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| Allan Kaprow’s YARD and Conrad Shawcross’s Golden Lotus (Inverted) |
Two installations set the tone for Saatchi Gallery’s ambitious 40th-anniversary exhibition: Allan Kaprow’s YARD, a chaotic arrangement of car tyres inviting viewers to physically engage with the work, and, suspended directly above it, Conrad Shawcross’s Golden Lotus (Inverted) — a vintage Lotus car reimagined as a kinetic sculpture. Together, they encourage visitors to become participants rather than passive observers.
The Long Now, running until March 1, 2026, takes its
name from a concept advocating long-term thinking. Curated by Philippa Adams,
the exhibition pushes back against throwaway culture by pairing historic works
that remain powerfully relevant with bold new commissions. “At its heart, The
Long Now reaffirms the Gallery’s role as a platform for artists to
challenge conventions and shape conversations that extend beyond its walls,”
says Adams.
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| Alice Anderson, Chance Composition 206, 2024. Courtesy of the artist |
The show revisits themes that have run through Saatchi’s programming since 1985: how artists make their mark, the tension between surveillance and technology, and the fragility of our environment.
Jenny Saville’s monumental 2004 painting Passage anchors
the exhibition’s opening galleries. The large-scale work — depicting a
transgender woman with both male genitalia and surgically enlarged breasts —
underscores the fluidity of gender identity and Saville’s ambition to “be a
painter of modern life, and modern bodies.” It shares space with pieces by Jake
Chapman, Polly Morgan, Alice Anderson, and Rannva Kunoy that explore the
physical act of mark-making across different materials and scales.
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| Chino Moya, Unitive Knowledge of the System’s Dynamic, 2025. Courtesy of the artist |
Technology’s promises and perils take centre stage in two visually striking film works. Chino Moya’s Deemona imagines a future where humanity has destroyed itself and AI rebuilds an idealised version of civilisation from leftover data. The result is an eerily harmonious society where spirituality has become algorithmic. Shot with a 30-person crew, Moya’s visuals blend the composition of Renaissance painting with 1980s sci-fi, all set within the sterile anonymity of airports and office lobbies.
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| Mat Collishaw, Still from Aftermaths, 2025. Courtesy of the artist |
Mat Collishaw’s Aftermaths plunges viewers underwater into a nightmare vision of pollution’s effects. Mutated sea creatures — inspired by the hellish paintings of Hieronymus Bosch — swim among abandoned computer servers now overgrown with coral. Set to haunting classical music by Arvo Pärt, the film captures a bitter irony: AI was meant to help save the planet, yet the energy needed to sustain it only deepens the damage.
That environmental concern runs throughout the exhibition.
Gavin Turk’s Bardo, with its fragmented glass panels, evokes cultural
decay and collapse. Works by Edward Burtynsky and Ibrahim Mahama document
industrial extraction and waste on a monumental scale, while Ximena
Garrido-Lecca and Peter Buggenhout explore what renewal might look like in the
aftermath.
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| Richard Wilson, 20:50. Courtesy of the artist and Saatchi Gallery |
Richard Wilson’s 20:50 closes the exhibition with renewed urgency. The seminal installation fills a room waist-high with recycled engine oil, creating a perfectly mirrored environment that reflects the architecture back at visitors. First shown in 1987, the work takes on fresh resonance in the context of today’s climate crisis.