Grundy Art Gallery and Hayward Gallery Touring present Linder: The Return of Linderland, a reconceived version of Linder’s landmark exhibition, Danger Came Smiling, that has toured across the UK since premiering at the Hayward Gallery, London in February 2025.
The Return of Linderland offers an illuminating and very personal reflection of this iconic artist’s 50 year-long career. A selection of Linder’s trailblazing photomontages explores the range of her artistic practice, underscoring the experimental and feminist impulses of her thought-provoking work. Early drawings and ephemera explore Linder’s nascent development as an artist, tracing her artistic production from the work that grew from her involvement in the punk scene of 1970s Manchester to her now renowned visual style.
Linder first achieved prominence in the 1970s, within the dynamic landscape of punk and post-punk music, gaining widespread recognition with her band, Ludus, and for her ground-breaking album covers. Her photomontage for the cover of Buzzcocks’ 1977 single ‘Orgasm Addict’ endures as one of the emblematic images of the British punk scene. Five decades later, Linder is an internationally recognised artist renowned for her multifaceted practice.
Linder’s journey has been one of relentless exploration, venturing into realms as varied as fashion, music, performance, perfume, textiles, and film. Beyond the raw and abrasive energy of the DIY punk aesthetic, her artistic vision is informed by a rich tapestry of influences spanning religious art, surrealism, mysticism, pornography and the shifting landscape of social media.
In keeping with this, the exhibition has been adapted, cut and pasted to reflect Linder’s heritage and influences. Rarely seen, atypical drawings by L.S. Lowry, of mannequins and dancers on loan from The Lowry, Salford, rewrite our understanding of the Northwest painter while a 1952 seascape from L.S. Lowry returns us to familiar ground speaking to Linder’s home location on the Lancashire Coast. Brendel plant models on loan from Gallery Oldham trace Linder’s early interest and fascination with the botanical world, flowers remain a central motif in her work. A series of Linder’s early films that flicker with footage of Blackpool’s cowboys, Manchester rude-boys, and Linder’s own bodybuilding. In punk paste-up style, a collaboration with Build Hollywood converts the back wall of the main gallery into a billboard size new Linder work.
Paintings from the Grundy Art Gallery’s own Collection are interspersed throughout the exhibition. Selecting works dating from the late 19th to mid 20th Century, Linder’s choices reflect her northwest roots, her eclectic interests and influences, and the role women played within art and society.
This exhibition marks Linder’s first solo exhibition in the Northwest since her 2000 exhibition The Return of Linderland, at Cornerhouse, Manchester.
Linder: The Return of Linderland is curated by Hayward Gallery Touring.