Suited, booted, and unmuted: Gilbert & George fill the Hayward with glossy chaos and self-portraits

"Gilbert & George, the immaculately suited duo behind some of Britain's most provocative artworks, have been handed the entire Hayward Gallery to fill - and they've done so with towering grids of irreverential imagery. As their reputation has grown, so too has the scale of their art. Here, vast printed panels stretch across the gallery's austere white and concrete walls, creating immersive walls of colour, collage and confrontation."

"A wall of rent-boy adverts featuring their staring faces prompts unintended thoughts about how many of those numbers still connect, and what became of the lives behind them? Elsewhere, tabloid headlines are collaged into cacophonies of sensation, a commentary on how newspapers use human trauma to sell copies. Famously conservative in their personal politics yet anti-establishment in their art, they critique surveillance, policing, and the self-apointed moral authorities visible around their East London home."

"It's a milder selection than some of their earlier, more scatological provocations and is less shock-for-shock's sake, more wry observation. Still, there's plenty of edge. Their trademark self-insertion remains, as they cast themselves into the chaotic world they document and dissect. Religion is teased, the St George's Cross is subverted, animal bones become relics, and of course, Gilbert & George themselves appear everywhere."

Gilbert & George have filled the Hayward Gallery with towering grids of irreverential imagery created in the past 25 years. Vast printed panels stretch across austere white and concrete walls to create immersive walls of colour, collage and confrontation. The selection is milder than earlier scatological provocations, favoring wry observation while retaining plenty of edge and the duo's trademark self-insertion. A wall of rent-boy adverts and collaged tabloid headlines interrogate human lives, trauma and media sensation. The work critiques surveillance, policing and moral authorities, teases religion, subverts the St George's Cross and presents animal bones as relics. The highly glossy prints almost resemble backlit video walls and the show runs until January 2026.

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