As Catching Flies with Honey, Joy Gregory’s first major UK retrospective, opens at Whitechapel Gallery, the celebrated British artist reflects on four decades of creative inquiry — and the enduring power of dialogue.
For Joy Gregory, art has always been a conversation. Not just between artist and audience, but between past and present, image and idea, silence and sound. Her retrospective, three years in the making, is less a look back than a reconnection — a weaving together of threads that span identity, race, gender, and politics.
“It’s quite amazing to see how things speak to each other,” Gregory says. “Often I move from one project to the next without looking back. But revisiting work from the ’80s or ’90s, I can clearly see how it relates to what’s happening now — and to what I’m creating today.”
On view until 19 January 2026, Catching Flies with Honey brings together over 250 works, including photography, film, installation, and textiles. It’s a lyrical, visually rich journey through Gregory’s evolving practice — one that has always been quietly political, deeply personal, and rooted in cultural memory.
The exhibition’s title, drawn from a proverb Gregory’s mother used to say — “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” — encapsulates her approach: gentle yet incisive, poetic yet powerful. It’s a reminder that connection, not confrontation, often opens the deepest conversations.
In a world that feels increasingly fragmented, Gregory’s work invites us to listen more closely — to each other, to history, and to ourselves.