Hamad Butt, Familiars 3: Cradle, 1992, Vacuum-sealed glass, crystal iodine, liquid bromine, chlorine gas, water and steel. Dimensions variable. Installation at Tate Gallery, London, 199 . Tate Image © Jamal Butt
Hamad Butt, Transmission, 1990, Glass, steel, ultraviolet lights and electrical cables Dimensions variable., Installation at Milch, London, 1990. Tate. Image © Jamal Butt. Photo: Tim Martin.
Hamad Butt at home c. 1980–87, Image © Balal Butt.
Private view for ‘Familiars’ at Milch, London, 1994, Image © Jamal Butt.
Hamad Butt with unidentified sculptural works c. 1985–87, Image © Balal Butt.
Hamad Butt, No Title – Arm and Chair on Blue, c. 1990–92, Paint, pastel and pencil on paper, 710 × 570 mm, Image © Jamal Butt.
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4 Jun 2025 - 7 Sep 2025
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
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Hamad Butt: Apprehensions is the first major survey of Hamad Butt (b. 1962, Lahore, Pakistan; d. 1994, London, UK).
One of the most innovative artists of his generation, Hamad Butt was a pioneer of intermedia art, bringing art into conversation with science, whilst also referencing his Queer and diasporic experiences. He offered a nuanced artistic response to the AIDS crisis in the UK, taking a conceptual rather than activist approach.
Butt’s conceptually and technically ambitious works seamlessly interweave popular culture, science, alchemy, science fiction, and social and cultural concerns, as forms that are simultaneously poetic and provocative. They imagine sex and desire in a time of ‘plague’ as seductive yet frightening, intimate yet isolating, compelling yet dangerous – literally, in some cases, threatening to kill or injure.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, and raised in East London, Butt was British South Asian, Muslim by upbringing, and Queer. A contemporary of the Young British Artists, and their peer at Goldsmiths’ College, London, Butt was described by art critics as epitomising the new ‘hazardism’ in art of the 1990s, as his works often imply physical risk or endangerment.
Before his untimely death in 1994, aged 32 of AIDS-related complications, Butt had completed and shown four major sculptural works; Transmission (1990) and the three-part installation, Familiars (1992), as well as leaving behind writings, drawings and plans for new installations. Butt’s work offered a potent and critical response to HIV/AIDS, while opening up new dialogues between art and science to explore themes of precarity, toxicity, the spread of viruses, homophobia and racism – issues that continue to resonate with frightening poignancy today.
Read the full exhibition press release.
Hamad Butt was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962 and moved to live in East London with his family in 1964. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths from 1987 to 1990 and coincided with the Young British Artists (YBA) generation, many of whom studied alongside him there. His earliest works include countless paintings and prints, which were shown in exhibitions around London and the UK from 1983-87, including at Brixton Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, South London Gallery and London Lesbian and Gay Centre. From the late 1980s, Butt developed unprecedented large-scale sculptural installations using toxic or dangerous materials. His later works were exhibited at John Hansard Gallery (Southampton); Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain); Whitechapel Gallery; Milch; Institute of Contemporary Arts (all London); Manchester Art Gallery; and elsewhere. He continued to make works on paper throughout this time. Butt died of AIDS- related complications in London in 1994, aged 32. A book on his work, Familiars, was published posthumously in 1996. His work is in the permanent collections of Tate and IMMA.
Hamad Butt: Apprehensions has been generously supported by:
Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at The London Community FoundationHenry Moore FoundationHamad Butt Exhibition Circle and Patrons, chaired by Gemma Rolls-Bentley and Russell Tovey: Kevin Kane, Frank Krikhaar
Research for this exhibition has been supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
Public Programmes for this exhibition are supported by Queen Mary University
The exhibition is presented in partnership with Irish Museum of Modern Art
