Exhibition
Reframing History: Paintings by Annie Kevans
6 Mar 2026 – 19 Apr 2026
Regular hours
- Friday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Saturday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Sunday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Wednesday
- 12:00 – 17:00
- Thursday
- 12:00 – 17:00
Free admission
Address
- 10-14 Waterloo Place
- Brighton
- BN2 9NB
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Phoenix is on the main bus routes, 5, 5A, 5B, 21, 21A, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 46, 48, 49, 50, N25. For up-to-date information on bus routes and times visit www.buses.co.uk
- Brighton station is just 10 minutes’ walk away. Turn left out of the main station. Continue downhill along Trafalgar Street, cross the main roads passing in front of St Peter’s Church, then turn left. Phoenix will be on the right, in front of the traffic lights.
Reframing History brings together works from four of Annie Kevans’ painting series: The History of Art, Collaborators, All the Presidents’ Girls and Wampas Baby Stars.
About
These individual series are thematically linked and explore the deliberate neglect and erasure of historical figures, often women and those from minority groups.
It is a truism that history is written by the winners and that what they write is often only degrees of the truth. This exhibition calls into question the hierarchies of value put in place by historians, particularly historians of art and culture, through which they have manipulated, minimised and erased individuals and groups to bolster the narratives that they want to tell/sell.
Annie Kevans’ beautiful portraits of historical figures are in some cases imagined – where no image exists – or drawn from multiple images and filtered through the artist’s eyes. It is through these processes that she paints people back into existence, paints them into the present, demands that we acknowledge them and hold to account those who still support their erasure.
The History of Art series, for instance, features women artists whose work and legacies have been and continue to be diminished. The presentation of this series, this reframing, highlights that women and people of colour are among groups that are still significantly underrepresented in the art world.
Reframing History is the first in a series of exhibitions for 2026 curated under the theme of Future Histories. This theme explores the ways in which the past continues to inform, configure and sometimes overshadow the present. It asks us to consider how our actions in the present will shape the history of tomorrow, encouraging an awareness that we are not only reflecting on history but also writing it.
Laurence Hill – Curator
Join us and Annie Kevans for the preview of Reframing History on Thursday 5 March, 6-8pm, speeches at 7pm with BSL interpretation by Dr Sue MacLaine.
Feature image: Marie Bracquemond (detail) by Annie Kevans, courtesy of the artist.
