Galerie Ary Jan, in collaboration with Colnaghi and Kent Antiques, London, is pleased to present Beyond the Threshold: Revisiting Orientalism II, a major exhibition opening at Colnaghi London on 20 April 2026 and on view through 29 May 2026. Curated by Dr. Sophie Bostock, the exhibition brings together a significant group of Orientalist paintings and works on paper that collectively examine the visual and cultural frameworks of 19th-century Orientalism. 

Structured around six distinctive curatorial pillars: Figures and Encounters: Genre Paintings and Portraits; Sacred Spaces; Trade Routes, Markets and Merchant Life; Urban Encounters; Distant Views; and The Harem, the exhibition offers an intimate exploration of artistic production shaped by travel, exchange and observation throughout the 19th century. These themes illuminate the diversity of artistic responses to the regions broadly defined as the Orient, while foregrounding the people, places and cultures with respect and accuracy. 

Beyond the Threshold takes as its central motif the architectural and symbolic threshold: entrances, archways, gates, and liminal spaces that frame both access and distance. These compositional devices, recurrent in Orientalist painting, serve as points of transition, inviting the viewer to look beyond, into interior worlds, while simultaneously marking the boundaries between observer and subject. The exhibition’s title reflects this duality: it gestures both to the literal spaces depicted and to the critical act of revisiting these works today, with an awareness of their historical contexts and the asymmetries that informed them, while recognising the moments of genuine encounter they record. 

Above all, the exhibition affirms the enduring power of art to foster curiosity, appreciation and connection across cultures, reminding us of the shared humanity that underlies artistic expression in all its forms. 

Online Catalogue