Honorary Fellow Anne Desmet RA is currently exhibiting at the City of London’s Guildhall Art Gallery in their first ever solo exhibition by a woman artist.

Inspired by ‘climate crisis, escape, and possible new worlds’, Kaleidoscope/London offers a fresh perspective on the capital, its architecture and geography through 150 artworks.

Anne Desmet (1983, Fine Art) is an artist and printmaker who specialises in the intricate art of wood engraving. A deeply personal and endlessly imaginative show, Desmet has spoken candidly about her inspiration for the new work, pointing to ‘wild scattergun thoughts running through my mind’ while undergoing treatment for cancer two years ago and looking at a fragmented view of the world through a toy kaleidoscope.

The exhibition features 41 new London-themed prints alongside a selection of tools and engraved wood blocks, spanning over three decades of Desmet’s work. Curated by Desmet and Head of Guildhall Art Gallery, Elizabeth Scott, Kaleidoscope/London opened in April 2024 and is the first solo exhibition led by a female artist at the gallery.

Due to its popularity, the exhibition’s run has been extended until Sunday 5 January 2025. The gallery is open every day between 10am and 5pm and admission is on a ‘Pay What You Can’ basis, meaning visitors can pay as much or as little as they like or visit for free.

Anne Desmet RA is only the third artist to be elected to the Royal Academy for the wood engraving medium in the RA’s 256-year history. To date, she has exhibited her work in over 40 solo shows, including five major museum exhibitions in the UK and overseas. Her work has won over 40 national and international awards and she was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College in 2018.

Anne’s work can also be seen in Oxford later this year, as she participates in the free Society of Wood Engravers’ 86th Annual Exhibition at The North Wall in Summertown from 3-28 September.

Anne Desmet: Kaleidoscope/London