UPCOMING SHOWS

EMMA RICHARDSON
LEVITATE ME: DESIRE, ECSTASY AND THE SUBLIME
SOUTHAMPTON CITY ART GALLERY
7 MARCH - 31 AUGUST 2026

Southampton City Art Gallery -

“To coincide with the Gallery reopening, we are excited to present a major solo exhibition of new work by artist Emma Richardson. Spanning the gallery’s entire east wing, this show features a striking series of oil paintings that delve into the themes of desire, transcendence, and the sublime through a distinctly female lens.

Known for her visceral use of paint and layered surfaces, Richardson creates large-scale, seductive works that blur the boundaries between the bodily and the celestial.  Her immersive visual world draws on baroque drama, sci-fi atmosphere, influences ranging from writer Annie Ernaux to female surrealist artists, and her own lived experience as a touring musician.

This exhibition holds particular significance in Southampton, where Richardson was born and lived for much of her life. A regular visitor to the Gallery, Richardson has selected works from the city’s collection, to be shown alongside her own, highlighting both the influence and relevance of specific artists, and creating a dialogue between contemporary and historic voices.”

BETWEEN WAKING AND WANTING
SAATCHI GALLERY, LONDON
CURATED BY LIMINAL GALLERY
5 MARCH - 6 APRIL 2026

About
Curated by Liminal Gallery, Between Waking and Wanting brings together the work of four artists, Maud Whatley, Fipsi Seilern, Emma Richardson and Chloe Bonfield, each of whom explores the subtle strangeness of interior life: its rituals, its erotic charge, its mythologies, and its moments of psychological slippage.

The exhibition is concerned with the in-between. It evokes a state where the body may be still, but the mind is elsewhere, half-sleeping and half-reaching, moving through dream logic, memory, and longing.

Maud Whatley’s works are like storyboards, drawing inspiration from the uncanny dreamscapes of mid-century cinema. Fipsi Seilern’s intricate drawings on untreated wood conjure the atmosphere of dream fragments. Emma Richardson’s large-scale paintings engage with psychology, transcendence, and female desire, while drawing on the intensity of Baroque painting. Chloe Bonfield’s painted figures appear suspended mid-thought, caught within intimate yet unplaceable landscapes.

Together, these works form a conversation about the textures of mental life, where images flicker without resolution, longing persists, and meaning remains just out of reach. Between Waking and Wanting invites us to dwell in these uncertain moments – not to decode them, but to feel their charge.

About Liminal Gallery
Proving that scale is no barrier to impact, Liminal Gallery is the UK’s smallest bricks-and-mortar contemporary gallery. Based in Margate, Liminal challenges the status quo with a bold and inclusive programme, platforming diverse and resonant voices from across the UK and Ireland.