This Summer, we are pleased to present To Improvise A Mountain: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Curates, a Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibition from Southbank Centre, London curated by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
Yiadom-Boakye is an artist and writer, one of the foremost painters of her generation renowned for her oil paintings of imagined people. These figures feel confident and seem to exist outside of any specific time or place, the people in her paintings are admired for both their technical mastery and lingering, mysterious quality.
For this exhibition, Yiadom-Boakye selects works that have been critical to her way of seeing and thinking as an artist, inviting people to take a personal journey through art from different places and different generations. The exhibition represents an opportunity for audiences to share in Yiadom-Boakye’s unique vision of the world and understand her journey as an artist in the iconic De La Warr Pavilion galleries.
Developed by the artist in collaboration with Hayward Gallery Touring, To Improvise A Mountain brings Yiadom-Boakye’s work into conversation with a range of historical and contemporary artists, illuminating her creative process. The exhibition includes works by Bas Jan Ader, Pierre Bonnard, Lisa Brice, Samuel Fosso, Peter Hujar, Kahlil Joseph, Zoe Leonard, Glenn Ligon, Toyin Ojih Odutola, The Otolith Group, Jennifer Packer, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Walter Sickert, Édouard Vuillard, David Wojnarowicz, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.
The spirit of the exhibition stems from a fragment of poetry in ‘Inamorata’, a 1970 recording by jazz musician Miles Davis: ‘Who is this music that which description may never justify? / Can the ocean be described?’ For Yiadom-Boakye, poetry’s ability to translate the intangible into images, and to think through rhythm and feeling, is much like the act of painting itself.
This exhibition presented across both gallery spaces invites audiences on a journey of encounters with artworks that create emotional landscapes of intensity, intimacy, refusal, activism, and wonder. For Yiadom-Boakye, ‘the governing principle, the dialogue between the works, is that spirit of infinite knowledge and infinite knowing that poetry allows us’.
Presented at De La Warr Pavilion as part of a UK tour. To Improvise A Mountain: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Curates is a Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibition from Southbank Centre, London, curated by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, presented at De La Warr Pavilion.
SAVE THE DATE
Opening Party on Thursday 25 June 2026, more details coming soon.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was born in London in 1977. Her recent solo museum exhibitions include No Twilight Too Mighty at Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2023), and Fly in League with the Night, a mid-career survey organised by Tate Britain in London, which travelled to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, K20 in Düsseldorf and MUDAM in Luxembourg (2020–22). She was awarded the Carnegie Prize in 2018, was the 2012 recipient of the Pinchuk Foundation Future Generation Prize, and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2013.
There are plenty of welcoming and good value B&Bs & boutique hotels in Bexhill. The De La Warr Pavilion regularly uses the following:
The Relais Cooden Beach Hotel and Spa
Situated on a private beach with uninterrupted views of the English Channel, this immaculately restored four-star hotel is just a 10-minute drive from De La Warr Pavilion. Receive 10% discount on rooms* from Sunday to Thursday (excluding Fridays and Saturdays) using the promo code DLWP. BOOK NOW.
*Offer available until 31 March 2026 (blackout dates apply). Free cancellation up to 24 hours before arrival. Paid partnership with The Relais Cooden Beach Hotel & Spa.
- 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.