David Annesley and Luke Samuel, installation view, Permanent Location, London, 2026.
All photos: BJ Deakin

David Annesley and Luke Samuel
2 October-7 November 2026

Permanent Location is pleased to announce an exhibition bringing together the work of David Annesley and Luke Samuel, staging a dialogue between two artists of distinct generations whose practices advance a common proposition: that colour is apprehended physically as much as visually.

Annesley, a leading figure of the New Generation sculptors, redefined the terms of engagement between artwork and viewer by removing sculpture from the plinth and placing it directly on the gallery floor, a radical gesture that collapsed the distance between object and audience, inviting colour and form to occupy the viewer’s own physical space.
While Annesley is best known for his large-scale, open-form sculptures in painted metal, on view at Permanent Location is a series of intimately sized, hand-crafted and hand-painted maquettes made of aluminium and card. Originally created during the development of larger works, the maquettes, which have never previously been exhibited, offer insight into his creative process. Treating them as artworks in their own right, the artist has chosen to repaint elements for the current presentation.

Samuel’s paintings pursue the same concern in two dimensions. His works, composed and installed in close conversation with one another and with the architecture of the exhibition space, treat the wall-based medium with an almost sculptural sensibility.
For Samuel, the act of painting consists of an unhurried consideration of the layering of colours, reduction and how decisions with pigment are made. One work, Blot (2026), approaches monochrome, with the predominant off-white broken only by dabs and streaks of green and pink. The painting takes shape on a support of cotton, which the artist employs for its transparency and how it holds paint. In the other work, Fold (2026), a more colourful palette of faintly curved lines stretches out horizontally, almost as though one of Annesley’s maquettes has been unravelled across an elongated expanse of linen.

David Annesley (b. 1936, London) studied painting, then sculpture under Anthony Caro, at St Martin’s School of Art, graduating in 1961. His work was included in the landmark exhibition The New Generation: 1965 at Whitechapel Gallery, curated by Bryan Robertson, with his first solo exhibition taking place at Waddington Galleries, London, in 1966. Annesley’s work is held in collections such as Tate, MoMA, the British Council Collection and the Arts Council Collection. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1995 and continues to work and exhibit, including with a 2022 solo presentation at Waddington Custot.

Luke Samuel (b. 1992, Cardiff) studied at Howard Gardens College of Art before completing a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. He went on to earn a place at the Royal Academy Schools, showing in the RA Schools Show of 2022 and winning the Keeper’s Prize. Samuel’s work has been exhibited at wc2e9ha, Union Pacific, Public Gallery, Pusher Gallery, Cooke Latham and Claas Reiss.

David Annesley and Luke Samuel, installation views, Permanent Location, London, 2026

Luke Samuel, Fold, 2026
Oil and lime on linen, 20 x 183 cm

Luke Samuel, Blot, 2026
Oil and watercolour on cotton, 40 x 60 cm

David Annesley, Maquette, 2019
Painted aluminium and card, 30 x 30 x 8 cm

David Annesley, Up and Over (maquette), 2019
Painted aluminium,30 x 30 x 8 cm

David Annesley, Mirror (maquette), 2019
Painted aluminium and card, 30 x 30 x 8 cm

David Annesley, Lift Going Up, Lift Going Down (maquette), 2019-2026
Painted aluminium, 30 x 30 x 8 cm

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