South London Gallery opens exhibition about humour in art in new fire station building

A new exhibition space in an old fire station will open this weekend with a show about humour in contemporary art.

South London Gallery will open its new annexe the Fire Station Building on September 22, with its inaugural exhibition, Knock Knock, exploring how artists use comedy in all forms, from in-jokes to satire, parody to slapstick. The exhibition will also examine why we laugh at what we do, with the exhibition deliberately timed to coincide with a period of international political upheaval.

The exhibition will cover both the main gallery space and the new building – an addition which will double South London Gallery in size – and will include work by prominent artists including Pop Art legend Roy Lichtenstein, sculptor Sarah Lucas and text artist Barbara Kruger.

Up and coming artists featured in the show include performance artist Danielle Dean, Glasgow-based Hardeep Pandhal and Simeon Barclay, who exhibited at Tate Britain last year. The exhibition will also include a large-scale cartoon by Yonatan Vinitsky and a flock of concrete sheep by sculptor Judith Hopf.

Knock Knock: Humour in Contemporary Art will run at South London Gallery from September 22 – November 18 2018. For more information, visit southlondongallery.org