Summer Exhibition exploring colour and its perception opens at Halcyon

At Halcyon: A Celebration of Colour as Substance and Symbol

Halcyon’s Summer Exhibition is now on view at 148 and 29 New Bond Street until the 31st August. Exploring colour and its perception, both on the surface and beneath, it features work from David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Paul Cummins MBE, Dominic Harris, Dale Chihuly, Pedro Paricio, Santiago Montoya, and James McQueen. 

Colour strikes us first, before form, and before meaning. Often fluid, it shifts in relation to its environment, possessing the power to seduce, sooth, agitate or provoke us. The artworks presented in the Summer Exhibition consider colour as both substance and symbol, revealing a spectrum of materials and meanings. 

Anchoring the gallery’s Summer Exhibition is Paul Cummins’ sculptural cascade of ceramic poppies, echoing his commemorative installation currently on display at the Tower of London. First shown in 2014, the installation has been resurrected this year at the Tower for the 80th anniversary of VE Day. The visceral blood-red poppies are highly charged with the memory of sacrifice and renewal. Awe-inspiring in its scale, the installation creates a physical and emotional journey into remembrance. 

The cascading poppies featured in the Summer Exhibition echo Cummins’ previous installations; yet in scale and setting, the work takes on a new meaning. Although still monumental, their domestic setting highlights the intricate and sculptural quality of the work. In this artwork, Cummins metamorphoses a practised motif and shapes it into something new. 

Dominic Harris takes this idea further in his digital blooms which respond directly to interaction, evolving in real-time with animated digital ecosystems exploring colour through code, rather than pigment. The Promise of Babylon, a new work by Harris, depicts a bursting orb of flowers divided into the four seasons. The flowers morph before the viewer’s eyes as they endure the cyclical nature of time passing. Visitors can also experience an immersive multi-sensory installation room designed by Harris to allow viewers to step into his artworks.

Santiago Montoya’s works continue his ongoing exploration into currency, history and power, offering a striking journey into global economics, national identity, and visual language through the seductive power of currency and colour. Achieved through his labour-intensive process, real banknotes are rolled and arranged into grid-like patterns, like seen in New Multi XXIV. At a distance, these works resemble abstract colour fields or sunsets on the horizon, but on closer inspection of their minute details, they invite us to consider global financial systems, political power, the visual language of currency, and, above all, value.

Arranged chromatically, Montoya deploys his unconventional medium in vivid rows of colour which bear identifying iconography and imagery, including national heroes, cultural motifs and sovereign symbols. 

David Hockney’s iPad drawings continue his lifelong inquiry into colour and observation through a digital lens. This medium amplifies his bold choices of palette, allowing Hockney to capture natural luminosity with a new clarity and joy that reaffirms his belief in the emotional resonance of colour. 

Dale Chihuly’s blown-glass boat provides an exuberant celebration of colour, overflowing with vivid, organic forms. His backlit drawings on acrylic draw parallels with stained glass windows, showing colour transformed into pure illumination, demonstrating its power to evoke emotion and introspection.

Together, the works in this exhibition remind us that colour is not merely seen – it is felt, experienced and embodied. Spanning a broad chromatic and conceptual spectrum, these works reclaim colour as a language; a way of sensing, thinking, and being in the world. 

Halcyon’s Summer Exhibition is now on view at 148 and 29 New Bond Street until 31st August 2025

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