Maggi Hambling Lures Us into the Night

Taking inspiration from the night sky, Maggi Hambling‘s dense paintings are entanglements of expressive brushwork bathed in dramatic and dark hues.

In Hong Kong, the British artist’s latest exhibition The Night (26 March–16 May 2024) opens at Pearl Lam Galleries. Hambling last presented a solo show in Asia in 2019, at Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Beijing, and Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou, China.

At Pearl Lam, Hambling imagines a space where shifting clouds, turbulent storms, and eerie shadows converge with luminous moonlight trails. These night skies are captured across a number of canvases, built up with thick impasto in hues of black, grey-blue, pink, and orange.

The night sky has long captivated Hambling, who was a teenager when she first painted it from her bedroom window. To her, it represents a multifaceted subject where dreams stir, seduction and desire unfold, and fear lurks.

Hambling’s fascination for eruptions of energy extends throughout her oeuvre. In her ‘Walls of Water’ series (2010–ongoing), she portrays the violence of crashing waves in the sea on huge canvases.

Coinciding with The Night, the latest addition to Hambling’s ‘Walls of Water’ series is on view at Art Basel Hong Kong (28–30 March 2024), with Pearl Lam Galleries.

Main image: Maggi Hambling, Night Clouds VIII (2021) (detail). Oil on canvas. 40.6 x 119.4 cm. Courtesy the artist and Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong.