Image: Rhodes, London
RHODES in London is presenting Eleanor Johnson’s 'Cornucopia' (2026) as part of its summer group exhibition '12:12', which runs from 7 to 29 August 2026 at Rhodes Contemporary Art on Great Portland Street. The gallery described the work as on view in the current summer exhibition and introduced Johnson as a British painter whose layered oil paintings explore instability, excess and the body as a site of continual revision.
The presentation places 'Cornucopia' within a broader selection of works by twelve RHODES artists. The exhibition is not built around a prescribed theme, according to the gallery, but gathers a cross-section of its roster to show the range and quality of the programme. Within that context, Johnson’s painting appears alongside works by artists including Helen Bermingham, Carsten Beck, Morag Caister, Delia Hamer, Yool Kim, Jihye Park, Camilla Perkins, Kevin Sabo, Nick Smith, Cat Spilman and Martha Zmpounou.
Johnson’s practice, as RHODES describes it, centres on “instability and excess, the body and shifting flesh,” with earlier lines remaining visible in layered construction. The gallery says she works in oil paint in a way that allows figures to emerge, recede and reappear, leaving traces of previous marks active in the finished surface. That approach is linked to her interest in pentimento, the visible revisions found in drawings by artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo and Rubens.
In the description of 'Cornucopia', RHODES places the painting in dialogue with Baroque painting, mythology and hypnagogic imagery. The work depicts fluid, biomorphic human forms, and the gallery says Johnson is drawn to moments when bodies fold, merge and soften into shapes that feel unstable or still forming. Her process involves rich, translucent layers of oil paint that keep the image in motion rather than resolving it into a single, fixed composition.
The summer exhibition listing identifies 'Cornucopia' as one of the selected works in '12:12'. The work is listed as oil on canvas, measuring 120 x 180 cm, and is shown in installation view as part of the current exhibition. RHODES also notes the work’s price as £19,250 on its artist page. The gallery’s exhibition page presents '12:12' as a broad survey of its programme, with the participating artists asked to present work that reflects their practice at its strongest.
Johnson’s artist page on the gallery website expands on the ideas behind the painting, describing her interest in what happens when thoughts overlap, speed up or begin to slip, and in visual forms that seem to drift between formation and dissolution. The page also notes her background, including a BA in History of Art from University College London and an MA in Fine Art from City & Guilds of London Art School, as well as First Prize in Jackson’s Art Prize in 2025. RHODES says her work will also feature in its forthcoming exhibition 'Chorus', opening in September.
