28/05/2026
It is really great to announce here that Delaine Le Bas will be opening her new show Leap at Maureen Paley London on 4th June, running through to 25th July 2026, featuring sculpture, wall-based work and some exquisite pieces in Murano glass (see pic of Blue House 26112025 above). The exhibition title, Leap, describes a movement that is at once backward and forward. As Le Bas shifts across scale, media, and modes of presentation, her practice remains grounded in both communal and personal histories. I quote further from the press release (ahem…).
“In her words, Delaine has been ‘kicking around’ Europe with her hangings and constructions for years (including the first Roma Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007), with a recent surge of interest following her expansive yet intimate 2024 Tramway show in Glasgow and subsequent Tuner Prize nomination. She is renowned for her performances and installations such as Witch Hunt (touring Europe since 2009, courtesy of Foundation Kai Dikhas in Berlin) which attack and pick at issues of misrepresentations and misapprehensions of identity and culture. Delaine grew up in a Romani family and suffered extensive bullying for her ‘otherness’ as a child. That formed both a carapace and a masking technique, a camouflage of visual, fashion extravagance and elegance that naturally echoed into her artwork. She has also seen herself as the ‘ungrateful guest at the dinner table’, but her exuberant energy has now gathered seemingly unstoppable, joyful momentum. Leap includes both historical and new work, placing them in new situations with works for walls and plinths. The artist’s wish for Leap is to encourage us to identify and confront institutional pacification, to question, to embrace joy, and to ’jump right out of the 21st Century as fast as we can, in order to create an environment in which we can truly run wild’.” – John Marchant, 2026.
Delaine Le Bas (b. 1965, Worthing) lives and works in Worthing, West Sussex, collaborating with her partner Lincoln Cato. Un-Fair-Ground continues at The Whitworth Manchester until 31st May.
