The Long Memory

The Lido Stores is pleased to present The Long Memory, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Robin Dixon, opening 19 September 2026.

The exhibition takes its title from the 1953 British crime thriller shot in Gravesend, where the artist now lives, and along the Thames estuary – a film remembered for its atmosphere and praised by critics for its spirit of place and its handling of landscape. Where the phrase references revenge in the film, Dixon takes it somewhere else entirely: towards memory itself, and the way particular places hold the residue of different times.

Dixon works from evocative old postcards, found photographs, film stills and his own images, piecing together figures and settings drawn from unrelated sources. The paintings that emerge are concerned with the relationship between figure and place. Groups of characters are assembled into scenes that suggest a history or a narrative without ever spelling one out, composed for rhythm, movement and the interaction between figures. As the work develops it is simplified and worked over, becoming steadily less site-specific and more timeless.

Robin Dixon received a BA in Fine Art from Maidstone College of Art (KIAD) in 1989. Dixon has exhibited in group shows in the UK and internationally, and was selected for the Jerwood Painting Prize exhibition (2007) and the John Moores Painting Prize exhibition (2014). Recent exhibitions include An Exhibition of Small Things with Big Ideas, White Conduit Projects, London; Let's Get Lost, The Wild Thought, Sugar Cube II and The Lido Open at The Lido Stores, Margate; The Wells Art Contemporary Open; The Turner Contemporary Open; The Immaculate Dream, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London; and Solitudes and Seasons, ARB, Cambridge. He lives and works in Gravesend and London.

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