LONDON.- Cork Street Galleries, an initiative of The Pollen Estate, is pleased to announce that Lubaina Himid’s Cork Street Galleries Banners Commission 2026 has officially opened to the public to coincide 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 have the opportunity to experience Lubaina Himid’s work in both Venice and London this year.

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, Lubaina Himid presents Reading the Label. The installation on Cork Street presents 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.”

Jenny Casebourne, Property Director, The Pollen Estate: “We are truly honoured to welcome Lubaina Himid as the artist for the 2026 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.”

Lubaina Himid CBE RA (b. 1954, Zanzibar) lives and works in Preston, UK and is Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Lancashire. She is the winner of the 2017 Turner Prize, the 2023 Maria Lassnig Prize and the 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth | Flag Art Foundation Prize. Himid was selected to represent Great Britain at the 61st International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia. On view until November 2026, her exhibition Presenting History: Testing Translation at The British Pavilion explores the nature of belonging and how to make a home in the new place.

Himid has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally and is represented by Hollybush Gardens, London and Greene Naftali, New York.

Recent solo exhibitions include MUDAM, Luxembourg and Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, both with Magda Stawarska; UCCA, Beijing (all 2025); Make Do and Mend, The Contemporary Austin, Texas and The FLAG Art Foundation, New York; Barricades, Hollybush Gardens, London; Street Sellers, Greene Naftali, New York (all 2024); Plaited Time/Deep Water, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; What Does Love Sound Like?, Glyndebourne, Lewes (both 2023); So Many Dreams, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; Water Has a Perfect Memory, Hollybush Gardens, London; Zanzibar, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (all 2022); Lubaina Himid, Tate Modern, London (2021); Spotlights, Tate Britain, London; The Grab Test, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Lubaina Himid, CAPC Bordeaux; Work From Underneath, New Museum, New York (all 2019); Gifts to Kings, MRAC Languedoc Roussillon Midi-Pyrénées, Sérignan; Our Kisses are Petals, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (all 2018); The Truth Is Never Watertight, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; Navigation Charts, Spike Island, Bristol; and Invisible Strategies, Modern Art Oxford (all 2017).