White Cube will present a new exhibition of paintings by Louise Giovanelli at its Mason's Yard gallery in London, opening on 20 November 2026. 'In the Light of False Suns' runs until 16 January 2027, with a preview on Thursday 19 November from 6 to 8pm.

The show is the Manchester-based artist's third solo presentation with the gallery and brings together a new series of paintings, including 'Ad Astra' (2026). Giovanelli revisits subjects that have long run through her practice - curtains, hair, female screen idols and the cinematic kiss - setting them beneath what the gallery calls a borrowed light.

The title comes from parhelia, or 'false suns', the atmospheric effect in which sunlight refracted through ice crystals produces bright spots on either side of the sun. In the new paintings, female faces with eyes closed and lips parted appear superimposed on spotlit curtains, each subject lending the other something of its glamour, sensuality and theatrical promise. The gallery frames the works around cathexis, the investment of psychic energy in a person, object or idea.

Giovanelli, born in London in 1993 and now based in Manchester, studied at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt under Amy Sillman. Her luminous, closely cropped paintings draw on Renaissance sources, film stills and images of popular performers, and she has previously shown with White Cube in London and Hong Kong. Recent solo exhibitions include 'Here on Earth' at White Cube Hong Kong in 2024.

'In the Light of False Suns' will be on view at White Cube Mason's Yard, 25-26 Mason's Yard, London, through 16 January 2027.