Two people stand in a gallery observing a large painting by Jake Grewal. The artwork depicts a landscape with rocks, water, and several figures under a blue sky with clouds. The gallery has white walls and a concrete floor.

Philip Hoare and Jake Grewal in conversation

Author, artist and broadcaster Philip Hoare joins artist Jake Grewal for an in-conversation during the final weeks of Grewal's current exhibition Under The Same Sky.

Both Grewal and Hoare have explored how humans are intrinsically connected with the ocean. For Under The Same Sky, Grewal produced a significant series of new paintings, informed by two residencies over the past year, including a month-long period exploring coastal landscapes at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives. Located at the threshold between land and water, the shorelines and seascapes that ultimately appear in the exhibition often seem untethered from an exact time and place. Grewal captures ever-shifting landscapes, harnessing their qualities of wildness and unpredictability to convey both a sense of human fragility and queer awakening.

Through his writing, which has included the books RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR and The Sea Inside, Hoare has combined memoir, cultural history and travelogue in astounding accounts of wilderness and beauty.

This is a special opportunity to hear the writer and artist discuss their affinity for the sea as a shared, and enduring, source of inspiration.

  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. Jake Grewal, Under the Same Sky, 2025. Installation view at Studio Voltaire. Images courtesy of the artist and Studio Voltaire. Credit Sarah Rainer.

  4. This event is seated. If you have any questions or need assistance with your visit please feel welcome to contact us on +44 (0) 20 7622 1294 or email info@studiovoltaire.org.

    Read Studio Voltaire's full access information here.

Standard tickets £5

Saturday 5 April 2025, 11 am–12 pm

Book

Jake Grewal
Under The Same Sky

Exhibition
A person in a blue shirt and jeans stands in front of a large painting By Jake Grewal that depicts a rocky beach scene with vibrant clouds. The painting is displayed on a white wall inside a gallery space.

Online panel: Luke Syson, Jake Grewal and Doron Langberg in conversation

Event