Alison Turnbull
'Living by the Rule: Contemporary meets Medieval' at the Sainsbury's Centre
Alison Turnbull will present a series of works and recent drawings at the Sainsbury’s Centre as part of the exhibition Living by the Rule: Contemporary Meets Medieval, opening 16 May. The exhibition continues until 4 October 2026.
Living by the Rule: Contemporary meets Medieval reflects on the ‘rules’ that we live by today. Exploring the idea of routine and regulation, the exhibition vividly presents the richness and complexity of the dialogue between medieval experiments in a different way to live, and modern reflections upon how life is (and might yet be) organised.
Taking as its starting point the Rule of St Benedict, a deeply influential guide for communal living written in the 6th century, the exhibition brings together extraordinary objects from medieval monastic contexts with a fascinating selection of contemporary artworks by Pavel Büchler, Andrea Büttner, Moyra Davey, Tacita Dean, Samuel Levi Jones, Vivienne Koorland, Susan Morris, Elizabeth Price, Ingrid Pollard, Lucy Skaer, Christopher Stewart, Alison Turnbull, Danh Vo, Richard Wright and Charlotte Zinsser.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Jessica Barker FSA, Senior Lecturer in Medieval Art History at The Courtauld and Dr Ed Krčma, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of East Anglia.
A new publication, Living by the Rule: Contemporary Art and the Medieval Monastery, has been published by Lund Humphries on 5 May 2026, alongside this exhibition.
Sainsbury's Centre
University of East Anglia
Norfolk Road
Norwich NR4 7TJ
Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday: 9.30am-6pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10am-5pm