Image: The New Art Gallery Walsall
The New Art Gallery Walsall will open 'Face Value: Contemporary Portraits from the Collections' on 30 May 2026, presenting a year-long display drawn from the gallery’s Permanent Collection. The exhibition runs until 23 May 2027 in the gallery spaces in Walsall and is free to enter.
According to the gallery’s exhibition listing and newsletter, 'Face Value' is inspired by the strong focus on portraits in the Garman Ryan Collection. The show brings together a selection of works from the permanent holdings to explore how different themes and ideas can be conveyed through portraiture. The gallery says the works vary in scale and media, suggesting a display built around range rather than a single style or period.
The exhibition page names Ruth Claxton, Darryl Georgiou, Oliver Jones, Mahtab Hussain, Eugene Palmer, Shanti Panchal, Andrew Tift, Gillian Wearing and Nilupa Yasmin in connection with the show. One featured image on the page shows Andrew Tift’s 'Portrait of Kitty (Transition)' from 2006, described as an acrylic-on-board work in the Permanent Collection. The gallery does not provide further curatorial detail on the selection or installation in the source material.
'Face Value' sits within a busy 2026 programme of collection, contemporary and community exhibitions at The New Art Gallery Walsall. The same site lists 'Ten.8 afterimage' on Floor 3, running from 1 May to 13 September 2026, and 'What Grows In Between' on Floor 4 from 10 July to 11 October 2026. It also lists Tereza Bušková’s 'Mothers without Hands' in the Community Gallery from 31 July to 15 November 2026. The gallery’s newsletter groups these exhibitions as part of its August 2026 round-up.
The broader programme context helps place 'Face Value' within the gallery’s collection-based offer. The institution’s current exhibitions page describes the gallery’s Floor 3 programme as hosting solo and group shows and reflecting the diversity of contemporary practice, while the collection exhibition section identifies 'Face Value' specifically as a temporary exhibition from the Permanent Collection. The show’s emphasis on portraiture links it to the Garman Ryan Collection, one of the gallery’s defining collection strengths.
The exhibition will open in the gallery spaces with free admission. The verified source material gives no additional programme of events attached to 'Face Value', and no further details on loans, new commissions or accompanying interpretation are listed on the page. The exhibition is scheduled to remain on view from 30 May 2026 through 23 May 2027 at The New Art Gallery Walsall, Gallery Square, Walsall.
