Maggi Hambling in conversation with James Cahill

Sunday 28 June 2026, 2.00pm
The Gibberd Garden, Marsh Lane, Harlow, Essex, CM17 0NA

Maggi Hambling, one of the most influential artists of her generation, will be talking with author, writer and art critic James Cahill about a new monograph of her work recently published by Rizzoli New York. Join us for an afternoon to celebrate and shine a light on Hambling’s fearless spirit and trailblazing art.

Tickets:
£15 / £12 concessions (students, under 27s and unwaged)
or both events for £25 / £18 concessions

Box Office: essexbookfestival.org.uk or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

Part of our Harlow weekend – Essex Book Festival is delighted to be heading to Harlow for a weekend of writing workshops, author and artist talks, family games, and poetry. Find out more at essexbookfestival.org.uk/harlow-weekend/.

Event Information

💬 The event will include an audience Q&A session.
📚 Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the day.
🖊️ After the event there will be an opportunity to get the book signed by the author.
🪑 Seats are unallocated.
📸 We will be filming and taking photos at this event.

Ticket Deal

Make an afternoon of it with our Gibberd Garden ticket deal:
Tickets £15 per event or both events for £25 (Concessions £12 per event or both events for £18).
Discount automatically applied at checkout when tickets for both events are booked:

2.00pm – Maggi Hambling in conversation with James Cahill
4.00pm – Darren Coffield, Hen, Mistress of Mayhem

Maggi Hambling

Photo of Maggi Hambling © Laura Bailey

Maggi Hambling (born 1945) is a contemporary British painter and sculptor whose work has been subject of many solo museum exhibitions since 1980.

Maggi Hambling

Foreword by Cecily Brown, Contributions by Sean Burns and James Cahill and Hugo Chapman and Wenny Teo and Sheena Wagstaff

The definitive illustrated monograph of trailblazing British artist, queer icon, and pioneer Maggi Hambling, on the occasion of her eightieth birthday.

Featuring an exceptional range of reproductions of Maggi Hambling’s work, including unique archival materials, this authoritative and visually stunning new volume offers the most comprehensive account of Hambling’s oeuvre to date.

Essays by leading critics, curators, and art historians trace Hambling’s formative period from her time at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in the early 1960s, to her rise to fame in the ’80s, the centrality of drawing to her eclectic practice, and the virtuoso series of paintings that have defined her output in recent decades.

Hambling’s work and legacy are explored in vivid detail here, emphasizing her importance to British art over the past half century, as well as her singular place in the global sphere of contemporary art. Love, death, and remembrance are revealed as her enduring themes, and are reflected in her intimate portraits as much as her epic-scaled evocations of war, the climate emergency, and the natural world.

Shining a light on Hambling’s fearless spirit, this tour-de-force publication takes you deep into the heart and mind of one of the most influential and provocative artists of her generation.

Buy a copy of the book from bookshop.org.