All Shades of Brown: free in Leicester until 29 August
All Shades of Brown is now at Leicester Gallery, bringing together oil portraiture and fine art photography by emerging Midlands artists Abigaiél Rose and Sunny Gill. The free exhibition runs from Sunday 23 August to Saturday 29 August 2026 at De Montfort University, Mill Lane, Leicester, LE2 7PT.
The exhibition is particularly relevant to visitors interested in contemporary painting and photography, as well as artistic explorations of identity, memory, culture and belonging. The Visit Leicester Events listing records a 00:00 start on 23 August, but it does not supply daily gallery opening hours; that entry should not be treated as confirmation that the gallery opens at midnight.
Oil portraits and everyday moments share the gallery
Rose presents oil portraits centred on Black identity, beauty and cultural memory. The faces and figures provide a route into questions of representation, showing how portraiture can carry ideas about identity and memory as well as depict an individual subject.
Gill approaches lived experience through fine art photography. His images capture everyday moments while reflecting on time, place and personal experience, placing apparently ordinary scenes within a wider consideration of belonging.
Seen together, the two bodies of work address related subjects through contrasting methods. Rose works through painted portraits, while Gill uses moments captured through a camera. That difference gives visitors a clear point of comparison as they move through an exhibition concerned with culture, representation and visual storytelling.
The artists return with new bodies of work
Both artists participated in Opal22’s earlier All Shades of Brown exhibition in 2026. This Leicester Gallery presentation brings them back with new bodies of work developed around identity, memory, culture and lived experience.
Opal22 presents the exhibition in partnership with De Montfort University. The pairing keeps attention on both the shared themes and the distinction between the artists’ chosen media: constructed oil portraits alongside photographs drawn from everyday experience.
What to check before visiting Leicester Gallery
The exhibition is listed on Visit Leicester Events for every day from 23 to 29 August, and entry is free. No booking requirement is stated in the supplied listing. Leicester Gallery is at De Montfort University on Mill Lane, with the address listed as Leicester, LE2 7PT.
Daily opening hours, transport guidance and accessibility information are not included in the event details. The listing information was supplied through Data Thistle and is subject to change, so visitors should confirm opening arrangements and any access requirements with Leicester Gallery or the organiser before travelling. The final listed opportunity to attend is Saturday 29 August.
Source: Visit Leicester Events
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Source check How this event was checked
The dates, venue, entry price, organisers and featured artists were checked against the supplied Visit Leicester event listing.
- Confirmed the exhibition dates as 23–29 August 2026
- Confirmed Leicester Gallery at De Montfort University as the venue
- Confirmed that entry is listed as free
- Confirmed Abigaiél Rose and Sunny Gill as the featured artists
- Source
- Visit Leicester Events
- Scope
- Leicester
- Updated
- 2026-08-24 16:09
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