From 04 June to 12 September 2026, John Currin returns to 17 Savile Row, London W1S, nearly thirty years after inaugurating the gallery with its opening exhibition. The presentation brings together a new body of work for the occasion.

Across twelve paintings, women are staged among lush, ornamental landscapes that sit somewhere between fantasy, memory, and art history. Borrowed from the poses of 1970s clothing catalogues, these figures become actors in a world where the present recedes and painting itself takes centre stage.

“A horizontal landscape moves from blue sky on the left to a sunset on the right. It is a painful sensation of time passing and maybe a memory of childhood. And in the midst of this, Roman nosed people are acting out stuff. It’s a parody of a memory, a parody of a sentiment, it’s a child misunderstanding the present. Imagine hiring a theatrical crew to act out your past. The place feels real but the things that happened are acted out by costumed actors…That’s why it’s always Arcadia … it’s the childhood of a civilization.” John Currin said about Poussin for The Brooklyn Rail, September 2025.

Currin has long used the human figure as a vehicle for exploring the possibilities of paint, and these works continue that pursuit with remarkable confidence. The artist’s figures seem to acknowledge the passage of time with a knowing smile, transforming the realities of age into something mythic, sensual, and strangely liberating.

Its imagined landscapes evoke the pastoral worlds of Poussin and Watteau, while also drawing on the artist’s encounters with Acadia National Park in Maine. The atmosphere oscillates between serenity and subtle absurdity.

Alongside the paintings, a group of new ink drawings on washed paper revisits these scenes through a different register. More immediate and intimate, they reveal the structure beneath the spectacle, while preparatory sketches offer glimpses into Currin’s process.

Few painters of his generation have pursued their vision with such consistency. Since emerging in the 1990s, Currin has occupied a singular position in contemporary art, balancing Old Master technique with a distinctly contemporary sensibility. His new paintings certainly continue to provoke!