Stanley Spencer & Gary Bunt: What a Dream
This winter from 6th November 2026 to 21st March 2027, the Stanley Spencer Gallery presents Stanley Spencer and Gary Bunt: What a Dream, a joyful exhibition bringing together the work of Gary Bunt (1957–2025) and Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) for the first time. Through paintings, sculpture and sketches, discover two artists who found beauty, humour and unexpected moments of wonder in everyday life.
Though separated by more than half a century, Bunt and Spencer shared a remarkable outlook. Both saw the ordinary as extraordinary, transforming familiar people, places and daily rituals into rich worlds where the sacred and the everyday sit side by side.
A largely self-taught artist, Gary Bunt drew inspiration from British folk traditions, popular culture and the English landscape. Bunt’s colourful paintings are filled with curiosity and imagination, where a man walking his dog becomes something quietly universal, and where dogs can worry about the Last Judgement or bump into Vincent van Gogh in heaven.
Above all, Gary Bunt admired the unique vision of Stanley Spencer. When invited to exhibit at the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Bunt’s response was immediate: ‘What a dream.’ He began creating a new series of paintings especially for the exhibition. Following his untimely death in 2025, these poignant final works are shown alongside earlier paintings, including Tribute to Stanley Spencer (2021).
Featuring 20 works by Gary Bunt alongside 15 by Stanley Spencer – including the remarkable Swan Upping (1915–19), on loan from Tate – this new exhibition will be a celebration of two distinctive artists whose work reminds us that the extraordinary is never far from the everyday