Gilbert & George, the immaculately suited duo behind some of Britain’s most provocative artworks, have been handed the entire Hayward Gallery to fill — and they’ve done so with towering grids of irreverential imagery.
As their reputation has grown, so too has the scale of their art. Here, vast printed panels stretch across the gallery’s austere white and concrete walls, creating immersive walls of colour, collage and confrontation.
Their art is instantly familiar to people who have seen their work before, but here the scale of the new collection is immense, and all of it has been created in the past 25 years — their post-millennium art phase.
It’s a milder selection than some of their earlier, more scatological provocations and is less shock-for-shock’s sake, more wry observation. Still, there’s plenty of edge. Their trademark self-insertion remains, as they cast themselves into the chaotic world they document and dissect.
A wall of rent-boy adverts featuring their staring faces prompts unintended thoughts about how many of those numbers still connect, and what became of the lives behind them? Elsewhere, tabloid headlines are collaged into cacophonies of sensation, a commentary on how newspapers use human trauma to sell copies.
Famously conservative in their personal politics yet anti-establishment in their art, they critique surveillance, policing, and the self-apointed moral authorities visible around their East London home.
Religion is teased, the St George’s Cross is subverted, animal bones become relics, and of course, Gilbert & George themselves appear everywhere. What’s surprising about the art is how glossy it all feels, with the print quality being really quite remarkable and almost feeling more like backlit video walls than printed panels.
Love them or maybe not, you’ll struggle to forget this show.
The exhibition, Gilbert & George: 21st century pictures, is at the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank until January 2026.
Standard Ticket: £20
Teens (12-16): £8
Under 12: Free
Concessions: £17
Art Fund: £15
You can book tickets in advance from here.
