Pitzhanger Manor to Host Alison Watt Exhibition

Paintings will echo the architecture and collection of Sir John Soane

Alison Watt, The Day After (detail), 2023. Oil on canvas, 80×78cm

January 15, 2025

Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery has announced a new exhibition—From Light—by the award-winning artist Alison Watt OBE to be held this spring. Running from 5 March to 1 June, this will be the artist's first exhibition in a public gallery in London since 2008.

The exhibition features a new series of paintings which aim to resonate with the architecture and collection of Sir John Soane, the architect of Pitzhanger Manor. Watt’s practice, rooted in a fascination with light, echoes Soane’s innovative manipulation of light to shape space and create atmosphere.

The artist first gained national attention while still a student at the Glasgow School of Art, winning the annual John Player Portrait Award in 1987 presented by the National Portrait Gallery. She was appointed the youngest Associate Artist at the National Gallery, in 2006 and presented an exhibition there, Phantom, in 2008.

Her work is held in numerous public collections, including the Arts Council Collection, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the British Council Collection, and the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.

She reflects, “Pitzhanger had a great personal significance for Sir John Soane. It is a house that tells us something not only of his intellectual life, but also his emotional one—a place that once held his hopes and aspirations. In its own way, a form of biography. Soane was an artist, who created an art object in which to display art. Like a painting, light is part of the very substance of this house.”

Watt’s works, displayed across the historic manor and contemporary gallery, attempt to engage in dialogue with figures from Soane’s circle, including architect Robert Adam. Paintings such as Parker draw on the symbolism of Soane’s collection, while works like The Day After explore the motif of the rose—a symbol of innocence, purity, and mourning—echoing Soane’s preoccupation with themes of decay and memorialisation.

Clare Gough, Director of Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery, said, “We are delighted to be working with Alison Watt in her first major public exhibition in London since her show as Associate Artist at the National Gallery, London. Watt’s exploration of light beautifully echoes Soane’s use of shadows and reflection as an architectural tool. The extraordinary body of new works, that demand quiet contemplation, will create a fascinating dialogue with Soane’s designs.”

Further details about the exhibition, including programming and public events, will be released closer to the opening date.

For more information, visit pitzhanger.org.uk/alison-watt

Visitors to Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery can also view two other exhibitions: Antoni Malinowski and Hélène Binet: Pigments and Photons and Language of the Physical: Katherine Gili’s Sculpture. For Arts Sake a selling exhibition offering original works runs until 12 January.

There is unlimited free access for Members at all times and Ealing borough residents can get free entry on Sundays 10am–noon and First Thursdays 5–8pm.

Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery is open from Wednesday to Sunday 10am–5pm , including Bank Holidays (First Thursday of the Month: 10am–8pm).