Surrealism Today: A Century On, the Dream Lives On.
In 2025, Surrealism turned one hundred years old and far from fading, the movement is enjoying a genuine renaissance. The numbers speak for themselves: Christie's "Art of the Surreal" evening sale realised £48.1 million with a 96% sell-through rate, while total Surrealist auction turnover reached $800.7 million according to the Sotheby's x ArtTactic Insight Report. A Frida Kahlo work sold for a record $54.7 million. Major museum exhibitions, including "Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and an upcoming Frida Kahlo survey at Tate Modern, are cementing this institutional momentum.
Painting: Alexandra Gallagher
But the Surrealism of 2026 is no longer quite André Breton's. It draws less on a shared collective unconscious and more on deeply personal mythology. In a world oversaturated with flawless AI-generated imagery, collectors are chasing the opposite: visible evidence of the human hand texture, imperfection, found materials, collage, hand-stitched thread. It's an embodied, lived-in Surrealism that favours raw emotion over cold virtuosity.
The artists shaping the movement
Julie Curtiss hybrid figures and withheld faces probing the instability of contemporary identity.
Alexandra Gallagher dreamlike collage bridging Surrealist heritage with a contemporary graphic sensibility.
Nam Das mental landscapes hovering between dream and memory.
Mulgil Kim nature quietly unravelling into the poetic and uncanny, closely watched ahead of her Spring 2026 London show.
George Condo hybrid archetypes redefining the psychological portrait for today.
Britain's rising hope: Mia Graham.
Among the young artists embodying this new wave, one British name stands out in particular: Mia Graham (b. 2000, London; now based in Southeast London). Her work is shaped by her contact with rural and post-industrial landscapes across Britain, channelling the symbiotic power of nature and the social histories layered within it. Harper's Bazaar called her "one of Britain's most exciting creatives," and her rise has already been covered by Dazed, Vogue Italia and Plaster. Winner of the Nancy Balfour Trust Award (2023) and a Freelands Painting Prize nominee, she has exhibited at General Assembly, Incubator, Twilight Contemporary and SET Woolwich in London. In my view, she is truly a hope among hopes on the British Surrealist scene one to watch very closely in 2026.
Discover Mia Graham's work → miagraham.co.uk
Henry de Toubeyre
Beacons: https://beacons.ai/henrydetoubeyre