Prem Sahib, what you need to know to get rid of these blood sucking parasites (in the form of a whisper), 2023. Image by Fine Art Documentation / Ben Westoby, courtesy the artist and Phillida Reid, London.
Prem Sahib, what you need to know to get rid of these blood sucking parasites (in the form of a whisper), 2023. Image by Fine Art Documentation / Ben Westoby, courtesy the artist and Phillida Reid, London.
This autumn, we present a mid-career survey of work by British artist Prem Sahib, a chance to look back on twenty years of one of the most original and quietly powerful practices in British art today.
Prem Sahib (b. 1982, lives and works in London) makes art about bodies and buildings, about the way the spaces we move through shape how we feel, how we behave, and whether we belong. He works with materials like glass, neon, rubber, and aluminium to create environments charged with the memory of human presence. His work asks: who gets to feel at home in a space, and who is made to feel like an outsider?
Rather than moving through his career in order, the exhibition arranges works from across different periods so that they can speak to one another. Sahib has always made work that responds closely to the space it is shown in, and the De La Warr Pavilion, with its open, light-filled modernist design, both suits his work and quietly pushes back against it.
Fox (2004) is an eight-minute video. A table is laid with food and flowers on a dark lawn at night. The camera waits. Eventually a fox arrives, moving calmly among the plates. The work creates a sense of invitation, and then fills the scene with a creature that is neither quite guest nor intruder.
The Exit series (2014) are panels of aluminium and resin, each built up by hand with tiny droplets that look like beads of sweat or condensation. Up close, what first seems almost black reveals itself to be alive with small marks, traces of heat and bodies. These works reference the sauna, a space that has historically been important to queer social life: protective and intimate, but also precarious and contested.
The Horizon series (2026) are small acrylic panels, each filled individually by the artist with paint in a slightly different shade. Arranged together, they read from a distance like a pixelated screen, a single horizon line, a band of light above and darkness below. Installed at the Pavilion, the series sits in quiet conversation with the real sea horizon visible through the building’s famous floor-to-ceiling windows.
what you need to know to get rid of these blood sucking parasites (in the form of a whisper) (2023) fills a room with amber street light, the colour of underpasses and city spaces where queer people have historically had to find ways to exist. Dead leaves and a ground-level lamp evoke a nocturnal gathering spot brought indoors.
This exhibition is shown alongside Gordon Matta-Clark: Discrete Violations in the First Floor Gallery. Where Matta-Clark physically cut through buildings to expose what lay hidden inside them, Sahib works on and within architectural surfaces, exploring the way space already shapes behaviour before any artist intervenes. Together, the two exhibitions ask how buildings carry and pass on social meaning.
Prem Sahib (b. 1982) lives and works in London. His work has been exhibited widely in the United Kingdom and internationally.
Solo exhibitions include: 2026 Kin, Phillida Reid, London, UK; Liquid Gold, The Perimeter, London, UK; 2025 Doubles, Pitzhanger Manor, London, UK; Documents of a recent past, Studio Voltaire, London, UK; 2024 Alleus, performance co-commissioned by the Roberts Institute of Art and Somerset House Studios, Somerset House, London, UK & Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh, UK; 2023 The Life Cycle of a Flea, Phillida Reid, London, UK; 2022 Liquid Gold, Southard Reid, London, UK; Semi Permanent Interventions, Magic Stop, Lausanne, Switzerland; Burner Phone Hex, Ridley Road Project Space, London, UK; 2021 Art Basel Miami Beach with Southard Reid, London, UK; 2019–2020 DESCENT, Southard Reid, London, UK.
Group exhibitions include: 2026 In a Free State, Luring Augustine, New York; Make Haste Slowly, Fondazione Memmo, Rome; CONDO London, Phillida Reid, London, UK; 2025 Chi Esce Entra, Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome; 2024 A time when the dogs barked every night, Woonhuis, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs, Hastings Contemporary, Hastings, UK; Good Morning, Midnight, The Courtauld, London, UK; 2023 di Venezia, Spazio Punch, Giudecca, Italy; Close Looking: Collection Studies from the Roberts Institute of Art, The Roberts Institute of Art, Cromwell Place, London; forms of the surrounding futures, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art curated by João Laia, Gothenburg, Sweden; Everything Broken Down, curated by Ryan Gander, Solid Haus, UK; Recent Acquisitions and Eternal Loves – Part I, Nicoletta Fiorucci Collection, Monaco; 2022 Future Cities, National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre, London, UK; My Reflection of You, presented by Alexander Petalas and Russell Tovey, The Perimeter, London, UK; 2021 Right About Now: Recent Acquisitions from the Arts Council Collection, No. 9 Cork Street, London, UK; The Gaze, curated by Louis Wise, TJ Boulting, London, UK; (in)visible, Malmö Konstmuseum, Malmö, Sweden; Unsettled Objects, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai; 2019 The Hoodie, Het Nieuwe Instituut, The Netherlands. He is represented by Phillida Reid Gallery.
Exhibition supported by Prem Sahib Supporters Circle.
There are plenty of welcoming and good value B&Bs & boutique hotels in Bexhill. The De La Warr Pavilion regularly uses the following:
- By Rail
Direct trains go from London Victoria, Brighton and Ashford to Bexhill.
There are also trains from London Charing Cross, changing at St. Leonards Warrior Square and from London Bridge or Charing Cross going to Battle. Battle is only a short taxi journey away (15 mins approx).
Visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for up-to-date train travel information. - Taxis
Town Taxis: 01424 211 511
Parkhurst Taxis: 01424 733 456 - By Car
If driving from the London area:
Take the M25, then A21 to Hastings. Turn off at John‘s Cross and follow the signs to Bexhill.
OR
Take the A22 to Eastbourne, go across the Bishop roundabout to the A271 and follow the signs to Bexhill and the seafront. The De La Warr Pavilion is on the Marina.
From the Brighton area:
Follow the A27 out of Brighton until you arrive in Bexhill On Sea. - Parking
Please be aware the Rother District car park outside the De La Warr Pavilion operates paid parking until 10pm. After this time parking is free. There is also limited free car parking along the seafront.
Within the limits of this Grade One listed building, the De La Warr Pavilion strives to be fully accessible with a range of facilities to support your visit.
Assistance Dogs are permitted into the building.
Please contact the Box Office on 01424 229 111 to arrange a visit.
Facilities for disabled visitors
- Ramped access at the front of the building
- A low counter at the Box Office and Information Desk
- Disabled toilets on two floors
- A lift to all floors
- Accessible galleries on both floors
- An accessible Café
- Spaces for wheelchairs in the auditorium for seated events
- Ramped access in the auditorium for events during the day
- Ramped access into the Studio
- Two travel wheelchairs are available for use at the De La Warr Pavilion. To reserve, please call our box office and information desk on (01424) 229111 or ask a member of staff on arrival. The chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and are intended for use inside the Pavilion. Please contact us for more information.
Facilities for blind or visually-impaired
- Large print season brochures
Facilities for the hard-of-hearing
- An T-Switch induction loop in some areas of the auditorium (please indicate when booking as this facility is not available on the balcony)
- British Sign Language interpretation tours of the building and exhibitions are available on request.
Sensory Bags
- Sensory bags will be available from the Ground floor or First floor gallery and contain supportive items for people with neurodivergence, anxiety or sensory sensitives.Sensory bags include:
One set of ear defenders
A selection of fidget toys
One soft foam stress ball
A set of 6 coloured paddles
One light up magnifying glass. You can sign one out and bring it back before you leave.
Sensory bags are funded by UK Government.