Wicked Painting

Hypha Gallery 3 / No. 1 Poultry, London EC2R 8EN

PV: Thursday, 12th March 2026, 6-9pm

Open: 13th March – 18th April 2026, Thursday – Sunday, 12 – 6pm

Wicked Painting is a group exhibition showcasing contemporary painters who delve into the shadowy, the seductive, and the strange. Bringing together eight emerging artists whose work traverses personal mythology, dark humour, the monstrous, and the liminal, the exhibition explores the layered meaning of “wicked” – at once alluring and transgressive, potent and possessed. These artists mine the emotional and symbolic depths of the subconscious, drawing on archetypes, folklore, memory, and pop culture to reveal what lies beneath the surface of the self.

At the core of Wicked Painting is a shared fascination with transformation and ambiguity – where images remain in flux, often grotesque or uncanny, yet emotionally weighted and strangely magnetic. Collectively, the exhibition challenges painting’s traditional associations with clarity, control, and heroic representation. Together they revel in contradiction and embrace the raw, the unstable, and the psychologically charged. It positions painting as a haunted and playful act – where the ‘wicked’ becomes a site of power, liberation, and the unexpected.