Absent Artists

Exploring artworks depicting artists’ studios in which the artists themselves are conspicuously absent.

What do the rooms we inhabit say about us? Can they speak on our behalf after we’ve gone? And what happens when these private worlds are consciously captured by the inhabitant and displayed for others to see?

Curated by Langlands & Bell, ‘Absent Artists’ explored artists’ studios in which the artists themselves are conspicuously absent. The exhibition included works by Annie Leibovitz, David Hockney, Michael Craig-Martin, William Hogarth and James Ensor in a range of different mediums including paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture and print.

The exhibition drew parallels with Charleston, a private space which has been turned public in the absence of the artists who created it. It also considered the duality of Charleston as both a home and a canvas for artistic experimentation, with the works on show similarly blurring the line between life and art.