Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
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If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
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The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
Last month, I told you to avoid London because of Frieze Week. Well, PSYCH! It’s actually this month. I hope this error demonstrates my lack of commitment to the London art world calendar and, instead, my dedication to getting you out of the capital to see what the rest of the UK has to offer. (To my credit, Frieze events and talks do begin in September, so we had already entered - albeit not Frieze Month - Chielly Month, at least.)
So I’m back, once again reminding you that there is art and culture to be enjoyed outside of the M25. Here’s my list of must-see exhibitions outside of London this October, including fabric, folk art, and festivals.
Spode Works, Staffordshire - The British Ceramics Biennial - until 19 October
I recently took a Pottery Pilgrimage up to Stoke-on-Trent to visit the British Ceramics Biennial for the first time. Despite it closing in October (and I usually like to give you lot at least a month’s warning before a show closes on the list), the BCB is simply too good not to cram in here. Spread through the historic Spode Works site, a short walk from Stoke-on-Trent station, the BCB is hands-down the best ceramics show I’ve ever seen. Showcasing a huge variety of work, and held in the UK’s Pottery Capital, it’s like you’ve been let into a secret storeroom, where a kindly Clay Magnate wants to show you “where he keeps the good stuff”. You can get to the Biennial within two hours from London Euston, which is the perfect amount of time for you to destress having spent time in London Euston.
If living museums have a million fans, I am one of them. If living museums have no fans, then I am dead. (I think that’s a meme, but I did just have to do a Google to check.) The Streetlife Museum in Hull is home to an extensive collection of 19th and 20th-century motor vehicles, bicycles, a recreation of Leeds’ oldest Chemist shop, and a set of those uncanny-valley historical wax figures that pop up in your dreams every now and again after seeing them on a school trip. Their temporary exhibition this autumn showcases the fruits of an archaeological dig in Drypool, just across the River Hull from the museum, undertaken by Humber Field Archaeology and a team of local volunteers. Their finds bring to life the 700-year-old story of the village of Drypool, and it’s worth visiting - if anything - for a break from the Wax Men.
Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, Cornwall - Chantal Joffe: The Prince - until 15 November
The first in a Cornish duo this month, ‘The Prince’ at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange is for the lads. Well, rather, it’s of the lads. Featuring two new major bodies of work, each starring male sitters, ‘The Prince’ is a look into masculinity that is both critical and caring. Exploring the tenderness of manhood, through portraits of her partner and of the writer Charlie Porter, Joffe examines gender with the help of the courtly title ‘prince’. What makes someone a prince? What images does it conjure up? What does it mean to be a prince, opposed to a king? (and not just a £72 million coronation…)
Petworth House, West Sussex - Turner’s Vision at Petworth - until 16 November
Whenever I’ve been researching exhibitions for this article, I always end up stumbling on shows about J.M.W. Turner, and think, “I swear I already covered this one?” But it turns out it’s his birthday, and it’s a big one. So, like your friend turning 30 who is having a “birthday week”, Turner is celebrating in style with a “birthday year” and dozens of exhibitions up and down the country. Well, you only turn 250 once! This one is at Petworth House, a 17th-century National Trust property with enormous grounds full of deer and landscaped by 18th-century Alan Titchmarsh, Capability Brown (actually called ‘Lancelot’, so fair play for running with the ‘Capability’ nickname instead). Turner was pals with the Earl of Egremont, who owned Petworth, and was a regular visitor. ‘Turner’s Vision’ has more than 20 rarely-seen paintings of the Petworth landscape by Turner on display (deer included).
The Old School Gallery, Northumberland - Cunning Folk - from 16 October until 17 November
This one has been on my waitlist for a while, and I couldn’t wait to share it, largely because it’s got one of the best posters I’ve seen for a while. Featuring 15 artists, ‘Cunning Folk’ is an exploration of all things witch, and asks us to consider the history of the archetype, and where its shadows can still be felt today. The Old School Gallery is in the village of Alnmouth, right on the Northumberland coast. It is housed in a restored Victorian school (clue’s in the name), they have a cafe, and going to see ‘Cunning Folk’ basically seems like a good plan to get to escape to somewhere lovely for a bit. The Old School Gallery has a particular focus on printmaking and illustration, which explains why all of their promotional posters are so pleasing.
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall - Collections Display: 2025 Part II - until 31 December
The Falmouth Art Gallery may be small, but its collection is mighty. So mighty, in fact, that they can’t have it all out at the same time, and instead stage regular rehangs to showcase as much as they can throughout the year. For their second selection of the year, Falmouth Art Gallery are spotlighting work by lesser-known female artists, including 17th-century poet and painter Anne Killigrew, 20th-century artists Isobel Heath and Martina Thomas.
Marking 40 years since the Miners’ Strike (and since Turner’s 210th birthday, if that’s how we’re measuring time now), Narbi Price has worked with the author Mark Hudson to curate an exhibition of 40 paintings of County Durham landscapes, examining how they continue to be shaped by the mining industry, even after the last pit’s closure in 1993. Inspired by Hudson’s award-winning book ‘Coming Back Brockens’, published in 1994, the exhibition also includes a sound installation made up of several interviews Hudson made with mining communities during the early 1990s.
In previous editions of Not London, we’ve recommended exhibitions all about clay, staplers, looms, and glass, and now it’s fabric’s turn, baby! ‘Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles’, a touring show created by the Hayward Gallery Touring, is exhibiting work by 15 UK-based artists (including big names like Yinka Shonibare and Phyllida Barlow), made over the last decade, celebrating all things textiles. From the domestic and mundane to the theatrical and regal, this show promises to illuminate the roles textiles play in our lives and in artistic practices. You’ll probably leave wanting to give your curtains a stroke. Not a euphemism.
Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, West Yorkshire - Turner Prize - until 22 February 2026FIND
For the first time in its 41 years, the Turner Prize - the UK’s biggest art award, which has crowned contemporary art legends including Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, and other artists who aren’t rumoured to be arseholes - is coming to Bradford! Shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa are artistically duking it out in Cartwright Hall until December 9th, when one of them will be announced the UK’s Artistic Heavyweight Champion. I have also just put two and two together and have realised this is YET ANOTHER BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR J.M.W. TURNER, after whom the prize was named in 1984. God, that guy’s insatiable.
Graves Gallery, South Yorkshire - On the Border of my Peaceful Home - Until 23 December 2026
A brilliant way for Sheffield to showcase their collection in a new and meaningful way, ‘On the Border of my Peaceful Home’ is an exhibition curated by the artist Kedisha Coakley, using archival objects to highlight Sheffield’s colonial past, with an emphasis on the fruit and flower trade. Hanging her own work - which is inspired by still life painting practices of the Dutch Golden Age, in which fruit and flowers often star - among artwork from the city’s collection, Coakley illuminates the conflict between beautiful things and the unpleasant means with which we procure them, asking, “at what cost?” Pineapples as a status symbol get a shoutout in the promotional text, a status symbol which led to its association with hospitality, and eventually with swinging. I don’t believe (although I can’t guarantee) that there’ll be anything like that happening in the Graves Gallery, though.
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