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Lizzie Carey-Thomas

@lizziect5

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Director of Programme & Chief Curator, Serpentine; Trustee @fluxus_art_projects; @nottm_contemp; Elephant Trust; James Barnor Foundation
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WAAW’s Must-See Exhibition of June 2026!

WAAW World was very happy to host an exhibition tour organised together with Serpentine and led by Lizzie Carey-Thomas, Chief Curator and Director of Programme at Serpentine, offering a guided introduction to Cecily Brown: Picture Making during Women Artists' Art Week 2026.
This special curator-led visit offered us an opportunity to explore Brown's practice within the context of the exhibition and gain insight into the ideas and processes behind the work, while reflecting WAAW World's commitment to increasing the visibility and recognition of women artists across the global art landscape.
Very grateful to @lizziect5 @kolia_smirnov and @serpentineuk 🙏🏻💫

Photo credit @allaphoto.art 🙌🏻 taken in Serpentine Galleries by @lizziect5

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4 months ago

Almost a week since Peter Doig: House of Music closed its doors and already missing this total gallery takeover immensely. Grateful to @peterdoig for embarking on this experiment with us, to @serpentineuk for being flexible enough to set parts in motion and allow them to evolve and accumulate; to the generosity of all (64+!) participants, including Peter, in sharing their musical archives; to @d_s_p.london for entrusting us with the grand dame of sound systems and tending to her every need; to Parinaz @tramp.s for helping to devise the most perfect environment in which to house her; to @fayeandgina for the excellent graphics. And most of all to the brilliant curatorial team led by @natnusheh who went above and beyond to deliver the project in all its dimensions @kostasstas @xalexaxa @you_found_isobel 💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫
@hansulrichobrist
@bettinakorek
@phoebephilo
@nicolettafioruccifoundation by @lizziect5

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8 months ago

Final weekend of Arpita Singh ‘Remembering’ @serpentineuk. Born in 1937, this is the Delhi-based painter’s first solo exhibition outside India and a rare chance to see six decades of her incredible work. Famously enigmatic about the work’s meaning - as is every painter’s right - she says ‘ What is a dreamlike, imaginative world to you is a real world for me.’ Brilliantly curated by @tamsin_hong with @liz_stu ✨✨✨
@vadehraartgallery
@knmaindia
#arpitasingh by @lizziect5

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a year ago

It is with enormous sadness that I share the news that friend and colleague Mike Gaughan passed away this week. Mike was Serpentine’s Gallery Manager for 43 years, and up until the last couple of years, oversaw the installation of almost every single exhibition and sculpture during this period. When considering making the jump from Tate to Serpentine in 2015, it was the many glowing reports of Mike from artists that swung it for me, the care, the kindness, the gentle determination. Mike was an artist and knew how to talk to other artists who trusted him implicitly. He inhabited the gallery and the gallery inhabited him. He would use his body as a measuring stick, mapping out the co-ordinates of a sculpture using his limbs. To say he had no ego is not quite correct, but his dedication to seeing something through was total, fanatical. Mike would have to be cajoled into leaving the gallery at the end of the day, he never installed wi-fi at home, in part I think so that he would have to make the laborious daily slog from Epping to Kensington Gardens. He loved clothes, dressed brilliantly and could be mistaken for an 18 year old from afar. Yet he had at times an old fashioned formality – when walking down the street with Mike he would insist on positioning himself next to the curb to protect a female companion from passing carriage splashes. And he was very funny, with a masterful eyeroll. Mike was the first person I spoke to in the morning and usually the last before I left for the day. We would occasionally bicker like siblings but the love was deep. I miss him dearly. Thinking of his family, Serpentine colleagues past and present and the many people who were lucky enough to know and love this beautiful, gentle, much cherished soul.

Pics 4/10/11 taken by @chris__bayley
@serpentineuk by @lizziect5

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a year ago

Finally made it to @gilliancarnegie’s phenomenal show @gladstone.gallery (Gladstone on 64 space). More sculptures than paintings, monuments rather than representations of their (mostly) living subjects. Barry Schwabsky says it best on the press release: ‘Painting may find its subjects in everyday life, but it removes from them, precisely, their reality, like the moisture extracted from flowers in order to preserve them.’ by @lizziect5

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a year ago

Hearings underway by the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC) this weekend, a project by @dsouzaradha and @jonas_staal, putting the British East India Company on trial. Witnesses argue that the BEIC, est in 1600, invented power structures combining private and state interests whose policies of colonisation, extraction and exploitation benefitting an elite of investors, shareholders and crown at the expense of vast swathes of the global population still perpetuate today with devastating consequences. Urgent and prescient. Huge congrats to @luciapietroiusti_ @daisymgould and @you_found_isobel for staging this massive project so brilliantly. Public hearings conclude tomorrow but you can visit the installation at @ambika_p3 and join the public programme until 24 April. Visit @serpentineuk by @lizziect5

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a year ago

Some good things in Frankfurt: Adrian Piper’s new commission I’m A Tree @kunsthalle_portikus curated by @liberty.adrien and @carina_rrroberta ✨✨✨(1-3); surveys of Carol Rama (4-7) and Hans Haacke (8) @schirnkunsthalle
#adrianpiper #carolrama #hanshaacke by @lizziect5

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2 years ago

Details from Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350 @metmuseum by @lizziect5

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2 years ago

Mark Leckey’s ‘Three Songs from the Liver’ @gladstone.gallery (21st St) 🚏⛰️🏰👀✨ @mark.leckey by @lizziect5

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2 years ago

Some glimpses of Lauren Halsey’s show ‘emajendat’ now open at Serpentine South. Such a total gallery transformation took a huge collective effort from an amazing team (and possibly the longest install in Serpentine’s history): so grateful to Lauren and her immensely talented studio team Amanda McGough @clickicity, Daniel Beckwith @kidwestern, @blackmon.kenneth, Nick Barton @sketchairbrush (see pic 10), as well as the brilliant Monique McWilliams. From Serpentine so lucky to work with the legendary Mike Gaughan 💥, my brilliant co-curator @chris__bayley ✨, Anthony Silvester, Anthony Williams and the Beyond Surface crew. Thanks to Kathy Paciello and @sirsargent @gagosian for essential support. Finally heartfelt thanks to Lauren for bringing this totally immersive ‘non-linear portrait of a place’ to London in all its dimensions. til 2 March.
@summaeverythang @serpentineuk @hansulrichobrist @bettinakorek by @lizziect5

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2 years ago

A walk through James Town with James Barnor and Allotey Bruce-Konuah, revisiting the sites of some his most iconic images including (1) Ever Young, his first portrait studio est 1953 and (6) Studio X23 which he ran through the 1970s and which doubled as the rehearsal space for the cultural troupe he managed Fee Hi (final pic).
@jamesbarnor @james_barnor_archives @james_barnor_festival @clementinedelaferonniere by @lizziect5

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2 years ago

Studio visits with @sergeclottey (1-5) and @ritamawuena (6-9)

@si.hene
@gallery1957 taken in Accra, Ghana by @lizziect5

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2 years ago