observer, looking towards the lives unfolding around her with affection, curiosity and a sense of longing. [F4] The portraits hold separation and connection in tension, capturing the individual within the wider spectacle of the city. [F5] Stripped of context, the figures become less about who they are publicly and more about the experience of being seen. [F5]
Caister’s work is held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and Soho House, and in 2026 she was invited to undertake the La Brea Studio artist residency in Los Angeles. [F6] Her work is also set to be presented at Art Basel Miami in December. [F7]
