THE LONG NOW: Saatchi Gallery at 40
5 November 2025 - 1 March 2026
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Celebrating four decades of ground-breaking contemporary art, The Long Now is an expansive group show presenting new works by iconic artists closely associated with the Gallery’s dynamic history, alongside fresh voices from a new generation.
Spanning two floors and nine major exhibition spaces, the exhibition features special commissions, installations, painting and sculpture, and culminates with Richard Wilson’s iconic 20:50. A landmark in Saatchi Gallery’s history, 20:50 has been shown at each of the Gallery’s past locations and now, for the first time, is presented on the top floor.
Filling the space with recycled engine oil, it creates a mirrored environment that both disorients and captivates. In the context of today’s climate crisis, the work takes on renewed resonance, inviting reflection on the fragility of our surroundings, community, and environmental uncertainty.
The Long Now takes its name from a concept of fostering long-term thinking and challenging throwaway culture. Newly created works appear alongside historic pieces that remain impactful and relevant, continuing Saatchi Gallery’s tradition of showing art of the present while giving artists the space to realise ambitious ideas.
The exhibition opens with works exploring process and mark-making – a fundamental human gesture reimagined by Alice Anderson, Rannva Kunoy and Carolina Mazzolari. This spirit of experimentation runs through works by Tim Noble, André Butzer, Dan Colen, Jake Chapman and Polly Morgan, who push subject, style and scale.
At the centre stands Jenny Saville’s monumental Passage (2004). Combining strength and beauty, it exemplifies her ambition to “be a painter of modern life, and modern bodies.” The work anchors the exhibition’s energy, inviting a powerful and intimate encounter with the human form.
Painting, a constant in Saatchi Gallery’s programme, is further represented by Alex Katz, Michael Raedecker, Ansel Krut, Martine Poppe and Jo Dennis, alongside new and emerging voices who continue to expand the medium’s possibilities.
Immersive installations shift the focus from viewing to participation. Allan Kaprow’s YARD, with its chaotic arrangement of tyres, encourages movement and play, while Conrad Shawcross’s suspended Golden Lotus (Inverted) transforms a vintage car into a kinetic sculpture, prompting reflection on transformation, agency and the role of the viewer.
The exhibition raises questions of technology and the future, with Chino Moya, Mat Collishaw and Tom Hunter reflecting on surveillance, automation and AI – considering how the digital world permeates contemporary life.
Themes of fragility and climate change weave throughout. Gavin Turk’s fractured Bardo suggests cultural decay and the precarious balance between permanence and collapse, while works by Olafur Eliasson, Chris Levine and Frankie Boyle use light to create moments of contemplation. Environmental concerns are explored by Edward Burtynsky, Steven Parrino, Peter Buggenhout, Ibrahim Mahama, Ximena Garrido Lecca and Christopher Le Brun, who address extraction, waste and renewal.
Curated by Philippa Adams (Senior Director, Saatchi Gallery 1999- 2020).
Featured artists: Alice Anderson, Olivia Bax, Frankie Boyle, Edward Burtynsky, Peter Buggenhout, André Butzer, Jake Chapman, Mat Collishaw, Dan Colen, John Currin, Jo Dennis, Zhivago Duncan, Olafur Eliasson, Rafael Gómezbarros, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Damien Hirst, Tom Hunter, Henry Hudson, Alex Katz, Allan Kaprow, Maria Kreyn, Rannva Kunoy, Christopher Le Brun, Chris Levine, Ibrahim Mahama, Carolina Mazzolari, Jeff McMillan, Misha Milovanovich, Polly Morgan, Ryan Mosley, Chino Moya, Tim Noble, Alejandro Ospina, Steven Parrino, Martine Poppe, Michael Raedecker, Sterling Ruby, Jenny Saville, Conrad Shawcross, Soheila Sokhanvari, John Squire, Dima Srouji, Gavin Turk, Richard Wilson, Alexi Williams Wynn.
With thanks to Artvisor.
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