Nan Goldin’s first major UK exhibition in over two decades opens at the Hayward Gallery this November, debuting new film work and marking a striking shift in focus, from the artist’s famous portraits of friends and lovers towards animals, land and the natural world.
The Hayward Gallery has announced full details of its solo exhibition by the acclaimed American artist and activist, rounding off the Southbank Centre‘s 75th anniversary year. Titled You Never Did Anything Wrong, it’s Goldin’s first institutional show in the UK since 2002, and offers what the gallery describes as a rare insight into how we can survive, empathise and find beauty in uncertain times.
Over five decades, Goldin has documented personal relationships, addiction and queer communities, work that transformed photography by closing the distance between observer and observed. This new presentation, built in specially designed spaces created with architect Hala Wardé, brings together intimate photographs, slideshows and, for the first time, a genuine move away from the human subjects that made her name.
Two new films turn away from people, towards other species
Marking its public debut, You Never Did Anything Wrong, Part II (2026) screens alongside You Never Did Anything Wrong, Part I (2024), and together they mark Goldin’s most striking new direction, shifting her focus away from humans and towards other species entirely.
Shot on 16mm film, Part I is centred around a solar eclipse and inspired by an ancient myth of animals stealing the sun. Shifting into a world without humans, it explores the full range of animal consciousness, featuring music by Valerij Fedorenko and an original score by Mica Levi, and is dedicated to Sulala Animal Rescue, the oldest animal rescue in the Gaza Strip, whom Goldin has worked with closely.
Part II, created in close collaboration with filmmaker David Sherman, is an abstract work built from found footage and damaged soundtracks, mostly nature documentaries from the 1960s and 70s that Goldin grew up watching, expanding into what the gallery calls a lyrical ode to the land, the animals and the minutiae of the natural world, imbued throughout with a sense of impending extinction.
UK premieres for Stendhal Syndrome and Memory Lost
The exhibition also marks the UK premiere of Stendhal Syndrome (2024), which contrasts photographs of Goldin’s friends and lovers with classical art from museums around the world, revealing uncanny resemblances in composition, colour and emotion. Accompanied by a score by Soundwalk Collective, the work, in Goldin’s words, “shows that my people have always been here”.
Alongside it, Memory Lost (2019–2021) explores Goldin’s personal history with drugs and the darkness of addiction. Through slides capturing scenes from her own life and friendships, the film shows the ecstasy, mourning and pain of drug use, connecting personal testimony with structural critique. Goldin is a member of P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), the activist group she started to combat the overdose crisis, and the work is dedicated to it.
Upstairs, the Hayward Gallery will present a selection of Goldin’s photographs, including a new body of photographic prints connected to the You Never Did Anything Wrong films. Altogether, the show celebrates what the gallery calls Goldin’s enduring commitment to bearing witness, to intimacy, endurance, political struggle and the fragile conditions through which people, animals and the land must exist.
Rachel Thomas, Roden Chief Curator, says: “We are incredibly proud to debut new work by Nan Goldin at the Hayward Gallery. This exhibition traces the evolution of her gaze through extraordinary new and recent moving image works, demonstrating how her lens operates on a wavelength of pure compassion. Shifting her focus from human relationships to animal consciousness and the natural world, Goldin brilliantly re-evaluates how we perceive other living beings.”
Mark Ball, Southbank Centre’s Artistic Director, adds: “Nan Goldin has reshaped the language of photography, transforming the medium into a profound living record of human intimacy and resilience. At the Hayward Gallery, we are thrilled to host her first major UK exhibition for over two decades with work that captures the soul of her practice. To bring her radical vision to our Brutalist spaces in the culmination of our 75th anniversary programme is a moment of immense pride.”
Tickets and the catalogue
Tickets go on sale to Southbank Centre Members on Wednesday 15 July 2026, and to the general public on Friday 17 July 2026. In celebration of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary, there’s a special £7.50 ticket offer for the opening two weeks of the exhibition’s run, and Southbank Centre Under-30s subscribers can get half-price tickets too.
A fully illustrated catalogue focusing on the new work will accompany the exhibition, featuring a newly commissioned essay and an in-depth interview with Goldin and writer Thora Siemsen.
The London x London Take: the Hayward’s Brutalist galleries have hosted plenty of major names over the years, but Goldin’s first UK institutional show since 2002 feels like a genuine event rather than just another big-ticket booking, especially with two brand new films rather than a straight retrospective. Book early for the opening fortnight if you want the £7.50 tickets.
Need to know
- Where: Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
- When: 24 November 2026 to 7 March 2027
- Tickets: Full price £19, concessions available, Southbank Centre Members go free
- Website: southbankcentre.co.uk
