To Improvise A Mountain: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Curates
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Sunbird 3, 2025. Charcoal on paper. Courtesy the Artist, Corvi-Mora, London, and Jack Shainman, New York
Admission
From Free - £15.95
Exhibitions
25 October 2025 - 25 January 2026
Curated by acclaimed figurative painter Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, this exhibition brings together a diverse group of international artists working across painting, sculpture, photography, film, and drawing from the 19th century to the present day.
Featuring works by Bas Jan Ader, Pierre Bonnard, Lisa Brice, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Samuel Fosso, Peter Hujar, Kahlil Joseph, Zoe Leonard, Glenn Ligon, Toyin Ojih Odutola, The Otolith Group, Jennifer Packer, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Walter Sickert, Édouard Vuillard, David Wojnarowicz and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye herself.
The exhibition reflects her deeply personal choice of works:
‘I’ve selected things that I love because of their poetry, their beauty, their refusal, their internal logic and, above all, their power. Each artist here invents the language they need and there is magic in it.’
— Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
To Improvise A Mountain invites visitors on a contemplative journey through pieces that engage with themes of identity, beauty, activism, and intimacy, ranging from the Post-Impressionism of Bonnard, Vuillard and Sickert to the radical video essays of The Otolith Group.
This project is inspired by a phrase from Miles Davis’ song ‘Inamorata’ (1971), which asks: ‘Who is this music that which description may never justify? / Can the ocean be described?’ and reflects the exhibition’s spirit: art that surpasses easy explanation, evoking rhythm, feeling, and reflection.
This exhibition is a Hayward Gallery Touring exhibition curated by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye with Hayward Gallery Touring.
Exhibition Events
Accessibility
MK Gallery is accessible to all. The building is wheelchair friendly and we welcome assistance dogs. Accessible toilets can be found on every floor, with a Changing Places toilet on the ground floor. Click here for a visual guide and full details of facilities.
Visit details
Large bags, food and drink are not allowed in the exhibition. We have a range of lockers available on the first floor of the building for storing personal belongings.
Please be aware that the exhibition contains racialised and sexually graphic language from historic sources that some visitors may find offensive.
Press Release
