5 things to know about Mixing It Up: Painting Today at Hayward Gallery

Here are five things you need to know about the exhibition which runs from 9 September until 12 December.

So, what exactly is getting mixed up in this exhibition?

Well, a little bit of everything. The artists and their works blur different perspectives and time periods and disrupt genres and styles as we usually understand them. They also take inspiration from a range of image sources, incorporating references to everything from music and movies to memes. 

And who’s doing this mixing?

The artists in Mixing It Up span three generations – from 28 to 87 years old. All of them are based in the UK, but hail from around the globe, including countries in Africa, Asia, North and South America. Their diverse backgrounds have helped to make Britain a vibrant and international centre for contemporary painting.

Aside from working with paint, what is it that unites these artists?

These artists aren't part of a new movement and they don’t conform to a single style. However they all treat painting as a platform for speculative thinking and open-ended conversations. Their artworks are ambiguous and deliberately so. They invite us to make unexpected connections and to think in new ways.

Is all that really possible through painting?

It’s important to remember that a painting isn’t a straight-forward depiction of what we already know – it plays by a different set of rules and opens up new ways of looking at things that we normally take for granted. Going against the grain of the swipe-able images that inundate our lives, these artworks have an uncanny capacity to transfix us.

So why host this exhibition now?

Whilst some people may view painting as the most traditional of art forms, Mixing It Up suggests the opposite. These 31 artists lead us to challenge how we routinely look and think, including our perceptions of gender, race, consumer culture and the environment. At a time when images are consumed at lighting speed, painting is more relevant and timely than ever.

Header image: Cavernous Resonance (2020), Jadé Fadojutimi. Courtesy the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; Salon 94, New York; and Goodman Gallery, South Africa. Photo: Mark Blower