Summary
- Hayward Gallery at London’s Southbank Centre has announced You Never Did Anything Wrong, Nan Goldin’s first major UK show in over 20 years
- The showcase examines the artist and activists’s extensive autobiographical oeuvre and will be on view from November 24, 2026 through March 7, 2027
Nan Goldin is London bound. For the first time in over 20 years, the acclaimed American artist and activist gets the spotlight at a major UK institution with You Never Did Anything Wrong, opening at Hayward Gallery this November.
Goldin, the chronicler of 1980’s New York, is known for capturing vulnerable moments of love and loss. Over the last 50 years, she’s become a force in contemporary photography, pulling the medium into the center of contemporary art discourse, with honest, tender captures that close the gap between observer and the observed.
The forthcoming showcase gathers some of Goldin’s most important works from her diaristic oeuvre, described as a “profound living record human intimacy and resilience,” by Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director, Mark Ball. It arrives as a fitting follow-up to the UK debut of The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, her beloved downtown opera, at Gagosian London earlier this year.
Much of her practice is devoted towards documenting and amplifying the stories of loved ones and communities typically pushed out of the mainstream, such as the queer and post-punk scenes in the ’80s and ’90s and her more recent anti-war and human rights advocacy for those affected in Gaza.
“While UK audiences may have seen glimpses of Nan’s story, this major exhibition will offer a long overdue institutional-scale immersion into the world of a true revolutionary,” says Rachel Thomas, the Roden Chief Curator. “The Hayward’s show extends an invitation to experience work that is essential for understanding the interconnectedness of personal experience and political action, revealing the human condition in all of its beauty and fragility.”
You Never Did Anything Wrong is set to open doors on November 24 at Hayward will remain on view through March 7, 2027. Head to the Southbank Centre website for more details.
Hayward Gallery
Southbank Centre,
Belvedere Rd,
London SE1 8XX,
United Kingdom
