London
Nat Faulkner: Strong water
January 16–March 22, 2026
In his first major institutional exhibition in the UK, London-based artist Nat Faulkner (b. 1995, Chippenham)—the recipient of Camden Art Centre’s 2024 Emerging Artist Award at Frieze—will present an ambitious new commission that continues his enquiries into the structures and mechanics of photography. The exhibition’s title, Strong water, is derived from the Latin name for nitric acid, aqua fortis, and alludes to the artist’s fascination with state changes, demonstrated in water’s mercurial ability to cycle through manifold conditions. In a series of new frottage reliefs, Faulkner maps the site of his studio, taking rubbings with copper sheets directly from the floor and walls, then electroplating them with silver, recycled and purified from X-ray film sourced from NHS labs. When pieced together they reveal a partial image that haunts the gallery in situ.
The exhibition is accompanied by an artist’s book, titled 1:1 and is made possible by the 2024 Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Award at Frieze supporters. With special thanks to Frieze and Brunette Coleman.
Donald Locke: Resistant Forms
April 10–August 30, 2026
This comprehensive survey of Guyanese-British artist Donald Locke (b. 1930, Stewartville–d. 2010, Atlanta) spans five decades, from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, exploring the development of his practice in Guyana, the UK and the United States. Despite Locke’s pivotal role in 20th century British sculpture and his significant contributions as a post-war artist of the Windrush Generation, his work has been under-recognised, particularly in the UK. The exhibition includes early 'biomorphic' ceramics evocative of human and natural forms; mixed-media sculpture and paintings from the 'Plantation Series'; large-scale paintings that incorporate found images along with ceramic, metal and wood elements; as well as examples of his late work made in Atlanta, influenced by the assemblage traditions of the American South. Locke’s practice is characterised by his evolving approach to different media, his formal ingenuity, and a consistent exploration of history, identity and subjugation.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated monographic publication. Donald Locke: Resistant Forms is organised by Spike Island, Bristol; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; and Camden Art Centre, London; with support from the Donald Locke Estate. The exhibition is generously supported by Alison Jacques Gallery, the Ampersand Foundation, Cockayne Grants for the Arts, the Donald Locke Estate, Henry Moore Foundation and Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Ain Bailey
April 10–June 14, 2026
Ain Bailey (b. 1963, London) is a London-based composer, artist, and DJ. For over 15 years she has worked at the forefront of sonic exploration across various sites, spaces, platforms and settings. This major exhibition of new and recent work builds upon her long-standing exploration of identity, place and architectural acoustics. Using sound in all its forms, Bailey opens up spaces of grief, loss, resistance and remembrance, while simultaneously generating sites for active and radical new models of community, co-production and connection. Drawing together a core group of sculptures and films made since 2021, the exhibition is anchored by a newly commissioned film shot on location in Jamaica, the country of her parents’ birth and, until recently, a place she had never visited.
The exhibition is supported by the Freelands Foundation.
Liz Larner
September 11, 2026–January 17, 2027
This major solo exhibition with American artist Liz Larner (b. 1960, Sacramento, CA) marks the artist’s first institutional exposure in the UK. Predominantly focused on work made over the last decade, it reveals the core ideas driving the artist’s current practice and her virtuosic capacity to range between mediums and techniques. The exhibition includes new work made especially for the galleries at Camden Art Centre, as well as works from her ‘Asteroids’ series and assemblage made with discarded, single-use plastics. It will foreground Larner’s long-standing engagement with ceramics, a medium she turned to in the late ‘90s, where her enduring concern with transformation and instability finds natural expression in the manipulation of form, and the intense metamorphosis of firing and glazing processes.
Merlin James
January 29–May 16, 2027
Spanning more than forty years of work in painting, drawing and mixed materials, this will be Merlin James’ most substantial exhibition in London to date. Rooted in painting culture and history, James (b.1960, Cardiff) at once refines and redefines pictorial language, where materiality and meaning are simultaneous and indivisible. From the raw ‘ingredients’ of colour and texture, through the elaboration of design and composition (representational and abstract), to complex notions of genre, style, narrative, expression and affect — James’s compound concerns resist easy summary. Recurrent motifs — sea and riverscapes, piers, doorways, trees, bridges, buildings, bandstands, intimate sexual scenes, birds and interiors — at once function as specimens in an ongoing artistic experiment and yet resonate as authentically emotive and related to lived experience.
Phillip King: Kamakura Ceramics
January 29–March 14, 2027
Best known for his large, vividly coloured geometric sculptures, Phillip King (b. 1934, Tunis–d. 2021, London) was driven throughout his career by a sustained commitment to experimentation. Informed by ancient traditions and modernist restraint, his practice encompassed a wide range of materials: from the fibreglass that characterised his early work; to slate, found metal and wood he employed in the 1980s; and the clay and ceramic to which he also returned to in his later years. This exhibition will focus on a lesser-known aspect of King’s practice, presenting a significant group of ceramic works produced in Japan during the 1990s. King first visited Japan in 1969, initiating a lifelong engagement with Buddhism, Japanese culture, art history and craft traditions. He returned frequently, and in the early 1990s undertook a residency in Kamakura, where he immersed himself in the practices of Japanese ceramics, experimenting with hand-built vessels and glazes. Comprising more than 70 works made during this intensely productive period, the ceramics remained in Japan for the next three decades. Their presentation at Camden Art Centre will mark the first time they will be exhibited in the UK.
