Hurvin Anderson Tapestry to Star in London's 'Beyond Bayeux' Show at Guildhall Art Gallery
A six-metre tapestry by Turner Prize-nominated artist Hurvin Anderson will be the centrepiece of a major exhibition of contemporary British tapestry at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London this autumn.
'Beyond Bayeux: Tapestry Now' runs from 23 October 2026 to 21 March 2027 and features more than 20 tapestries woven at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh in collaboration with leading contemporary artists, including David Hockney, Yinka Shonibare, Rachel Maclean and Alberta Whittle The Art Newspaper. The show was announced by the City of London Corporation on 11 August City of London Corporation.
The exhibition's timing is no accident. It coincides with a display of the Bayeux Tapestry — the embroidered medieval chronicle of the Norman Conquest — at the British Museum. Dovecot Studios describes 'Beyond Bayeux' as celebrating that arrival and exploring the past, present and future of the medium Dovecot Studios.
Anderson's contribution carries its own story. The tapestry was commissioned to mark the 600th anniversary of Lincoln College, Oxford, and after the Guildhall run it will be permanently installed at the college next year The Art Newspaper. A team of five weavers at Dovecot spent over seven months on the piece. Anderson's design centres on a long table, drawing on Lincoln College's dining tradition and its role in bringing students, tutors and alumni together.
Dovecot Studios, founded in 1912, is the longest-running tapestry workshop in the UK. Its director, Celia Joicey, oversees a operation that pairs fine artists with master weavers — a process that can take the better part of a year for a single work.
The Guildhall show reaches across decades of that practice. Hockney's contribution, 'A Tapestry Made from a Painting, Made from a Painting of a Tapestry, Made from a Painting' (1970), marked his first collaboration with the Dovecot weavers. Rachel Maclean's 'Goo Gaa' (2024), inspired by French Rococo art, translates her distinctive digital imagery into woven form. Farshid Moussavi's 'The Garden Carpet', created for the V&A Dundee in 2025, draws on Persian textile heritage to present a paradise scene populated by Scottish plants and wildlife The Art Newspaper.
What makes this exhibition worth noticing is the sheer range on display. A 50-year span separates Hockney's early experiment from Maclean's recent piece, and the artists come from painting, architecture and digital art alike. Tapestry — a medium most people associate with castle walls and museum cases — turns out to be very much alive, and in the hands of contemporary artists, still capable of surprise.
