Theo Gorst at Liminal Gallery, Margate, August 2026 – Well we happened to be in Margate, we’ve mentioned that already with the previous piece and the fact that the weekend just past took us to the seaside to see a man about a beautiful 1937 LNER railway Art Deco flavoured observation coach (we did already say this, we might even write about it in a moment). We took ourselves to Margate and while we were there we  caught up with Margot (of Margate) ahead of this year’s much anticipated Art Car Boot Fair, something that happens in London in eighteen days on Saturday September 5th. And of course were weren’t going to go to coast without checking out what was happening at Liminal, something we haven’t had a chance to do via these pages for a couple of years when we went Searching for the positives at the 2024 London Art Fair and Liminal were showing some very strong, visually demanding, deliciously inviting Olivia Strange pieces – sculpture, installation, a painting – a beautiful whole – hands, fingers, witch-like talons? Porcelain-like, cold yet inviting, metallic, hard, yet soft, engaging, dangerous maybe? Brilliant combination pieces. Hey, we’re London based, we can’t be jumping on Javelins to Margate every week even if those sleek blue trains are rather fast, some more Liminal coverage is rather overdue… 

Saturday morning and the first day proper of a Theo Gorst show after what was said to be a very busy opening night on the Friday evening before at Liminal. AOAP Projects are in league with the gallery for this one, the organisation formally known as Art on a Post Card are busy doing that current gatekeeper thing and chasing the new young things, it is the way of things at the moment (it can be an annoying thing). Theo Gorst can’t help all that though and the work does look strong in the (very) small art space right over the road from those shapes of the Turner Contemporary – 

“Theo is an exciting new talent, having recently graduated with an MA in fine art from Norwich University. His figurative paintings of people in tracksuits, often with their limbs entwined, have a youthful, fresh, painterly feel. We first exhibited his work at our annual fundraiser with War Child UK, the Sound & Vision auction, where it attracted more bids than any other artist” so says someone from AOAP, We managed to avoid all talk of the show in advance knowing full well we’d be there to see for ourselves, avoid the hype as it were.

It is a strong show, and yes a united body of intriguing work that does feel like it might be just left of the right (or maybe wrong) side of the ordinary. Figurative oil paintings,  ambiguous scenes that maybe aren’t quite everyday real life (or maybe that reality is exactly what they actually are?). People not quite at ease, paintings with a sense of unease, those three stripes that run down the arms and legs of people’s realities. Nothing is that obvious, it is almost voyeuristic observations and yes, it is a show to check out, a painter to maybe keep an eye on, rather pleased we caught it…  (sw)      

Liminal Gallery is found at 34 Fort Hill, Margate CT9 1HD. Right over the road from the front door of the Turner Contemporary. The gallery is open Thursday-Saturday 11am – 4pm or by appointment. The Theo Gorst show runs until 12th September 2026.

Links: Liminal / AOAP / Theo Gorst

As we always say, please do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the short slide show…