10 July 2026 – 7 February 2027
Press preview: 8 July 2026, 10:00 – 12:00
Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions
‘Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions’ at Wellcome Collection is the first museum exhibition dedicated to artist Audrey Amiss (1933 – 2013), opening in July 2026. The exhibition features drawings, paintings and ephemera that explore Amiss’s life as an artist and campaigner, revealing how she used art to advocate for people who have experienced harmful treatment in the mental health system.
Born in Sunderland, UK, Amiss received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Arts in the 1950s, where she studied painting until a mental health crisis and subsequent encounter with psychiatric treatment prevented her from completing her final year. Although she continued to make, exhibit and sell art – alongside a career in the Civil Service and later in retirement – the breadth of her work was not fully known until after her death. Her archive was donated to Wellcome Collection in 2014.
From the 1950s, Amiss exhibited in artist society group exhibitions and, from the 1980s, organised solo exhibitions. These featured vibrant paintings and observational drawings that reflect her academic training, as well as works influenced by her involvement in the psychiatric survivor movement, including protest placards. She took part in demonstrations with campaigning and survivor groups such as Survivors Speak Out and Mad Pride.
Amiss frequently worked from life, depicting scenes from across London – ‘Avenue of Autumn Plane-trees’, ‘Clapham Common’ (c. 1983), ‘Christmas Lights’, ‘Regent Street’ (1986), ‘Compassion. Front Garden’ (2003) – alongside figurative works and still lifes, such as ‘Orchestra’ (1950s) and ‘Vase of Flowers’ (1981), characterised by loose, expressive brushwork and marks.
‘The Surviving Exhibitions’ focuses on works that records suggest Amiss exhibited or intended to make public. Using posters, lists of exhibited artworks, and other archival materials, it restages, as far as possible, three of her self-organised exhibitions: ‘Drawings and Watercolours from the 1960s by Audrey Amiss’ (1989), ‘Fireworks: A Protest Exhibition’ (1989), and ‘Drawings from a Locked Ward (The Snakepit)’ (2002).
Sumitra Upham, Associate Director, Curatorial and Public Practice, Wellcome Collection, said: “Despite receiving limited recognition from the art establishment in her lifetime, ‘The Surviving Exhibitions’ reveals Audrey Amiss to be a talented and prolific artist who exhibited extensively, and who frequently used art as a powerful tool to advocate for others and seek change.
The exhibition and Audrey Amiss’s archive at Wellcome Collection provide an important counterbalance to a predominantly historical collection – dominated by the voices of medical professionals – by platforming lived experience.”
‘The Surviving Exhibitions’ was developed in collaboration with lived-experience advisors. It is presented in parallel with ‘Intimacies of Care – Spaces of Grief and Possibility’, a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Rudy Loewe (b. 1987), who creates a space of hope in which they reimagine a mental health system that is equitable and supportive.
Alongside ‘Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions’ at Wellcome Collection, the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Culture House Sunderland, opens a companion exhibition in her hometown from this Spring 2026. Rooted in Amiss's lifelong connection to the city, the exhibition features a selection of works and materials from her archive at Wellcome Collection.
Audrey Amiss’s archive at Wellcome Collection also inspired the 2022 film ‘Typist Artist Pirate King’, directed by Carol Morley. This semi-fictional account of Amiss’s life – starring Monica Dolan, Kelly Macdonald and Gina McKee – was developed following Carol's Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship, awarded in partnership with the BFI and Film4.
Visitor information
- ‘Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions’ runs from 10 July 2026 – 7 February 2027.
- Admission is free.
- Address: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE.
- Opening hours: 10:00 – 18:00, Tuesday – Sunday.
Accessibility
- Step-free access is available to all floors of the building.
- Large-print guides and magnifiers are available in our galleries.
- Ear defenders, tinted glasses and weighted lap pads are available on request.
- Exhibition texts are accessible in screen readable formats via QR codes.
- Visual Stories are available to help people plan and prepare ahead of visiting.
- Accessible tours to our displays and exhibitions are available and bookable online.
About Wellcome Collection
Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library. We believe everyone’s experience of health matters. Through our collections, exhibitions and events, in books and online, we explore the past, present and future of health.
You can find us near Euston station in London and at wellcomecollection.org. Our exhibitions and events are always free. You can use our library and view items from our collections free of charge too – you may just need to book in advance.
Wellcome Collection opened in 2007. We care for many thousands of items relating to health, medicine and human experience, including rare books, artworks, films and videos, personal archives, and objects. We’re part of Wellcome, a charitable foundation supporting science to help build a healthier future for everyone.
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