ZANA MASOMBUKA / SPOTLIGHT: BENJI REID 3rd September - 3rd October 2026ZANA MASOMBUKA / SPOTLIGHT: BENJI REID 3rd September - 3rd October 2026ROMUALD HAZOUMÈ: MY BLUE PERIOD 10th October - 21st NovemberOCTOBER GALLERY AT 1:54 LONDON BOOTH S7 & S8 15th – 18th October, 2026 South Wing, Somerset House, London
ZANA MASOMBUKA / SPOTLIGHT: BENJI REID 3rd September - 3rd October 2026ZANA MASOMBUKA / SPOTLIGHT: BENJI REID 3rd September - 3rd October 2026ROMUALD HAZOUMÈ: MY BLUE PERIOD 10th October - 21st NovemberOCTOBER GALLERY AT 1:54 LONDON BOOTH S7 & S8 15th – 18th October, 2026 South Wing, Somerset House, London
 

CURRENT EXHIBITION

3rd September - 3rd October 2026
Zana Masombuka, Nges’rhodlweni: Is’memo 3, 2023. Giclée print on Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta 325 gsm paper. 84 x 56 cm 97 x 69 cm (framed).
Zana Masombuka, Nges’rhodlweni: Is’memo 3, 2023. Giclée print on Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta 325 gsm paper. 84 x 56 cm 97 x 69 cm (framed).
Benji Reid, The Proposition, 2020. Giclée print. 100 x 95 cm.
Benji Reid, The Proposition, 2020. Giclée print. 100 x 95 cm.

October Gallery presents selected photographic works by South African artist Zana Masombuka, which bring together compelling works from different series deeply rooted in her Ndebele culture. In the gallery's second space, a Spotlight is placed on poignant works by award-winning photographer and multi-disciplinary artist Benji Reid.

Zana Masombuka will display key works from various series which speak of stories on identity, culture, modernity, technology and ritual from the perspective of a 21st-century Ndebele Woman. This dynamic presentation will feature selected works from Nges’rhodlweni: A Portal for Black Joy, Ubonani: What Do You See?, Time: Gadesi S'khathi, Proudly South African, Namba S'khambe and Akhulumile Amabhudango: Scenes from Dreams – ‘Journeys with Kosabo’. Together, this powerful exhibition explores perception, memory, spirituality and the enduring relationship between land, identity and ancestral knowledge.

Reid’s breathtaking photographs, composed primarily of self-portraits in incredible, anti-gravitational poses with a medley of props, draw the audience into a different dimension. In the hyper-realities he presents the subject as liberated by acts of the artist’s imagination. Whether exploring life as an outsider, issues surrounding mental health, or complexities of fatherhood, Reid makes the audience part of the discussion. These sublime and sensitive images draw from his well of life experiences, explore vulnerability, tragedy and triumph through the photographer’s lens.

 

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS

8th October - 21st November
Romuald Hazoumè, Autlan de Navarro, 2024/25. Found objects, 50 x 60 x 18 cm.
Romuald Hazoumè, Autlan de Navarro, 2024/25.
Found objects, 50 x 60 x 18 cm.
Romuald Hazoumè Thal, 2024-25.Found objects, 38 x 44 x 18 cm.
Romuald Hazoumè Thal, 2024-25.
Found objects, 38 x 44 x 18 cm.
October Gallery presents My Blue Period, a solo exhibition by the internationally renowned artist Romuald Hazoumè, which coincides with 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair and Frieze London.

Romuald Hazoumè revisits his iconic masques bidons (Fr. bidon* – flask, container, bottle)—presenting a striking series of masks made from repurposed plastic containers that are animated by an eclectic array of found materials. Wittily imagined as portraits of figures inhabiting particular places in the contemporary geo-political landscape, these new sculptures come freighted with Hazoumè’s biting commentaries on current issues of global concern. Displaying his wicked eye for detail, each mask dances before our eyes enlivened by his irreverent sense of humour. Hazoumè’s ironic avatars offer timely reflections on the precarious nature of the world we all inhabit.

Creating ‘masks’ from plastic containers, the majority of which are blue in colour, allows Hazoumè to play with associations, such as Picasso and ‘the Blues’. Somehow, these blue masks seem to penetrate deeper still, adopting darker, more ominous tones, reflecting anxieties fed by the many interconnected crises of the present day.

Hazoumè’s work is well known for addressing such complex matters as slavery (historical and modern), migration and the brutal realities developing in postcolonial Africa. Once again, these powerful works, taken collectively, underline Hazoumè’s willing acceptance of the artist’s responsibility to confront patent abuses of authority while speaking truth to power.
 
