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For more than 400 years, the Queen’s House has been a home for artistic innovation.
The House was designed as a space to showcase the leading artists of the age, from works by Van Dyck to ceilings once painted by Orazio Gentileschi and his daughter Artemisia.
Today the Queen's House continues this tradition, commissioning and displaying pieces from leading artists including Alberta Whittle, Richard Wright, Kehinde Wiley and Sharon Walters.
Discover just some of the contemporary artworks to look out for during your visit.
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Feeling Blue by Alberta Whittle and Dovecot Studios
Featuring more than 150 different colour combinations, this vibrant tapestry takes inspiration from the varied collections and complex histories of Greenwich.
Feeling Blue was commissioned by Royal Museums Greenwich. It was created by multidisciplinary artist Alberta Whittle and Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh.
The tapestry is on display in the Queen’s Presence Chamber and responds to specific artworks within the space. Cultured freshwater pearl beads are woven into its design, referencing the jewelled gown depicted in the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I.
Its blue colour scheme also provides a nod to the interior of the Queen’s House itself, as seen in the ceiling of the King’s Presence Chamber and the balustrade of the Tulip Stairs.
The Keeper of All The Secrets by Jacqueline Bishop
Made in 2023, The Keeper of All The Secrets reworks a traditional British tea service, using collages of Caribbean market women and botanicals to explore women's agency and the legacies of empire and enslavement.
The market woman was central to Caribbean society, working as a healer, trader, preserver and transmitter of cultural knowledge, but Bishop wanted to explore why her importance has been overlooked.
The idea for The Keeper of All The Secrets came when Bishop was looking through her late grandmother’s plate cabinets. “These plates had a colonial history,” Bishop explains, “and I decided: what if I started telling our history and my own history on these plates?”
Her finished work is a 13-piece 'tea service' in ceramic with digital print transfers and adorned with gold lustre. By using this form, Bishop highlights how enslavement, colonisation and empire were bound up with the trades in sugar and tea, which gave rise to luxury commodities enjoyed in Europe.
The Keeper of All The Secrets is on display in the King’s Closet.
Supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a Donor Advised Fund, held at The Prism Charitable Trust. The Keeper of All The Secrets display in the Queen’s House has been developed in partnership with Culture&, as part of their Time, Space and Empire programme.
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Sea Mark by Tania Kovats
This meditative work captures the rippling surface of the sea. It is a piece that evokes the senses: you can almost smell the spray of the sea and hear the crashing waves.
Sea Mark was created by visual artist, Tania Kovats, who uses media including sculpture, installation and drawing to explore our relationship with the landscape. Kovats’ piece draws on a tradition of hand-painted blue and white ceramic tilework, an 18th century example of which hangs beside it, located near the Loggia.
Kovats hand-painted ceramic tiles using glossy, liquid brushstrokes to emphasise the fluidity of the waves. The tiles were then carefully fired and glazed.
The Great Hall ceiling by Richard Wright
Look up at the ceiling of the Great Hall to spot this golden installation. To mark the 400th anniversary of the Queen’s House in 2016, Turner Prize-winning artist Richard Wright was invited to create an artwork for the space.
His delicate gold leaf design – one of the largest pieces Wright has ever attempted – was inspired by the floral motifs seen in the balustrade of the Tulip Stairs.
The artwork was painted on the ceiling using 17th century fresco techniques – a painstaking process for Wright and his team of five artisans.
Wright’s installation is part of the history of Great Hall ceiling designs. During the 17th century, the Hall’s ceiling was adorned with a set of painted canvases, commissioned from and largely painted by artist Orazio Gentileschi, and likely his daughter Artemisia.
These were later removed during the reign of Queen Anne, who gave them to her favourite, Sarah Churchill.
Credits: No Title, 2016, Richard Wright. Commissioned by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian Gallery, London.
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The Many Invincible Ones by Sharon Walters
From paper-cut collages to engraved stainless steel and bronze, a series of six artworks can be seen in the Queen’s Closet. These pieces form The Many Invincible Ones, a display by multidisciplinary artist, Sharon Walters.
The Many Invincible Ones was created during Walters’ Caird Research Fellowship in 2024-2025, a practice-based project that saw her make pieces in response to the Museum’s sites and collections.
Exploring themes including resilience, reconnection, healing and hope, the works took their starting point from a historic photograph in Royal Museums Greenwich’s collection, which depicts formerly enslaved children on board HMS Flying Fish in Madagascar.
Walters explains that creating The Many Invincible Ones has pushed the boundaries of her practice: “It’s enabled me to explore different materials and to look back historically at figures who I feel as though I connect with – and see myself in.”
She adds: “The work has been all-encompassing, and it feels impossible to think of this as the end.”
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Crossing Border by Shorsh Saleh
This miniature artwork highlights the danger of sea crossings, shaped by the artist’s own experience. Shorsh Saleh is a Kurdish mixed-media artist, carpet designer and weaver whose work focuses on migration, borders and identity.
Saleh says: “Crossing Border combines the tradition of Indo-Persian miniature painting with contemporary politics. Art has always portrayed the immense power of the sea over human beings – a power that I experienced for the first time when I fled conflict and persecution in my homeland and crossed borders in search of safety.”
The work forms part of ‘Crossings’, a series of works that tell the story of migration. It can be seen in the Orangery.
