London’s BAFTA season gains a striking new visual anchor this February as LOOK AT ME: Framing the Iconic arrives at Corinthia London, transforming the hotel’s grand public spaces into an immersive gallery of cinematic faces.
Running from February 1–29, the exhibition presents 44 large-scale portraits by British-Maltese photographer Lorenzo Agius, whose images have helped define the visual language of modern celebrity for more than three decades.
Best known for creating the era-defining campaign for Trainspotting, Agius has built a career on capturing the charisma, vulnerability and eccentric humanity of cultural icons.
Installations views from ‘Look at Me: Framing the Iconic’ at the Corinthia, London.
His lens has framed actors and musicians not as distant idols but as individuals caught in moments of intensity, playfulness or quiet self-awareness. In LOOK AT ME, these moments are brought together in a site-specific installation that allows visitors to encounter famous faces in unexpectedly intimate ways.
Suspended throughout Corinthia London’s lobbies and corridors, the portraits appear to float in mid-air, printed on fine art watercolour paper and displayed without glass.
The effect dissolves the usual boundary between viewer and artwork. Guests move through everyday spaces only to find themselves face to face with Ewan McGregor, Kate Winslet or Cate Blanchett, their expressions enlarged and unguarded. The act of looking becomes reciprocal. These are images that look back.
The roll call of subjects reads like a condensed history of late 20th and early 21st century screen culture. British figures including Jude Law, Helena Bonham Carter, Tilda Swinton, Keira Knightley, Clive Owen and Bill Nighy appear alongside American stars such as Denzel Washington, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Will Smith, Madonna and Meryl Streep. A cult-favourite image of Patsy Kensit and Liam Gallagher beneath the Union Jack anchors the exhibition’s exploration of British identity and pop mythology.
Curated by Charlene Vella of the University of Malta, LOOK AT ME builds on themes first introduced when the exhibition debuted in Valletta in 2025 to critical acclaim. In its London incarnation, the show takes on new resonance.
By grouping British and American icons together, the installation creates what Vella describes as a polyphonic chorus of fame. Different accents, backgrounds and cinematic histories converge, unified by the act of being looked at, judged and recognised.
Installations views from ‘Look at Me: Framing the Iconic’ at the Corinthia, London.
“Lorenzo Agius has captured the faces that have defined an era,” says Vella. “His images are timeless, and this exhibition offers a rare chance to experience them in a setting that unites Maltese craftsmanship, British creativity and cinematic heritage.”
That cultural dialogue sits at the heart of the project. Presented in collaboration with the Maltese High Commission in London and Visit Malta, the exhibition celebrates the international reach of Maltese creativity and Corinthia London’s own Maltese heritage. Agius himself was born in London to Maltese parents, a bicultural identity mirrored by Corinthia Hotels International, the Maltese-founded luxury hotel group behind the venue.
As Malta continues to grow as a major filming destination for global productions, LOOK AT ME highlights the country’s evolving relationship with international cinema. The exhibition does not simply celebrate fame. It interrogates it, asking what it means to be seen in a world saturated with images and how much of the human face survives behind the polished persona.
Ewan McGregor, one of Agius’s most enduring collaborators, sums it up with characteristic warmth. “Lorenzo created images that will endure forever,” he says. “Choose Life! Choose Lorenzo!”
During the heightened glamour of BAFTA season, LOOK AT ME: Framing the Iconic offers a moment of pause and reflection. Amid red carpets and flashbulbs, it reminds viewers that behind every famous face is a fleeting human moment, captured and held in suspension, waiting to be met eye to eye.