26th November, 2026 – 16th January, 2027
Rafael Trelles, Caliban II, 2025. Oil on linen, 121.92 x 91.44 cm
Rafael Trelles, Caliban II, 2025.
Oil on linen, 121.92 x 91.44 cm
Rafael Trelles, Caliban XII, 2026. Oil on linen, 50.8 x 76.2 cm
Rafael Trelles, Caliban XII, 2026. Oil on linen, 50.8 x 76.2 cm
October Gallery presents Caliban, the second solo exhibition by Puerto Rican artist Rafael Trelles. In this powerful new series, Trelles transforms one of Shakespeare’s most contested characters into a potent symbol of Indigenous resistance to colonial domination. Known for his dreamlike, magico-mythical paintings, Trelles creates richly layered worlds in which light, shadow, flora and fauna converge. At the centre of this exhibition is Caliban, the original inhabitant of the island in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, whose land and freedom are seized by the exiled Duke Prospero. Trelles radically reverses Shakespeare’s perspective, presenting Caliban not as a ‘savage’ subject to be controlled, but as a figure of dignity, resilience and agency.

Drawing on the writings of Cuban intellectual Roberto Fernández Retamar, Trelles explores the connections between ‘Caliban’, ‘cannibal’ and ‘Caribe’, linking the character to the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. This historical and linguistic resonance becomes deeply personal for the artist, who states: “In this precise sense, I am Caliban.”

Across these ethereal paintings, Caliban exists in profound harmony with his environment, while Prospero represents an external, objectifying force that seeks to classify and control. Trelles instead imagines nature as a space of symbiosis and belonging.

Caliban connects the colonial history of the Caribbean with contemporary questions of identity, migration, racism and cultural displacement, offering a poetic meditation on land, memory and the right to define one’s own story.
 

 

NEWS, EVENTS & RECOMMENDATIONS


Sokari Douglas Camp and LR Vandy in
The Music is Black: A British Story
Open now
V&A East, London
Spanning 125 years of Black music-making in Britain, The Music is Black: A British Story explores how Black British music has profoundly shaped the nation’s cultural landscape.

Included in the exhibition are works by Sokari Douglas Camp CBE and LR Vandy, whose practices engage with histories of heritage, dance and cultural expression.
Support Us
For nearly fifty years, October Gallery Trust has nurtured and promoted extraordinary artists from a multitude of cultures, decades before it became common practice. It has historically been valued as a nexus of artistic, intellectual and ecological collaboration, aligned to a prolific cross-cultural educational programme.

Your support will help us continue offering individuals and communities a welcoming, globally minded oasis. Help preserve our historic Bloomsbury Gallery as a sanctuary for creativity, ecology and education.

 

VISIT OCTOBER GALLERY

Bloomsbury, London

The main gallery at October Gallery: a white-walled room with a wooden floor and tall arched windows, showing steel figurative sculptures standing on plinths.

October Gallery has been instrumental in bringing to worldwide attention many of the world’s leading international artists, including El Anatsui, Rachid Koraïchi, Romuald Hazoumè, Nnenna Okore, Laila Shawa and Kenji Yoshida. The Gallery promotes the Transvangarde, the very best in contemporary art from around the planet, as well as maintaining a cultural hub in central London for poets, writers, intellectuals and artists, and hosts talks, performances and seminars, see www.octobergallery.co.uk/events

The rich diversity of art presented is an inspiration to collectors and enthusiasts. Institutions such as the British Museum, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Neue Galerie, Kassel, Germany; Setagagya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan have all collected works from October Gallery.

Founded in 1979, October Gallery is a charitable trust which is supported by sales of art, rental of the Gallery's unique facilities, grants from various funding bodies and the active support of dedicated artists, musicians, writers and many friends from around the world. The Gallery’s Education Department is inclusive of all ages from under 5’s to PGCE student and delivers a wide range of provision, see www.octobergalleryeducation.com

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ACCESSIBILITY

There are two steps at the main entrance, each has a rise of 160mm and a 310mm tread (no handrail). The main entrance push door is 750mm wide.
Assisted or ramp access at the Gallery’s main entrance is available upon request.

Chairs can be found in the Gallery space.
The refectory is fully accessible by wheelchair.
Access to the courtyard has a 100mm ramp down coming from the corridor door.
There is also an accessible toilet in the Courtyard.

October Gallery is a Grade II listed building and therefore has no lift access to rooms above the ground floor. This includes the Theatre, the Clubroom and the first floor.

We welcome all visitors and will do our best to accommodate specific needs. Please do let us know in advance if there is anything in particular, we can help with. Call + 44 (0)20 7242 7367 or email gallery@octobergallery.co.uk preferably a day in advance.


REPRESENTED ARTISTS

SELECTED EXHIBITED ARTISTS






October Gallery is supported by: Supported using public funding by Arts Council England TFA London - Total Fine Art Solutions
October Gallery Education supported by: St Andrew Holborn Charities John Lyon's Charity
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