Zanzibar-born British artist Lubaina Himid is bringing her passion for opera to the fore with an exhibition of works due to open next month at the Glyndebourne Festival in Lewes, East Sussex.
The show, What does love look like? (starting May 19), will present a series of paintings and large-scale objects inspired by the operas presented at the festival this summer, including that of Mozart Don Giovanni (1787), At Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (1953) and Handel Mixes (1743).
Himid, who won the Turner Prize in 2017, says that “like in opera, the narratives of my works are not static”. She adds in a statement: “When I started the paintings for Glyndebourne I saw it as a chance to experience an expanded version of my daily activity… On the canvases you can find delicate hands, penises strained, disconnected hearts, fluttering brains, cut necks and pursed lips.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a new publication with texts by Himid and art historian Griselda Pollock. The fair will be open to visitors during two family open days in September; festival ticket holders can see the first part of the show in Gallery 94 (May 19-August 27) while the second part in the Old Green Room can be viewed by appointment.
Himid studied theatrical design at the Wimbledon School of Art in London; his early interest in the stage, and opera in particular, spinning through a 2021 exhibition of his paintings and installations at the Tate Modern.
In 2021, Himid’s work was sought for another high profile commission: the UK Government Art Collection. The serigraphy — titled Old ship, new time—depicts a cabin being transported on a sailboat; the “sky” pushing down on the ship is a grid of blue and gray lines. The government commission was made in the context of Black Lives Matter, Himid said.
