Lisa Brice’s Serpentine exhibition promises theatrical immersion
The celebrated painter's first major London institutional show will transform the gallery into a multisensory exploration of her recurring worlds: the park, the studio, the bar and the arena.
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The forthcoming exhibition of Lisa Brice’s work at the Serpentine represents a significant moment in the artist’s evolving practice, one that promises to extend her immersive visual language into the very fabric of the gallery itself. Opening in October 2027, this major institutional presentation will unite paintings spanning the past five years alongside newly conceived works that respond directly to the Serpentine’s distinctive location and architectural character.
Brice’s painterly universe has long been populated by female protagonists navigating distinct theatrical spaces, each laden with psychological and sensory richness. The exhibition’s ingenious architecture will organise the galleries around four recurring settings that have become signature within her visual vocabulary: the park, the studio, the bar and the fight arena. Each functions as a stage upon which her figures enact the complexities of contemporary female existence, their gestures and expressions rendered with a luminous intensity that commands contemplation.
What distinguishes this presentation is its commitment to dissolving the boundary between canvas and space. Mirrors, doorways and reflections, recurring motifs that shimmer throughout Brice’s painted surfaces, will be woven into the exhibition’s scenography itself. This deliberate spatial strategy extends the theatrical qualities inherent in her paintings into the gallery environment, creating a cohesive and immersive experience that invites visitors to inhabit the worlds she has so meticulously constructed. The effect promises to be one of profound aesthetic immersion, where viewers encounter themselves within her compositions as active participants rather than distant observers.
The works themselves demonstrate Brice’s distinctive technical mastery, executed in pigment and natural water soluble binders on linen, their scale and presence commanding intimate engagement. The five panel composition surveyed here exemplifies her ability to construct monumental statements from carefully orchestrated formal relationships, the vertical elongation of each panel creating a rhythm that speaks to the human figure even in its absence.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue of considerable scholarly ambition, surveying Brice’s entire practice to date through newly commissioned contributions that respond to different bodies of work. This substantial publication will serve as both a record of the exhibition and a deeper meditation on her artistic trajectory, offering multiple perspectives on her distinctive vision.
Imagery courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac (@thaddaeusropac).
