A major solo exhibition at Frac-Artothèque Nouvelle-Aquitaine celebrates the luminous legacy of one of Britain’s most important abstract painters.
The Frac-Artothèque Nouvelle-Aquitaine presents a landmark solo exhibition dedicated to British painter Jane Harris (1956–2022), running from September 19, 2025 to January 11, 2026. Titled simply “Jane Harris – Paintings & Drawings,” the show brings together over four decades of the artist’s work - an exquisite synthesis of geometry, colour, and light that defined her unique approach to what she called “impure abstraction.”
Harris developed an instantly recognisable visual language built around the ellipse - a form she discovered almost by chance while studying at London’s Goldsmiths College. Her rigorous yet sensual compositions evolved into shimmering fields of colour, their surfaces alive with subtle reflections, moiré effects, and rhythmic brushwork.
The exhibition, curated in collaboration with Harris's family and The Estate of Jane Harris/CLOSE Gallery and Camille de Singly, art historian and critic, traces Harris’s journey from early figurative explorations inspired by Japanese and French gardens to the radiant optical dynamism of her later works. Highlights include the diptych Stroll (2020), the haunting monochrome Strangers (2010), and Busy and Jazzy (2018), whose rhythmic brushstrokes echo the musicality Harris found in flamenco and jazz.
“Jane Harris sought to reconcile opposites—light and shadow, surface and depth, rigour and emotion,” notes curator Camille de Singly. “Her ‘impure abstraction’ celebrates imperfection, sensuality, and the poetry of perception.”
The exhibition also features the artist’s only tapestry, Two Flower Beds, One Reflection (2013–2015), woven in collaboration with the Cité internationale de la tapisserie d’Aubusson, and a rich selection of drawings and sketchbooks spanning four decades. These works reveal the precision and spontaneity that underpinned Harris’s practice, and her enduring fascination with geometry, movement, and light.
Born in Dorset, Harris settled in Dordogne, France, in 2006, where she developed a second career deeply connected to her adopted region’s landscape and luminosity. Though her life was cut short in 2022, her art continues to resonate with meditative depth and playful vitality.
The exhibition underscores the strong ties between France and Harris’s practice, highlighting her collaborations with institutions such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Libourne and the Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA in Bordeaux.
