Major artists create new micro artworks for miniature gallery
Masterpieces in miniature: artists including Sean Scully, Damien Hirst, Magdalene Odundo, and Gillian Wearing create tiny new artworks for the 2021 Model Art Gallery at Pallant House, Chichester

Rob Harris - Photography
We all have a fantasy art collection, and it’s often one of two things that stand in the way of realising that fantasy: money, and wall space. There may be a solution to the latter: contemporary art on a doll’s house scale.
Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? Well, they have. In 1934, notable art dealer Sydney Burney saw Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House at Windsor Castle and a light bulb went off. All for a charitable cause, he asked some of his high-profile contemporaries, including Henry Moore, Ivon Hitchens and Vanessa Bell to create miniature artworks to fill a model art gallery, named The Thirty Four Gallery, designed by the architect Marshall Sissons.
Lost for decades, most of the works were rediscovered in a suitcase by Burney’s grandson, and the model was recreated by Pallant House Gallery in 1997, based on photographs. To mark the millennium, the Model Art Gallery 2000 opened its tiny doors, housing work by the likes of Frank Auerbach, Peter Blake, Anthony Caro, Prunella Clough, Antony Gormley, Richard Hamilton and Howard Hodgkin.
Now, another gallery appears to have taken a wrong turn down the rabbit hole. The 2021 Model Art Gallery at Pallant House in Chichester is presenting a microcosm of contemporary British art featuring new works created over the last year by 34 leading artists. There are sculptures by Julian Opie, ceramics by Grayson Perry, and the gallery’s façade features Lothar Götz's electric geometric mural, alongside works by Michael Armitage, Cecily Brown, Michael Craig-Martin, Gary Hume, Magdalene Odundo, and Rachel Whiteread.
Ever thought you’d have to squint for a closer look at a Sean Scully or see a porcelain pot by Edmund de Waal no bigger than a thimble? Elsewhere, there’s an expressive nude by Maggi Hambling that’s around the same dimensions as an iPhone, and a pocket-sized Damien Hirst spin painting. Most surprising of all is that, despite their shrunken state, the works in the Model Art Gallery have no less impact than their larger counterparts.
‘At the height of the first lockdown, artists could not get to their studios, exhibitions were cancelled, and many people spoke of being creatively blocked,’ says Pallant House Gallery director Simon Martin. ‘Inspired by the earlier model galleries, I wrote to some of Britain’s leading contemporary artists to ask whether they might participate in a project to create something positive out of the pandemic. Most of the artists usually work on a large scale and were excited by the challenge of condensing their ideas into a miniature artwork and by being part of such a unique history of modern and contemporary British art.’
INFORMATION
’Masterpieces in Miniature: The 2021 Model Art Gallery’, until Spring 2022, Pallant House Gallery. pallant.org.uk
ADDRESS
9 N Pallant
Chichester PO19 1TJ
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Harriet Lloyd-Smith was the Arts Editor of Wallpaper*, responsible for the art pages across digital and print, including profiles, exhibition reviews, and contemporary art collaborations. She started at Wallpaper* in 2017 and has written for leading contemporary art publications, auction houses and arts charities, and lectured on review writing and art journalism. When she’s not writing about art, she’s making her own.
-
ICON 4x4 goes EV, giving their classic Bronco-based restomod an electric twist
The EV Bronco is ICON 4x4’s first foray into electrifying its range of bespoke vintage off-roaders and SUVs
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
‘Dressed to Impress’ captures the vivid world of everyday fashion in the 1950s and 1960s
A new photography book from The Anonymous Project showcases its subjects when they’re dressed for best, posing for events and celebrations unknown
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Inside Camperlab’s Harry Nuriev-designed Paris store, a dramatic exercise in contrast
The Crosby Studios founder tells Wallpaper* the story behind his new store design for Mallorcan shoe brand Camperlab, which centres on an interplay between ‘crushed concrete’ and gleaming industrial design
By Jack Moss Published
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain
‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds
‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
By Katie Tobin Published
-
From activism and capitalism to club culture and subculture, a new exhibition offers a snapshot of 1980s Britain
The turbulence of a colourful decade, as seen through the lens of a diverse community of photographers, collectives and publications, is on show at Tate Britain until May 2025
By Anne Soward Published
-
Jasleen Kaur wins the Turner Prize 2024
Jasleen Kaur has won the Turner Prize 2024, recognised for her work which reflects upon everyday objects
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
Peggy Guggenheim: ‘My motto was “Buy a picture a day” and I lived up to it’
Five years spent at her Sussex country retreat inspired Peggy Guggenheim to reframe her future, kickstarting one of the most thrilling modern-art collections in history
By Caragh McKay Published
-
Please do touch the art: enter R.I.P. Germain’s underground world in Liverpool
R.I.P. Germain’s ‘After GOD, Dudus Comes Next!’ is an immersive installation at FACT Liverpool
By Will Jennings Published
-
‘Regeneration and repair is a really important part of how I work’: Bharti Kher at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Bharti Kher unveils the largest UK museum exhibition of her career at Yorkshire Sculpture Park
By Will Jennings Published
-
‘Mental health, motherhood and class’: Hannah Perry’s dynamic installation at Baltic
Hannah Perry's exhibition ’Manual Labour’ is on show at Baltic in Gateshead, UK, a five-part installation drawing parallels between motherhood and factory work
By Emily Steer Published