Major exhibition features paintings, photography, film and personal objects spanning centuries
Gender Stories, a major exhibition about identity and self-expression, opens at Walker Art Gallery on 16 May 2026. The exhibition brings together artwork from Grayson Perry, David Hockney, James Tissot, and Antonia Showering, photography by Catherine Opie and Zanele Muholi, new film by Ebun Sodipo and Ree Bradley, and personal objects from a Suffragette teapot to a Liverpool LGBTQ+ football scarf.
The exhibition covers centuries of history through oil paintings, etchings, ceramics, textiles, sculpture and video. Historical works include a watercolour by Sarah Biffin, a celebrated miniaturist who was born without arms and painted using her mouth. Biffin won a medal from the Society of Arts, took commissions from the Royal Family, and spent her final years in Liverpool, where she is buried in St James’s Cemetery.
Charlotte Keenan, Head of Walker Art Gallery, said:
“Everyone has a lived experience of gender, and this exhibition creates space for visitors to reflect on their own while hearing from others. Working with communities across Liverpool has been central to bringing Gender Stories to the Walker, and we hope it will be a place for honest conversation and genuine connection.”
Gender Stories opens at Walker Art Gallery on 16 May 2026 and runs until 31 August 2026.