Free entry
4 Jun – 7 Sep 2025
Gallery 4
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
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Hamad Butt was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962, and was raised in East London. He lived in London until his AIDS-related death in 1994, aged 32. He was a pioneering British South Asian artist who forged new ways of thinking about the relationship between art and science, illness, the body, and identity. He is best known for a series of austere compositions of steel, glass and toxic materials, shown in Gallery 1, and he was also a prolific producer of drawings, paintings, etchings, and writings.
This display is constructed around an informative and moving video interview between the artist and his brother Jamal Butt, recorded six months before his untimely death. It gives context to Butt’s practice as an artist, bringing together sketches, plans and archival materials relating to his key works, alongside theoretical and personal writings. It showcases his wide-ranging cultural influences, from Bollywood to Doctor Who, demonstrates his artistic processes, and considers the legacy of an artist whose life was cut drastically short.
Hamad Butt was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962 and moved to live in East London with his family in 1964. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths from 1987 to 1990 and coincided with the Young British Artists (YBA) generation, many of whom studied alongside him there. His earliest works include countless paintings and prints, which were shown in exhibitions around London and the UK from 1983-87, including at Brixton Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, South London Gallery and London Lesbian and Gay Centre. From the late 1980s, Butt developed unprecedented large-scale sculptural installations using toxic or dangerous materials. His later works were exhibited at John Hansard Gallery (Southampton); Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain); Whitechapel Gallery; Milch; Institute of Contemporary Arts (all London); Manchester Art Gallery; and elsewhere. He continued to make works on paper throughout this time. Butt died of AIDS- related complications in London in 1994, aged 32. A book on his work, Familiars, was published posthumously in 1996. His work is in the permanent collections of Tate and IMMA.
Hamad Butt: Apprehensions has been generously supported by:
Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at The London Community FoundationHenry Moore FoundationHamad Butt Exhibition Circle and Patrons, chaired by Gemma Rolls-Bentley and Russell Tovey: Sir Isaac Julien, John Booth, Kevin Kane, Russell Tovey, Amrita Jhaveri, Pat Wang Maugüé, Marcelle Joseph, Frank Krikhaar
Research for this exhibition has been supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
Public Programmes for this exhibition supported by the Centre for Public Engagement at Queen Mary University of London
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Irish Museum of Modern Art
