Cork Street Banners Commission 2026: Lubaina Himid

Cork Street Galleries, an initiative of The Pollen Estate, takes great pleasure in announcing Lubaina Himid’s Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026, opened officially to the public coinciding with London Gallery Weekend 2026.

Cork Street Galleries are also a Supporting Partner of the British Council and Lubaina Himid who is also representing Great Britain at the 61st International Art Exhibition of Biennale di Venezia with her major solo exhibition. Visitors will thus have the opportunity to experience Himid’s work in both Venice and London this year.

Lubaina Himid photographed with ‘Reading the Label’, Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026. Courtesy Cork Street Galleries and The Pollen Estate. Photo: Luke Hayes

Lubaina Himid’s pioneering practice has addressed themes of race, history, feminism, cultural memory and identity for more than four decades. She frequently employs storytelling and historical research to challenge dominant Eurocentric narratives and highlight the overlooked contributions of Black figures in Western history.

For her Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission, Himid presents ‘Reading the Label’. The installation on Cork Street presents a selection of men Himid – b. 1954, Zanzibar; lives and works in Preston, UK – has painted during the past 12 years in which there are unspoken conversations transmitted through clothing. Around Cork Street there are many bespoke tailors and establishments selling ready-to-wear clothes and shoes which the artist has been fascinated by for a number of years. ‘Reading the Label’ turns Cork Street into a place about the secret language of dress.

Lubaina Himid, ‘Reading the Label’, Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026. Courtesy Cork Street Galleries and The Pollen Estate. Photo: Luke Hayes

Lubaina Himid, ‘Reading the Label’, Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026. Courtesy Cork Street Galleries and The Pollen Estate. Photo: Luke Hayes

“I am absolutely delighted to be invited to be this year’s artist for the Cork Street Galleries Banner Commission,” says Lubaina Himid RA, CBE. “It has given me an opportunity to open up conversations through chance encounters about memory and meaning in connection with the decisions we all make about what we wear.”

“We are truly honoured to welcome Lubaina Himid as the artist for the 2026 Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission,” adds Jenny Casebourne, Property Director, The Pollen Estate. “Continuing Cork Street Galleries’ broader advocacy role in the arts, we are thrilled to collaborate with the British Council as a Supporting Partner of The British Pavilion at the 61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia. Cork Street Galleries celebrated its centenary as a pioneering centre for the art world in London in 2025. It is a place that has championed the careers of major artists, premiering works by names including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Dame Barbara Hepworth. As we enter a new century for Cork Street, we are delighted to extend this ethos beyond the street itself.”

As a Supporting Partner of the British Council, Cork Street Galleries marks the first time that an arts destination has supported the British Pavilion.

Lubaina Himid, Le Rodeur: The Cabin, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 183 x 244 cm, © Lubaina Himid, Courtesy the artist, Hollybush Gardens, London and Greene Naftali, New York. Photo: Andy Keate, Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Titled ‘Predicting History: Testing Translation’, Lubaina Himid’s exhibition in the British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, commissioned by the British Council, explores the nature of belonging and how to make a home in the new place. The exhibition acts as a guide to navigating life in places outside one’s roots, illustrating a journey of learning and an acceptance of what home truly signifies. As the title suggests, nothing in life is easy or perfect: because predicting history is an impossibility, while translation is always an approximation.

A new series of large, multipaneled paintings of dazzling colours, showing surreal and magical settings, exemplifies Himid’s artistic approach. She acts as both writer and performance director, establishing characters, crafting narratives, imagining dialogues and, in collaboration with artist Magda Stawarska, creates a surreal soundscape. The exhibition makes tangible the daily tensions of how to belong.

Embracing the British Pavilion’s neo-classical architecture, Himid represents Britain as somewhere welcoming and airy, brimming with potential, albeit with an underlying sense of unease as the sounds, texts, and images subtly introduce tension.

Emma Dexter, Director Visual Arts and the British Council Collection and Commissioner of the British Pavilion, said: “As commissioner of the British Pavilion, the British Council is delighted to present Lubaina Himid’s ‘Predicting History: Testing Translation’. Her work creates a vivid, immersive environment that combines colour, sound and narrative to reflect on the UK as a space shaped by both possibility and tension. The exhibition invites audiences to think about belonging in new ways, challenging established histories and presenting a contemporary UK that is open, complex and defined by many voices.”

Lubaina Himid, ‘Reading the Label’, Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026. Courtesy Cork Street Galleries and The Pollen Estate. Photo: Luke Hayes

Lubaina Himid, ‘Reading the Label’, Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026. Courtesy Cork Street Galleries and The Pollen Estate. Photo: Luke Hayes

Discover more about Lubaina Himid: ‘Predicting History: Testing Translation’, Lubaina Himid’s exhibition in the British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, commissioned by the British Council – supported by Cork Street Galleries.