David Shrigley London exhibition will find the funny side of old masters
David Shrigley, the contemporary British artist known for his wry humour and distinctive line drawings, will stage a major new solo exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery placing his work "in dialogue" with 17th-century Dutch and Flemish old masters. New commissions responding to paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Jan Steen and David Teniers the Younger will hang alongside the originals, marking Shrigley's first UK public museum solo show since his 2012 Hayward Gallery retrospective and highlighting the comic strand running through historic painting.
The exhibition runs from 25 May to 5 September 2027, drawing on the gallery's own collection alongside loans from major UK institutions, and forms part of a wider 2027/28 programme that also includes what is thought to be the first UK museum exhibition dedicated to French painter Jacqueline Marval. Gallery curator Helen Hillyard said Shrigley's "instinct for finding the funny side of everyday life" makes him ideally suited to restoring playfulness to the old masters. Shrigley, a former Turner Prize nominee, is known for large-scale installations such as 2021's Mayfair Tennis Ball Exchange and 2025's £1m Exhibition of Old Rope.
- David Shrigley to exhibit alongside Dutch/Flemish old masters at Dulwich Picture Gallery
- Show runs 25 May–5 September 2027, his first UK museum solo since 2012
- Part of wider programme also featuring first UK Jacqueline Marval exhibition
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of this kind of curatorial pairing argue that placing Shrigley's wry, deadpan work alongside Dutch and Flemish old masters is a legitimate and valuable way to reinvigorate how audiences engage with historical art. They contend that humour and contemporary irreverence can highlight formal qualities, moral undertones or absurdities in the older paintings that reverent, conventional display often obscures, drawing in visitors who might otherwise find period galleries intimidating or inaccessible. For these advocates, such juxtapositions honour the old masters by keeping them in living conversation with art being made today, rather than treating them as static museum relics.
The case against
Others take a more cautious view, holding that old masters deserve to be experienced on their own terms, within the historical and devotional or social context that gave them meaning, rather than as a backdrop for a contemporary artist's comic sensibility. They worry that pairing serious, technically masterful works with deliberately flippant modern pieces risks flattening the distinction between profound craftsmanship and one-liner wit, encouraging visitors to view centuries-old paintings primarily as material for a joke. For this camp, the concern is not with Shrigley's talent but with whether such stunts prioritise novelty and visitor numbers over the quieter, more demanding work of appreciating historical art on its own merits.