Opening on 22 May 2026 at No.1 Royal Crescent, Glenn Brown: Grottoesque brings the artist’s distinctive paintings and drawings into one of the city’s most carefully preserved historic settings. Brown, who studied in Bath forty years ago, will revisit the city not with nostalgia, but with a sharp and curious eye.

The contrast is immediate. The elegant proportions of Royal Crescent, long associated with harmony and restraint, meet Brown’s swirling, often distorted imagery. At the centre of the exhibition is a transformed gallery space. Brown turns one room into a grotto, complete with shell-like textures and three new large-scale paintings of clustered heads. These works feel immersive, almost as if they belong to the room itself rather than simply hanging within it. The effect is both theatrical and slightly disorienting.

Beyond the gallery, Brown’s presence extends into the historic house. He has also created a bespoke wallpaper for the exhibition. These gestures are small, but together they shift how the house is experienced.

The project continues across the city at Holburne Museum, where Glenn Brown in Bath: Arrows of Desire opens on 16 May 2026. Here, Brown’s works are placed among historic paintings, including those by Thomas Gainsborough. The pairing is spectacular. The calm, composed portraits of the 18th century sit alongside Brown’s more intense and fluid. Details that might normally go unnoticed begin to stand out, while his own paintings take on a different clarity when seen in this context.

Grottoesque brings together the decorative richness of the grotto with the strangeness of the grotesque, showing how easily beauty and distortion can exist side by side. In Brown’s hands, Bath becomes not just a backdrop, but an active part of the story.

Image: Glenn Brown,Darsham Songs,2016.Photograph by Mike Bruce