In Turner’s Wake: Contemporary Visions by Jake Wood-Evans at The Historic Dockyard Chatham

This major new exhibition bridges the gap between the 19th century and the contemporary art world, exploring and re-contextualising the legacy of Britain’s most celebrated “painter of light.”

In Turner’s Wake presents a creative dialogue between Turner’s historic influence and Wood-Evans’ contemporary oil paintings. Much like Turner’s radical late works, which laid the groundwork for the Impressionist movement, Wood-Evans conceives his paintings as “prisms of light,” blurring the boundaries between representation and abstraction.

Visitors have a rare opportunity to view Turner’s Medway Sketchbook and his powerful oil painting, Second Sketch for ‘The Battle of Trafalgar’, alongside Wood-Evans’ large-scale works. The exhibition demonstrates how Turner’s influence remains vital today, as Wood-Evans translates the energy of weather, water, and the passage of time into luminous, atmospheric layers of paint.

Turner held a deep fascination for the Medway, regularly visiting the Dockyard to sketch the site where legendary Royal Navy ships such as HMS Victory and HMS Temeraire were built. This exhibition brings that history full circle, featuring original Turner pieces on loan from national collections, including Tate, within the very setting that inspired them.