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Two people in a large room looking at a multicoloured sculpture and framed works on the walls

Linder: Danger Came Smiling

11 February – 5 May 2025

Linder’s first London retrospective showcased 50 years of the pioneering feminist artist’s work, dissecting our fascination with the body and its representation.

Celebrated for her edgy humour and visual playfulness, Linder is a pioneering artist whose work invites us to see beyond traditional ideas about gender and sexuality.

Deliciously satirical, her photomontages remix images from popular culture, ranging from early pin-up photography to digital deep fakes. Rewiring ideas of glamour and gender roles, Linder’s artworks engage in vibrant and powerful take-downs of male-oriented consumer culture.

Spanning five decades of trailblazing art, Danger Came Smiling included Linder’s landmark images from Manchester’s legendary punk music scene, as well as photographs, performance video, sculpture and recent photomontages that reimagine myths from Cinderella to surrealism.

‘A superb exhibition from a British genius’

The Telegraph

 

‘Work of tremendous restraint. The results are frequently brutal.’

The Guardian

Exhibition gallery

Projection of a female body onto a wall with an iron for a head and smiling lips over her nipples
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. It’s The Buzz, Cock!, (2015). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 1 of 11. Projection of a female body onto a wall with an iron for a head and smiling lips over her nipples
A large gallery wall painted yellow, featuring a central large photograph of a partially nude woman, flanked on both sides by two rows of smaller framed photographs.
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 2 of 11. A large gallery wall painted yellow, featuring a central large photograph of a partially nude woman, flanked on both sides by two rows of smaller framed photographs.
A black and white image of a woman with red lips in different shapes repeated 25 times in a large square
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 3 of 11. A black and white image of a woman with red lips in different shapes repeated 25 times in a large square
A woman in a green jacket views a framed photomontage or collage on a white gallery wall, featuring fragments of female bodies, a camera, and various abstract objects.
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. The Liverpool Sphinx, (2025). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 4 of 11. A woman in a green jacket views a framed photomontage or collage on a white gallery wall, featuring fragments of female bodies, a camera, and various abstract objects.
A wall with two rows of black and white portraits of a woman and textual art framed along the wall.
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. She/She, (1981). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 5 of 11. A wall with two rows of black and white portraits of a woman and textual art framed along the wall.
A gallery installation featuring three mannequins in sheer patterned bodysuits with masked faces, surrounding a glass display case containing sculptural objects and a long fringe of blonde hair.
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery. Photograph: Mark Blower
View larger image 6 of 11. A gallery installation featuring three mannequins in sheer patterned bodysuits with masked faces, surrounding a glass display case containing sculptural objects and a long fringe of blonde hair.
Three large artworks installed on a white wall, each feature a figure covered in multicolours paint on a purple background
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. L-R: Danse Sacrale (L'Élue) (2011); Action Rituelle des Ancêtres (2011); Glorification de l'Élue (2011). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 7 of 11. Three large artworks installed on a white wall, each feature a figure covered in multicolours paint on a purple background
A woman views a framed horizontal collage of brightly colored images featuring roses, female body parts, lips, and other surreal and floral elements.
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. The Pool of Life, (2021). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery. Photograph: Mark Blower
View larger image 8 of 11. A woman views a framed horizontal collage of brightly colored images featuring roses, female body parts, lips, and other surreal and floral elements.
A person looking at artwork in black frames on a white wall, the artworks consist of text and images
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. She/She, (1981). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 9 of 11. A person looking at artwork in black frames on a white wall, the artworks consist of text and images
Someone looking at a black and white image framed on a wall, with large red lips collaged on top
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. Untitled, (1979). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 10 of 11. Someone looking at a black and white image framed on a wall, with large red lips collaged on top
A museum visitor views a large, surreal photograph of a nude female torso with an electric iron obscuring the head and mouths on the chest, on a dark wall.
Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling. It’s The Buzz, Cock!, (2015). Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery.
View larger image 11 of 11. A museum visitor views a large, surreal photograph of a nude female torso with an electric iron obscuring the head and mouths on the chest, on a dark wall.

Articles & videos

Tour Linder: Danger Came Smiling with Bimini and Ione Gamble
Ione Gamble, a young White woman with red hair, and Bimini a White drag artist with platinum hair stand in the Hayward Gallery; works by the artist Linder are on the wall behind them
Video

Tour Linder: Danger Came Smiling with Bimini and Ione Gamble

Join the drag artist and founder of Polyester zine on a video tour of our exhibition, Linder: Danger Came Smiling.

Linder: studio spotlight
The British artist Linder, an older White woman with long hair, wearing a patterned knitted jumper, in her studio space. She is gesturing to work on a table top; next to her is the journalist Fi Chesterton a young woman with long dark hair
Video

Linder: studio spotlight

Get an insight into Linder’s art and practice as she leads ArtReview’s Fi Churchman on a tour of her studio space in this video.

5 things to know about Linder: Danger Came Smiling
A white woman stands outside on a grey day; she is looking through the handle of a red pair of scissors wearing a knitted jumper saying
Article

5 things to know about Linder: Danger Came Smiling

An introduction into the remarkable feminist artist and this Hayward Gallery retrospective celebrating her five decades of work.

Credits & partners

Linder: Danger Came Smiling was generously supported by Ruddock Foundation for the Arts; Malek and Maria Sukkar; Laura Bailey; Gillian Jason Gallery and Lehmann Maupin.

Additional support was provided by Modern Art, London; BLUM, Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York; Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Paris; and dépendence, Brussels. We are also grateful to the Roberts Institute of Art for their support and collaboration in Linder’s participation in a Southbank Centre Studio Residency and presentation.