Somerset House will examine the rituals of fandom, celebrity worship and collective devotion in its major summer exhibition HOLY POP!, opening 21st May 2026.
Running until 9th August 2026 in the Terrace Rooms, the exhibition brings together art, memorabilia and photography exploring how pop stars, cult icons and cultural heroes have become focal points for identity, belonging and emotional connection in contemporary society.
Featuring references to figures including David Bowie, Princess Diana, Andy Warhol, Britney Spears, Prince and even Dobby, the exhibition considers how modern shrines and treasured objects function as contemporary forms of worship.
Set across three rooms, HOLY POP! moves from intensely personal acts of devotion to wider experiences of communal grief and remembrance. Visitors will encounter displays examining the intimate rituals through which fans express admiration and solidarity, before moving into spaces exploring how personal shrines and carefully arranged objects within the home become sites of reflection and emotional attachment.
One of the exhibition’s most unusual artefacts is a piece of Nina Simone’s chewing gum, collected by musician Warren Ellis after witnessing her final UK performance. The object later inspired Ellis’s memoir Nina Simone’s Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found, becoming an example of how ordinary objects can acquire near-religious significance through emotional association.
The exhibition is curated by Tory Turk, with support from Somerset House Senior Curator Claire Catterall. Turk said:
“HOLY POP! is a dialogue between people and the objects they treasure; the mementos they gather on the fridge; the flowers, notes and offerings they leave at famous people’s graves. It’s about the community created when fans build their own memorials to their heroes and the affinity felt between strangers because they idolise the same pop star, devour the same literature, or worship the same actor.”
She added:
“Regardless of your religion, faith always comes from the heart. Somerset House, a building with a rich history and reborn today as an arts organisation showcasing arts and popular culture is the perfect venue for this contemporary exploration of devotion. HOLY POP! is about our very human desire to believe in something bigger, because that is what makes us feel alive.”
The exhibition forms part of Somerset House’s wider summer programme, alongside the return of Somerset House Summer Series, which this year includes performances from The Flaming Lips, Black Country, New Road and Agnes Obel.
HOLY POP !, 21st May – 9th August 2026, Somerset House
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About
Tory Turk is founder of HiCULTURE, a culture curation platform. She has curated exhibitions for
Somerset House, the Centre for Fashion Curation, the Design Museum, and the Korean Cultural
Centre UK, partnering with brands including Hennessy, Selfridges, Pentland, and Amazon. Tory
co -launched HYMAG (the World’s Largest Collection of Magazines).
