Nottingham Contemporary

We are thrilled to announce our 2026-27 programme:

February 7 – May 10, 2026

Shahana Rajani: Lines That World a River لکیروں سے دریا تھامنا

Lines That World a River is Shahana Rajani’s (b. 1987, Pakistan) first solo exhibition in Europe.

The exhibition centres practices and lineages of drawing and painting through which coastal communities in Pakistan remain connected to sacred ecologies of rivers and sea amidst the violence and erasure of infrastructure and the climate emergency. By foregrounding this sacred lineage, the exhibition centres drawing as a vital method which allows for passage, encounter and relation in a world rendered increasingly unstable. In Arabic the word for universe, alam, and the word for knowledge, ilm, share their origin in the word, alamah, a mark. To make a mark, to draw a line, is a way of knowing the world.

Dala Nasser: Cemetery of Martyrs

Dala Nasser's (b.1990, Lebanon) first solo exhibition in a major UK cultural institution departs from her past explorations into archaeological ruins, myths and histories of Southern Lebanon and wider West Asia and will feature a large-scale sculptural and sonic installation that invites viewers into a collective space of mourning and remembrance. By using frottage, Nasser will create a collection of charcoal grave rubbings collected from the graves of seminal artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, historians and journalists from across Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and England. Representing cultural figures from the mid nineteenth century (specifically the Nahda, Arab Renaissance) to the present day, the work honours those who fought for independence and freedom in times of political dominance and occupation and whose art, writing, and intellectual contributions have shaped the notion of true sovereignty in Western Asia.

June 6 – September 6, 2026

Chico da Silva

Nottingham Contemporary will present the first European institutional solo exhibition of the late self- taught Brazilian artist Francisco da Silva (1910–1985, Brazil), known as ‘Chico da Silva,’ or simply ‘Chico’.

Chico’s paintings were a glimpse into an immense non-hierarchical cosmology that was fuelled by the artist’s own imagination, mythology and folklore. Depicting sea creatures swimming on the currents of outer space, and fantastical creatures vividly painted in hallucinatory battles or stretching their jaws agape to consume smaller creatures, Chico’s works call attention to the interconnectedness of everything. During his life Chico’s practice was subject to significant local and international fascination, though in international contexts it was often exoticised as ‘primitive art’. Questions of authorship and authenticity following Chico’s establishment of a collective studio practice also divided opinions. The exhibition will present a selection of seminal paintings created throughout the artist’s lifetime and will celebrate Chico’s contribution and legacy to contemporary Indigenous art practice in Brazil.

Augustas Serapinas: Physical Culture

In summer 2026, Augustas Serapinas (b.1990, Lithuania) will present his first UK solo exhibition, Physical Culture at Nottingham Contemporary. Serapinas is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice reimagines architectural spaces and everyday objects, challenging their conventional roles and meanings. Through this process, he reveals embedded institutional norms and hierarchies, prompting audiences to reconsider their relationship with built environments. For this exhibition Serapinas will present a multi-media sculptural installation inspired by the artist’s experience as a student at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The installation will transform two large gallery spaces into a functioning gym with fitness equipment created by the artist that will incorporate new sculptures in place of conventional weights, cast from the heads of local groups in Nottingham. Throughout the summer season, the gym will be activated by local exercise clubs, life drawing art classes and student led performances that explore the relationship between art, beauty and the body.

October 3, 2026 – January 11, 2027

Julia Isídrez

Nottingham Contemporary will present the first international institutional solo exhibition of the Guaraní artist and ceramicist Julia Isídrez (b.1967, Paraguay), whose clay sculptures trouble and enlighten many issues that define cultural debate today – from indigeneity and identity politics to craft. Rooted in the ceramic traditions passed down through generations of women in Itá, Isídrez learned the craft within her family, working with local clay and long-standing Guaraní techniques that were gradually adapted over time. These inherited processes - from shaping to firing and fumigation - underpin her practice while allowing her to expand the vocabulary of regional ceramics. In contrast to these traditional techniques, the subject matter of her works is anything but conventional: hybrid dinosaur-like figures and multi-headed spherical amphibians populate her sculptures. These fantastical creatures are chimeras, unattainable beings of Isídrez’s imagination, yet still resonant with popular traditions and folklore.

Sarah Cunningham

In autumn 2026 Nottingham Contemporary will present the first institutional solo exhibition, and largest presentation of works to date, of the late British artist Sarah Cunningham (1993–2024, UK).

The exhibition marks a deeply meaningful homecoming: the return of the artist’s work to the city where she was born and raised.

Cunningham sought out the essential and the alive through her imaginary wildernesses and fluid forestscapes, taking inspiration from the speculative landscapes of science fiction literature, art history, ecology and personal references. Part abstract experimentation, part spiritual journey, every painting at some level represents the intuitive and unspoken connection between nature and humankind. Her unusual, nocturnal practice estranged her limbs and thoughts from systematic, painterly movements, resulting in works that briefly dwell in darkness only to culminate in the arrival of the dawn chorus. Through her sweeping expressionistic gestures, Cunningham built up layers of paint that she shaped into fluid motion, creating landscapes not just as we know them, but as scenes of possibility and portals into other worlds.