Courtauld Commission 2026: Ella Walker

The Courtauld Gallery, Strand, WC2R 0RN, London

September 3, 2026 – October 3, 2026

Artist Ella Walker (b.1993, Manchester, UK) will create two new site-specific commissions for the Courtauld Gallery, opening 3 September 2026. The new artworks will be presented in The John Browne Entrance Hall and the Ticketing Hall of the Courtauld Gallery and will be free to visit. This is the second Courtauld Commission, a series of annual commissions by contemporary artists for the Courtauld Gallery. Ella Walker creates monumental canvases dominated by female figures whose gestures and interactions are both familiar and confounding, transcending fixed roles. The new artworks continue her dialogue with traditional techniques and subjects from the Renaissance period, particularly drawn to the Blavatnik Fine Rooms at the Courtauld, including Botticelli's altarpiece. Walker lives and works in London and has exhibited widely, including recent solo exhibitions in France and New York.