The Reign
Celebrating 150 years of the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House, contemporary artists Adam Dant and Dan Llywelyn Hall explore royalty in the Society’s historic collection Friday 28 June – Friday 5 July 2024

The Society of Antiquaries of London celebrates its 150th anniversary of moving to Burlington House with an exhibition during London Art Week. The event features 20 new artworks created by Adam Dant and Dan Llywelyn Hall, inspired by items from the Society’s historic collection.

The majority of the artwork will be sold in an online auction from 1 June until 5 July. Eight further works will exclusively be sold during a gala auction together with some etchings from the Society of Antiquaries.

Cerys Matthews MBE, singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster will host a pre-exhibition Q&A opening event with Adam and Dan at 6pm on Monday 3 June in the Society’s Meeting Room. Andrew Graham-Dixon will be part of a talk and presentation with the artists on The Role of the Royal Portrait on Wednesday 3 July from 7pm to 9pm. Tickets are available online.

The live auction of Adam and Dan’s artworks will take place at 6pm on Thursday 4 July with guest auctioneer Matthew Haley, Managing Director of Bonhams Knightsbridge saleroom, and a regular on the BBC Antiques Roadshow.

Funds raised from this exciting auction will support the cataloguing and digitisation of the Society’s collection of around 25,000 eighteenth and nineteenth-century prints and drawings.

‘I’m delighted to be supporting The Reign exhibition & auction with contemporary artists Dan Llywelyn Hall and Adam Dant at the Society of Antiquaries. Celebrating 150 years at Burlington House benefiting the research into one of Britain’s most diverse collection of treasures.’ Cerys Matthews MBE.

‘The Society of Antiquaries houses many intimate objects and images that shed light on the monarchs of the past. This exhibition offers a fresh interpretation of these distant faces. I look forward to discussing royal portraiture and meeting the artists responsible for The Reign.' Andrew Graham-Dixon

The Artists
Adam Dant (born 1967) is a Jerwood Drawing Prize-winning British artist (2002). He has won praise from The Guardian and Financial Times for his Hogarthian graphic style. Among the artists that have inspired him, Dant lists Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, J. M. W. Turner, George Cruikshank, Edward Burra and Saul Steinberg. Critics have most often likened Dant to William Hogarth, whose 18th-century satirical prints were created with a moral purpose in mind. “Mine are underpinned by subversion,” Dant says, “dressed up in traditional clothes.”

Dan Llywelyn Hall (born 1980) is an artist known for his landscapes and portrait paintings. Hall has exhibited throughout the UK in public galleries such as the National Portrait Gallery. In 2013 he was commissioned by the WRU to paint an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, with a sitting at Windsor. In 2014, Hall’s portrait of Prince William was unveiled in the Wales Office by the Secretary of State for Wales. In 2015, Hall became the first artist-in-residence at the Cannes Film Festival. For the 75th anniversary of the Dambusters Raid, he made 133 portraits of all the men who participated in the mission. In 2021, Hall completed an exhibition and book Walking with Offa / Cerdded gydag Offa - a collaboration with celebrated poets. In 2022, Hall attended the Queen’s funeral procession and depicted it in the Queen’s Procession in Real Time.