Winter exhibitions just announced

Visitors invited to encounter Moomins, myths and monsters, and reimagine our digital lives

Alongside the continued run of special exhibition Quentin Blake: Performance, Tove Jansson and her Families and Faerdom: Now, As Ever continue an ambitious programme that explores the use of illustration to express stories, share ideas and shape our world.

Tove Jansson and her Families

21 November – 9 May 2027

Uncovering the personal relationships of the celebrated artist, Tove Jansson and her Families will look at the people who shaped the Finnish author-illustrator’s life and work, including the internationally-adored Moomin world. On display will be previously unseen drawings and over 100 rarely-seen sketches, paintings, illustrations and photographs made by Tove Jansson (1914–2001) and those closest to her. This will be the UK’s first ever exhibition to focus on Tove’s work as an illustrator, and the first to share her original works in almost a decade.

London had a special resonance for Tove Jansson. At a time when it was rare for women cartoonists to have their own daily newspaper strip, Tove defied convention. In September 1954, her Moomin series debuted in London’s Evening News (now The London Standard). The comic strip ran for 21 years, taken over by her brother Lars from 1960 when her joy of drawing the Moomins waned with the pressure of their popularity, although Tove still responded to every fan who wrote to her. London’s comic strip represented Tove’s most extensive period of Moomin production, launching the characters to millions worldwide through international syndication.

“Tove’s extended Moomin cast are intimately inspired by her family, friends and lovers in Helsinki’s cultural circles and lesbian community. Brilliant across so many literary and artistic expressions, her lifelong celebration of inclusivity and individuality has never been more inspiring and necessary.”

– Co-curator Paul Gravett

The exhibition begins by exploring the influences of Tove’s creative family. Her mother Signe Hammarsten Jansson (known as “Ham”) was the family breadwinner, a graphic designer and Finland’s first professional stamp designer, pioneering the design of all Finnish stamps from 1940s until 1962. Ham drew daily and gave young Tove an inherent love for illustration whilst her father, Viktor, was a sculptor. Tove’s childhood drawings will be on public display for the first time in the UK including her handmade book Prinsessan Glittergull (1922).

Tove’s work for the satirical magazine Garm – for which she started illustrating aged just 15 – will be featured, highlighting her open criticism of fascism during the Second World War. Tove’s flourishing as an artist and the origins of the beloved Moomins began in the 1940s, when she was working from her atelier home as part of a vibrant creative community in Helsinki, under the ever-present threat of war.

“London holds a unique place in Moomin history, as the Moomin comic strip was created for and first published in the London Evening News. It is therefore particularly fitting that Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is presenting the first major UK exhibition dedicated to Tove Jansson’s work in nearly a decade, in the heart of the city and just over a mile from Fleet Street, the Evening News’ former home. While Tove is celebrated around the world as the creator of the Moomin stories, this exhibition offers a fantastic opportunity to explore the exceptional breadth of her artistic talent, as well as the role of her family and wider circle of artistic influences in shaping her life and work.”

– Roleff Kråkström, Managing Director at Moomin Characters

Original art from the first published Moomin book, Småtrollen och den stora översvåmningen (The Moomins and the Great Flood, 1945), will be displayed as part of the exhibition. By creating large-scale public murals, Tove contributed to the effort to rebuild Finland after the Second World War. On show in the UK for the first time will be a charcoal study for the vast Bird Blue (1953) mural, measuring 3.5m by 2m. Commissioned for a school, Tove depicted subjects that fascinated her as a child: a cat, a horse, birds, a tower, the sea and a waterfall. A shy hidden Moomin figure peeks out of vegetation close to a boy who has fallen asleep whilst reading.

Tove was drawn to British fantasy and nonsense literature. In original illustrationsfora Swedish edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (1966), now rarely seen in the UK, visitors will see Tove’s beautiful drawings of surreal worlds and her unique, whimsical approach.

Concluding the exhibition will be images from Tove’s family holidays on Finnish islands in the Pellinge archipelago.The natural world inspired Tove’s work throughout her life, particularly Klovharun: the tiny barren island no bigger than a football pitch where she and her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä spent every summer for nearly 30 years. Together they built a one-room cottage and worked on the island, despite a lack of electricity and running water. The freedom of simple island living motivated Tove to write The Summer Book (1972), a touching tale of a grandmother and granddaughter exploring a small Finnish island over one summer, based on her niece Sophia’s relationship with Ham.

Visitors will see how the close communities that surrounded Tove influenced her work, including her most famous and enduring family, the Moomins. Family and chosen family recur in Tove’s work, particularly in Moomin books and comic strips, in the classic literature she chose to illustrate, and in how care of the Moomins remains a family business today.

Faerdom: Now, As Ever

23 October – 29 March 2027

Faerdom: Now, As Ever (23 October – 29 March 2027) is the intriguing and thought-provoking new exhibition by London-based duo Vince Ibay and Jessica Miller, who work together as Fromm Studio. Through playful encounters with animated figures of ancient legend and myth, the exhibition explores how the digital landscape is shaping our modern lives. The result is a unique blend of UK folklore, viral memes and 3D printed sculpture.

Inspired by commemorative and decorative ceramics, Fromm’s unique working method combines digital processes. Using motion capture, models are 3D scanned using photogrammetry, then drawn, rendered and imbued with movement, creating characters and creatures with whimsy. Since forming in 2022, they have worked with The New York Times, U2, and Selfridges.

Faerdom: Now as Ever is Fromm Studio’s first major exhibition to be staged in the UK. In an uncertain time where the online world dominates our lives, itasks whether humanity’s oldest stories still resonate and can offer perspective and hope for the future. Fromm Studio question the engineering of online escapism, misinformation and self-documentation through medieval-influenced artwork.

In the land of Faerdom, a depiction of the Pied Piper of Hamelin surrounded by TikTok-style dancing rats represents the hypnotic power of digital entertainment. Visitors will journey through two co-existing spaces: ‘Dystopia’ and ‘Utopia’ – one referencing the allure of algorithms through Cornish piskies tempting us off the path, and the other of technology’s transformative potential. New work includes a large-scale triptych framed with social media icons, referencing our desire for online engagement. Luddites, saints and giant corgis also make an appearance.

“Our work has always been influenced by British folklore, humour and visual culture, so bringing the exhibition to Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration feels particularly special. Quentin Blake’s playful spirit and eccentric characters have been a big influence on us over the years, so it seems very fitting to be showing the exhibition here. We can’t wait to open the gates and welcome one and all into Faerdom.”

– Fromm Studio

Faerdom continues the Centre’s series of exhibitions made in collaboration with UK-based illustrators, supporting ambitious contemporary illustration practice and new commissions.

Members can access priority booking from Thursday 17 September. Public booking opens 10am on Tuesday 22 September.

Faerdom: Now, As Ever opens Friday 23 October until Monday 29 March 2027

Tove Jansson and her Families opens Saturday 21 November 2026 until Sunday 9 May 2027

Book here