Upcoming Nottingham exhibition pays tribute to late painter Sarah Cunningham

Nottingham Contemporary will present the first UK institutional solo exhibition of late local artist Sarah Cunningham this autumn. Marking a homecoming for the British artist, who tragically passed away in 2024 at the age of 31, Sarah Cunningham: Midnight Sun brings the Nottingham native’s work back to her home city and to the museum where she once worked as a Gallery Assistant. 

Sarah Cunningham, 'Starshine and Clay', 2022, Mixed media / Image credit: Courtesy Private Collection and Lisson Gallery. 

With diverse influences ranging from literary science fiction figures like Ursula K Le Guin and J. G. Ballard to British filmmaker Tacita Dean and radical feminist occultist painter Ithell Colquhoun, Cunningham’s work featured imaginary wildernesses and forest-scapes. The exhibition is showing alongside Julia Isídrez: Mud is everything, the first international solo exhibition of Paraguayan artist and ceramicist Julia Isídrez.

Cunningham was born in Nottingham in 1993, receiving an MA from the Royal College of Art in 2022. Her work has been exhibited in London, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Seoul and Vancouver, and was a recipient of the Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award and the Djanogly Art Award, both in 2019. 

Sarah Cunningham: Midnight Sun opens at Nottingham Contemporary on Friday 9th October 2026 and runs until Sunday 10th January 2027. 

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Header image credit: George Darrell / Lisson Gallery