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Olaudah Equiano – African, slave, author, abolitionist by Christy Symington
A leading voice in the abolitionist campaign, Olaudah Equiano was sold into slavery around the age of 11. He eventually bought his freedom and documented his experiences in his autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, published in 1789.
This sculpture was made by artist Christy Symington, and is on display on the first floor of the House. The sculpture stands in dialogue with 18th century naval portraits, inviting viewers to consider what makes a hero – and who is recorded by history.
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Ship of Fools by Kehinde Wiley
The painting was created by visual artist, Kehinde Wiley, whose work reimagines Western artistic traditions to place marginalised figures centre stage.
Ship of Fools showcases Wiley’s pioneering approach, reworking the conventions of seascape painting to explore issues including refugee crossings, identity and the legacies of the transatlantic slave trade.
“Ship of Fools is a response to the history of maritime painting, and in a very strong way is about trying to come to terms with the project I have had over the past 10 to 12 years, which is to delve into the history of painting – Gainsborough, Turner, Bosch. To delve into those people whose shoulders I try to stand on. To justifiably create a space for myself,” explains Wiley.
The work is currently on display in the Governor’s Parlour.
Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund, the American Friends of Royal Museums Greenwich and the Keith McBride bequest.
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Migrants by Tam Joseph
On loan to Royal Museums Greenwich, this sizeable painting depicts tropical flying fish leaping out of an icy Arctic sea. Migrants was made by artist Tam Joseph and is inspired by his passage to Britain aboard the Italian steamer Lucania. In the work, flying fish serve as metaphors for migration, representing the shared hopes of those beginning new lives abroad.
However, the stark backdrop of an iceberg complicates this optimism. Joseph recalls: “When I was eight years old, I came over to England from Dominica on a boat... I remember seeing flying fish leaping out of the warm waters, and when I painted this many years later I thought about us passengers, like those fish – we were fish out of water, travelling to colder waters, and a colder land, where the people were colder still.”
Migrants is part of the Crossings display and is located in the Orangery.
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Asabikeshiinh Aeris (Bronze Dreamcatcher) by Rowan Mersh
Fusing traditional craft and new technologies, this bronze sculpture of a turritella seashell was created by Rowan Mersh, a multi-media artist known for his large-scale wall pieces and freestanding sculptures.
Asabikeshiinh Aeris provides a modern twist on the artistic legacy of shell craft work, many examples of which are in Royal Museums Greenwich’s collection. It is on display in the King's Writing Closet, part of a 'cabinet of curiosities' including navigational instruments, ceramic figurines and natural wonders.
Explore more contemporary art on display
Explore more contemporary art on display
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'The Rhumblineage of Penelope Steel' by Remiiya Badru
Part map, part family tree, part timeline, The Rhumblineage of Penelope Steel is a collage work that captures the viewer’s imagination. Commissioned by Royal Museums Greenwich, the piece takes inspiration from the life of the eponymous 19th century London mapmaker.
Artist Remiiya Badru came across Badru’s story during her Creative Research Fellowship at the Museum in 2024. “I was interested in excavating the hidden narratives of Black women at sea in maritime history,” she says.
Weaving together themes including migration and maritime trade, The Rhumblineage of Penelope Steel is filled with intriguing details. Pieces of twined rope reference the curvature of the River Thames around the Isle of Dogs, while a blue Sankofa bird – an Akan symbol that highlights the connection between the past and the future – can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner.
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'Identity' by Rachelle Romeo
"Identity is an emotional reaction to the Windrush scandal," says Romeo, "exposing the profound pain of those from the Caribbean disowned by the only nationality they knew. It parallels this injustice with the historical stripping of their identities for colonial gain. More than just showcasing suffering, the artwork celebrates the resilience of these communities and their allies, highlighting the power of their united voices."
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'Hands Reaching out to Big Ben' by Maya Ramsay
Artist Maya Ramsay (born 1976) has documented numerous anonymous drawings found on the sides of shipwrecked and compounded North African migrant vessels in Sicily. She explains: "The outstretched hands signify both the desire of many migrants to reach the UK and the desperation, pleading for help, as they drown. Migrant boats are usually destroyed in Italy, so I wanted to document these drawings before they were erased."
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'Untitled (Admiral in State)' by Faisal Abdu’Allah
Black cultural identity, erasure and agency are just some of the themes emphasised in this work by portrait photographer, Faisal Abdu’Allah. Untitled (Admiral in State) was created following extensive research into Royal Museums Greenwich’s collections. It is a contemporary response to the Museum’s naval artworks, using Abdu’Allah’s friend as the sitter. While symbolising the fragility of humanity, the work explores issues including the marginalised Black subject.
Untitled also takes inspiration from the history of the Queen’s House. During the 17th century, the Great Hall was used for the laying-in-state of two Parliamentary Generals at Sea.
This work is currently on display in the Queen’s Ante Chamber. To create this piece, Abdu’Allah screen printed a photograph onto a copper sheet – a technique he developed himself.
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'No 9 from Halab, Syria' by Djordje Balmazovic
Balmazovic (born 1965), from the experimental art collective Škart, describes how this work was made: "In 2013, we were invited to work with migrants at the asylum centre in Bogovađa, Serbia. The people in the centre were exhausted. Some had been travelling for years, fleeing wars and miserable conditions in their home countries, trying to find a better place to live. We invited them to draw maps of their journeys, which they accepted with joy."
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