Dulwich Picture Gallery announces 2025 Exhibition Programme with solo shows by three remarkable female artists

Dulwich Picture Gallery unveils its ambitious 2025 Exhibition Programme, which includes a solo exhibition by acclaimed artist Rachel Jones featuring new commissions, a major retrospective of celebrated Danish artist Anna Ancher, and a solo display of new works by contemporary artist Somaya Critchlow, responding to the Gallery’s collection. 

Jennifer Scott, Director, Dulwich Picture Gallery, said: “Our 2025 programme showcases the exquisite work of three distinct female artists from the nineteenth century to today, each revealing a unique perspective and inventive artistic practices. Rachel Jones is the first ever contemporary artist to be commissioned for a solo show in Dulwich Picture Gallery’s main exhibition space. Her approach to paint, and her blending of abstraction and figurative art, set her apart as one of the most exciting artists of our time.  

“In November, we are thrilled to present the first ever UK show of the pioneering Danish artist Anna Ancher. Ancher’s paintings immediately transport us to her world, infused with evocative Scandinavian light. As part of our ‘Unlocking Painting’ series, Somaya Critchlow will present a display in Gallery 12 offering a new perspective on our collection. I can’t wait for visitors to discover these exemplary works and three distinct artists at Dulwich.”

Rachel Jones 
10 June – 19 October 2025 

In summer 2025, Dulwich Picture Gallery presents an exhibition by Rachel Jones (b. 1991), the first ever solo contemporary show in the Gallery’s main exhibition space. The show will feature a series of newly commissioned works celebrating this leading artist’s exploration into identity and interiority within the self. 

Jones studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Royal Academy of Arts, London, and has exhibited in leading institutions across the UK and internationally, including recent solo exhibitions at The Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco (2024), Long Museum, Shanghai, China (2023) and Chisenhale Gallery, London (2022). The commissions for Dulwich Picture Gallery will organically develop from the body of work created for her recent solo show !!!!! at the Museum of African Diaspora and will respond to the Gallery’s collection through a contemporary lens.

Jones explores abstraction and life through painting, installation, sound and performance. Using the full colour spectrum in her works, she provokes different emotions for the viewer, creating sensory landscapes through an instinctive and intuitive mark-making process. Working in layers of oil stick and oil pastel, the artist blends with her hand and builds up distinct tones, which often result in unusual and sometimes unsettling combinations. 

Motifs of mouths are often found in her works. This body part is steeped in historical, cultural and societal meaning, and also represents a metaphorical and literal portal to our inner selves. Using colour, texture and abstraction, Jones expresses the emotions we feel in our bodies – things that often remain unspoken. Working simultaneously on large and small-scale pieces, she creates a dialogue between her works and invites audiences to interpret the paintings through their own personal experiences.

The exhibition is curated by Jane Findlay, Head of Programme and Engagement, Dulwich Picture Gallery. A colour-illustrated catalogue with newly commissioned essays will accompany the exhibition, shedding further light on the remarkable practice and process of Jones as an artist.

Anna Ancher
4 November 2025 – 8 March 2026 

This marks the first major exhibition in the UK dedicated to Anna Ancher (1859 – 1935), considered to be one the most important and innovative artists in Danish history. Bringing together recently discovered paintings from Anna Ancher’s home, alongside an extensive body of work made throughout the artist’s long career, the exhibition will feature more than 40 of her paintings, including the artist’s most famous masterpieces on special loan from Art Museums of Skagen. A central figure of the Skagen artist colony, based at the northernmost point of Jutland, Ancher is considered to be the leading female artist in Denmark’s history. She is widely celebrated in her homeland, yet remains relatively unknown to British audiences.

Ancher was an influential figure of the Scandinavian ‘Modern Breakthrough’ movement that sought to capture real life, demonstrated in her intimate, observational works, which documented everyday experiences in the fishing town of Skagen. Influenced by her travels to Paris, as well as French Impressionism, the artist produced vivid interiors and evocative landscape scenes in which light becomes the central figure. The exhibition will demonstrate Ancher’s bold approach to colour and radical interpretation of everyday scenes as a truly pioneering modern painter.

Lisette Vind Ebbesen, Director, Art Museums of Skagen, said: “It’s a great pleasure for us to collaborate with Dulwich Picture Gallery on this Anna Ancher exhibition. We consider her to be one of the most important Danish painters of her time – and so did her contemporaries. Her colours, motifs and style resembled none of them, and they still seem unique and fresh so many years later. We believe she has much to offer the world and are very excited to contribute to the first UK showing of Anna Ancher.”

The exhibition is curated by Helen Hillyard, Head of Collection, Dulwich Picture Gallery, in partnership with Art Museums of Skagen. Accompanying the exhibition will be a colour-illustrated catalogue with newly commissioned essays by Helen Hillyard and Mette Harbo Lehmann, Curator, Art Museums of Skagen, which will contextualise and further explore Ancher’s life and work.

Somaya Critchlow: The Chamber 
4 February – 20 July 2025

London-based painter Somaya Critchlow (b. 1993) grew up visiting Dulwich Picture Gallery. Since then, Critchlow’s work has been exhibited internationally and is held in public collections across the UK, Europe and North America including ICA, Miami; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the British Museum, London.

She now returns to Dulwich for her debut solo show in a UK public institution, creating a new body of work in response to Old Master paintings. Captivated by the highly charged episodes which unfold across the Gallery’s narrative paintings, Critchlow probes how historic art — telling familiar yet epic stories of myth and religion — can mask complex power structures.

The display is curated by Dr Lucy West, Curator, Dulwich Picture Gallery and is part of the Unlocking Paintings series: ambitious displays that present new perspectives on the Gallery’s collection, inviting artists and thinkers to interpret historic themes for contemporary audiences.

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors

Press Contact
Eibhlín Kissack, PR Manager
e.kissack@dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

Tickets
Ticket on sale dates will be announced via Dulwich Picture Gallery’s website and social media channels a few months prior to exhibition opening. 

Images
Publicity images can be downloaded from the press pack.

Dulwich Picture Gallery
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an internationally renowned art gallery and registered charity which has made great art accessible for the public ever since it opened its doors and set the blueprint for museums in 1817. With an iconic collection of European masterpieces and a dynamic programme of exhibitions, events, and community initiatives, we are passionate about engaging audiences and bringing art to life and life to art within our vibrant and creative spaces.

Image credits:
Rachel Jones photographed by Adama Jalloh, 2023; Anna Ancher, Sunlight in the blue room, 1891. Oil on canvas. Image courtesy of Skagens Museum; Somaya Critchlow photographed at Dulwich Picture Gallery by Graham Turner, 2024.

Exhibition Supporters:
Official Paint Partner: Mylands
Digital Exhibition Guide: Bloomberg Connects
Anna Ancher: Supported by The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs & The Danish Ministry of Culture.