The Escapologist: Gavin Turk's labyrinth of "ajar" portals opens at Ben Brown Fine Arts

Ben Brown Fine Arts is presenting The Escapologist, the sixth solo exhibition of British artist Gavin Turk at the London gallery (11 March - 22 May 2026). The exhibition presents a new series of oil paintings depicting doors left ajar, each offering a glimpse into an ambiguous and surreal terrain beyond. Shown together, the works transform the gallery into a labyrinth of thresholds. Each painting functions as a portal, drawing the viewer towards a narrow opening that reveals a field of smooth, liquid brushwork. These passages dissolve into bands of luminous colour that suggest an atmospheric horizon, generating unstable optical effects that coax the eye into a false sense of depth. For more than three decades, Turk has relentlessly interrogated the systems through which belief is produced – in images, in authorship, in value – using familiar forms, art historical tropes, psychoanalytic symbols and dreamlike objects to set perceptual traps. The door is a recurring motif in his