LONDON.- The acclaimed artist Rachel Kneebone (b.1973) is displaying a series of arresting sculptural interventions among the dazzling artworks of the Wallace Collection this autumn.

For this installation, she has created two new pieces, Bower and Temple, which can be seen for the first time as part of the display.

The Wallace Collection is renowned for its sumptuous collection of Old Master paintings and decorative arts, epitomised by the creations of Rococo painters such as François Boucher (1703-1770) and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), and its beautiful Sèvres porcelain. It is into this luxurious setting that artist Rachel Kneebone will place nine white porcelain sculptures, two of which have been specially made for the display. In displaying these works at the museum, she follows in the footsteps of artists such as Grayson Perry (2025), Flora Yukhnovich (2024), Damien Hirst (2009) and Lucian Freud (2004).

White porcelain is a material traditionally associated with stillness and perfection. By contrast, Kneebone’s white sculptures, finished with a clear gloss glaze, move light across the surface, breaking and connecting form, inviting the viewer to look closely and delve for meaning. Surreal and profuse, her works also suggest narrative and movement, resonating with the Roman poet Ovid’s stories of metamorphoses and transformation.

Having long been fascinated by dance and movement, Kneebone is keen to engage with works relating to this theme in the Wallace Collection. Examples include Dance, which will be placed on a table in the Billiard Room to echo the bronze Borghese Dancers (17th century) on a nearby wall. Unlike the stately movement of these figures, however, the disembodied limbs that comprise her piece convey riot and fragmentation. Similarly, the After the Dance sculptures, with protruding legs, can be seen as a playful response to the rich Baroque decoration of the Back State Room and the dynamic bronze sculptures that line the Great Gallery.





One of the works, Pull, an unfurling hive-like configuration, will be suspended from the conservatory ceiling on the first-floor landing. Others, including Bower (made in response to Fragonard’s famous The Swing), are placed at eye level, encouraging the viewer to peer into tangled masses of interconnected forms offered up for close viewing.

Kneebone’s sculptures will appear strikingly different from the works that comprise the permanent collection. Aware that they will look startling in this environment, Kneebone believes they will not jar due to the many ways they blend with the surrounds, inviting the viewer to tease out connections with it, making the past appear contemporary, and the present historic.

Rachel Kneebone says: “The Wallace Collection has long been a rich resource for me; a place of pleasure, delight and instruction, like discovering a new world with each visit. I would take away so much, and now it is such an honour to be invited to this time leave something behind, to add to the Collection.”

Dr Alison Smith, Director of Collections and Research and curator of the exhibition, says: “Rachel Kneebone’s works may at first appear distinct from the artworks of the Wallace Collection, yet they are deeply connected, be it through shared textures, motifs, or forms. Through placing the sculptures in response to the artworks and decorative interiors of the museum, we hope to cast a fresh perspective on her own intriguing work.”

Dr Xavier Bray, Director of the Wallace Collection, says: “Our permanent collection was gifted to the nation in 1897, and yet we continually find new ways to respond to and contemplate the finite works within it. New and returning visitors alike can engage with Rachel Kneebone’s intricate sculptures and come to appreciate anew the enduring works of the Wallace Collection that surround them.”