Jake Grewal in conversation with Philip Hoare

Artist Jake Grewal spoke with author, artist and broadcaster Philip Hoare during the final weeks of Grewal's exhibition Under The Same Sky.

Their discussion unfolds around the relationship between queerness and the natural world, touching on how landscape can serve as a place of refuge, transformation and transcendence.

The influence of art history is ever-present, with Grewal reflecting on the impact of artists like Graham Sutherland, Paul Nash, Keith Vaughan, J. M. W. Turner and Rembrandt.

Set against the backdrop of Grewal’s time in Cornwall, a period of emotional transition and reconnection with the landscape, the conversation also reveals how place and memory inform his work. As the figures in his paintings merge with rock, sea and sky, they take on a ritualistic, totemic presence, embodying a quiet, evolving narrative of intimacy, longing and self-acceptance.

With special thanks to Major Exhibition Donor Simon Nixon

Headline Supporter: Arif Suherman
Lead Supporters: Thomas Dane Gallery and Alison Deighton
Exhibition Patrons: The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, Joshua Silver and Russell Tovey
Exhibition Circle: Samuel Lewis, Gianluca Longo, Giacomo Negro and Sandesh Sivakumaran. With kind assistance from Simon Oldfield

  1. Jake Grewal (b. 1994, London) lives and works in London. Solo exhibitions include: Some days I feel more alive, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, England (2023); Now I Know You I Am Older, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, England (2022). Group exhibitions include: Voyage, Morena di Luna, Hove, England (2024); Drawing Biennial 2024, Drawing Room, London, England (2024); Interior, Michael Werner Gallery, London, England (2022); Shifting Waters, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India (2022); Drawing Attention: Emerging British Artists, The British Museum, London, England (2022); Dissolving Realms, Kasmin Gallery, New York NY (2022); On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, India (2021); Deity, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2020); Everyday is Sunday, UTA Artists Space, Los Angeles CA (2020); No Time Like The Present, Public Gallery, London, England (2020).

  2. Philip Hoare is the author of ten works of nonfiction, including biographies of Stephen Tennant and Noël Coward, and the studies, Wilde's Last Stand and England's Lost Eden. Spike Island was chosen by W.G. Sebald as his book of the year for 2001. In 2009, Hoare's Leviathan or, The Whale won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. It was followed in 2013 by The Sea Inside, and in 2017 by RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR. His last book, Albert & the Whale, 2021, led the New York Times to call the author a 'forceful weather system' of his own, and has been published in the UK, USA, Spain, Germany and Italy. His new book, William Blake and the Sea Monsters of Love, will be published by 4th Estate in April. He is also a regular contributor to The Guardian, and numerous other periodicals and magazines.

    Hoare’s work as an artist includes the short film for the John Hansard Gallery, I was a dark star always, about Wilfred Owen, with readings by Ben Whishaw. He has collaborated with and written for other artists including Ellen Gallagher, Alison Turnbull, Peter Doig, George Shaw and Angela Cockayne. Hoare’s work as a director, writer and broadcaster includes the BBC 2 films, The Hunt for Moby-Dick, Philip Hoare's Guide to Whales, Travels with Pevsner: Hampshire, and Isostasy. His curatorial work includes Icons of Pop at the National Portrait Gallery, Twentieth-Century Blues at the Photographers’ Gallery, The Haunted Place at Tate Britain, and Derek Jarman's Modern Nature at the John Hansard Gallery.

  3. Credit Dor Even Chen

Jake Grewal
Under The Same Sky

Exhibition
A person in a blue sweater and jeans stands in front of a large, colourful painting of a rocky beach scene displayed on a white gallery wall. The person's face and figure are slightly blurred.

Online discussion with Luke Syson, Jake Grewal and Doron Langberg

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