Opening Woodward Henry, Bompas & Parr’s new gallery for immersive exhibitions

London, 2026: Bompas & Parr will inaugurate Woodward Henry, a new gallery space within their London studio, with My Lady Nicotine, an exhibition examining the cultural life of nicotine through contemporary art, historical artefacts and immersive exhibition design. Opening in March 2026, the exhibition will bring together nine artists to explore nicotine as a paradoxical force: both muse and vice, ritual and rebellion.

Taking its title from J. M. Barrie’s 1890 book My Lady Nicotine, the exhibition will frame nicotine not simply as a substance but as a powerful cultural symbol. Barrie famously personified tobacco as a seductive companion to writers and thinkers, and the exhibition will extend this idea into the present day, examining why nicotine imagery continues to appear across contemporary culture, from art and fashion to nightlife and online communities.

The exhibition will bring together works by Haydn Albrow, David Caines, Noemi Conan, Andrea Gomis, Winnie Hall, Lucy Hutchings, George Richardson, Andrew Maughan and Dominic Watson. Each artist will respond to nicotine’s cultural mythology in different ways. Albrow will present a sculptural work placing the viewer inside the body at the moment a cigarette is lit, while Caines will exhibit a painting reflecting on smoking as a lingering social ritual. Conan’s paintings will depict women gathering around cigarettes as conduits for intimacy and conversation, while Gomis’ ceramic sculptures will conceal scenes of smoking and sexuality within everyday objects. Other works will transform disposable smoking paraphernalia into monuments or satire, exploring addiction, masculinity and the choreography of the smoking area.

The exhibition design will be developed by Bompas & Parr Co-Founder Harry Parr, whose custom plinths, frames and display structures will echo the architecture of the Bompas & Parr studio itself. At the centre of the gallery will stand a specially designed plinth that will function both as a sculptural display and as a future bar for events, reflecting the studio’s interest in spaces where exhibition, hospitality and social ritual intersect.

By combining contemporary artworks with historical references and carefully choreographed exhibition design, My Lady Nicotine will demonstrate how Bompas & Parr’s approach to storytelling can extend beyond food and drink into the realm of cultural exhibitions. The project will establish Woodward Henry as a new platform for immersive curatorial projects, where art, objects and environment combine to explore the rituals and symbols that shape contemporary life.