What’s On in 2027

William De Morgan and his Fantastical Creatures
Ceramics of the Arts and Crafts Movement 
30 January – 9 May 2027
William De Morgan (1839-1917) was the foremost ceramicist of the Arts and Crafts Movement and an expert in Ottoman Pottery and Glaze. Our exhibition will bring together over 50 examples of his richly decorated ceramics, alongside his rarely-seen paper designs, highlighting his incredible artistic imagination for creating fantastical creatures.

Clare Woods: The Unmutable
New works inspired by the Holburne Collection
23 January – 9 May 2027
The Unmutable, presents 16 new still-life paintings inspired by objects from the Holburne Collection. Woods draws comparisons between past and present, exploring how we collect, preserve and value objects, while encouraging us to see the Holburne Collection in a new light.

Peter Randall-Page: Playing God
28 January – 3 May 2027
Peter Randall-Page is one of Britain’s most respected sculptors. The exhibition will consist of a selection of sculptures from across his career, in a variety of mediums, displayed inside the Ballroom Gallery and in the Museum grounds. The focal point of the exhibition will be a new series of cast-iron sculptures, entitled Playing God, which will be on public display for the first time. 

The Story of a Life, curated by Katy Hessel
29 May to 31 October 2027
Bringing together six artists, this exhibition delves into the female experience across the different stages of a woman’s life. Taking inspiration from  Paula Rego’s The Dance (1988), the exhibition traces pivotal moments from independence and motherhood to caregiving, grief, liberation and old age. Through the work of Paula Rego, Tracey Emin, Chantal Joffe, Antonia Showering, Joline Kwakkenbos and Claudette Johnson, the exhibition considers how artists have captured the complexities, contradictions and changing realities of women’s lives.

Ancients and Moderns: Etchings by Samuel Palmer
22 May to 5 September 2027
Samuel Palmer (1805-1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and produced visionary pastoral prints and paintings. Influenced by William Blake and the landscape of Shoreham in Kent, Palmer became associated with a group of other Blake-influenced artists known as the Ancients (including George Richmond and Edward Calvert). He also inspired a resurgence in twentieth-century landscape printmaking.

Sculptures by Francis Upritchard
18 September 2027 to 6 January 2028
Born in New Zealand and based in London, Upritchard has developed a distinctive visual language that draws from figurative sculpture, decorative arts and anthropology. For this exhibition, Upritchard will work directly with historic objects drawn from the Holburne’s collection which will be partially engulfed by new figurative works. Silverware will appear swallowed, overgrown, or slowly absorbed into their surfaces, inviting visitors to consider how value, meaning, and cultural memory are constructed, inherited and continually remade.

Paintings by Sarah Ball
18 September 2027 to 9 January 2028
A display of new works will include meticulously rendered miniature portraits exploring themes of gender and identity.

We look forward to sharing further information in the coming months.