Simon Starling: Boat Works
20 September 2025 – 13 March 2026
Abbot Hall presents Boat Works, a solo exhibition by Turner Prize winning artist Simon Starling. The show brings together nearly all of Starling’s projects in which the boat takes centre stage as a symbol of migration, transformation, and change.
Starling is known for reshaping objects and histories, using processes of transformation to uncover hidden stories and challenge familiar narratives. In Boat Works, the boat becomes his recurring vessel for exploring environmental, cultural, and historical journeys.
Key highlights of the exhibition include major installations including Island for Weeds and Houseboat for Ho, works that exemplify this deep engagement with environmental, cultural, historical, and material narratives.
Starling will also be working with Lakeland Arts’ team of conservation boat builders, to produce a new work – plans and sketches of which will be on display at Windermere Jetty Museum.
Born in Surrey and now based in Copenhagen, Starling has exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Nottingham Contemporary and Tate St. Ives.
Boat Works invites visitors to experience Starling’s thought-provoking approach to art, where transformation itself becomes a way of seeing the world anew.
Caption: Houseboat by Simon Starling
Further information
- Opening times: 10am-4pm, Wednesday – Saturday (from 24 May 2023); Opening weekend: 10am-4pm Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 May 2023; Annual closure dates: 25 – 26 December 2024. The gallery also closes for two weeks collection care and maintenance at the start of January every year
- Admission: You can book your gallery tickets online or buy on the day: £9 Adult; £7 Student; £4.50 Child (5-15yrs); £0 Child (0-4yrs); Free for Lakeland Arts Members; With a National Art Pass you get 50% off day admission
- Location: Abbot Hall, Kirkland, Kendal LA9 5AL. Parking: Pay and display parking in the Abbot Hall car park – there are parking spaces for Blue Badge holders
- For more information please call 015394 722464. email: info@lakelandarts.org.uk
- Instagram @abbothall; Facebook @abbothall
