Cork Street Galleries, an initiative of The Pollen Estate, is pleased to announce Lubaina Himid as the artist for its Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026/27, which will be unveiled to the public in June 2026. Cork Street Galleries is also proud to announce that for the first time it will be a Supporting Partner of the British Council who will present a major solo exhibition by Lubaina Himid at the British Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
Lubaina Himid CBE RA (b. 1954, Zanzibar) is a world-renowned British artist, known for a pioneering practice which addresses themes of race, history, feminism, cultural memory and identity. 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, Lubaina Himid will present Reading the Label. The installation on Cork Street will present a selection of men Lubaina Himid 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 will turn Cork Street into a place about the secret language of dress.
Lubaina Himid RA, CBE: “I am absolutely delighted to be invited to be this year’s artist for the Cork Street Galleries Banner Commission. 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.”
Launching to coincide with London Gallery Weekend, which takes place from 5 to 7 June 2026, the Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission will be on view until May 2027.
Lubaina Himid, Photo: Adama Jalloh
Cork Street Galleries will also support Lubaina Himid’s British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia as a Supporting Partner of the British Council. This is the first time that an arts destination has supported the British Pavilion.
Lubaina Himid’s exhibition in the British Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, commissioned by the British Council, is titled Predicting History: Testing Translation, and 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.”
Jenny Casebourne, Property Director, The Pollen Estate: “We are truly honoured to welcome Lubaina Himid as the artist for the 2026/27 Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission. 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.”