Olney Gleason is delighted to announce the representation of Emil Sands (b. 1998, London; lives and works in New York) in joint partnership with Victoria Miro. Sands has developed a rigorously considered painting practice centered on the human figure, unfolding across expansive, often unsettled landscapes, and marked by a finely calibrated psychological charge.
Sands' first solo exhibition with Victoria Miro, Watchmen, will open in Venice from 3 February to 7 March 2026, followed by a major exhibition at Olney Gleason, New York, in 2027. The artist previously worked with Nicholas Olney and Eric Gleason on Salt in the throat at Kasmin (January-March 2025), an exhibition that introduced his work to a wider U.S. audience.
Eric Gleason of Olney Gleason says, "It has now been more than two years since we first encountered Emil's work and visited the studio, and to have had a front row seat to his impressive, thoughtful evolution has been a very unique experience. Emil possesses a level of maturity and a commitment to his painting practice that is so far beyond his age. He is an innately gifted painter, but he is also restless in his own technical development of the medium. After a perfect debut solo exhibition last year and the momentum Emil has continued to garner since, we are honored and sincerely excited to now formalize Olney Gleason's representation of Emil. We also very much look forward to developing our partnership with Victoria Miro, whose team strongly shares our commitment to and passion for his work."
Across Sands' paintings, the figure is never incidental. Bodies are carefully positioned - offset, clustered, or held apart; freighted with Sands' acute awareness of the implications of gesture, posture, sightline. These compositional decisions generate subtle but persistent tensions: between individuals within a group, interior states and outward appearance, and the act of looking and being looked at. As if planning a stage set, Sands assumes the attention and speculation of an outsider.
Working in oil, Sands approaches painting with an instinctual drive. His rendering of light and reflection is defined by subtle chromatic shifts which he works and reworks repeatedly to create a sense of openness and physical breadth. Whereas recent works have focused on beach scenes or seascapes, where bodily freedoms are performed in a public arena, new paintings retreat into private realms. These formal settings, manicured spaces including gardens populated by classical statuary, bring a heightened psychological aspect. His environments often read as borderlands in which masculinity, vulnerability, humor, and unease coexist and circulate. The mood in many of Sands' paintings is unsteady, like weather moving across terrain.
Through this joint representation, Olney Gleason and Victoria Miro establish a new international collaboration dedicated to supporting Sands' practice over the long term, bringing shared resources and perspectives to the development of his career.
About Emil Sands
Emil Sands (born 1998 in London, currently living in New York) completed his Fine Art Foundation at Central Saint Martins, his BA and MPhil in Classics at the University of Cambridge, followed by the Henry Fellowship at Yale School of Art and Yale Creative Writing.
Solo exhibitions include Kasmin Gallery, New York; JO-HS, Mexico City; and Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York. Most recently his work has featured in the group exhibition The Stories We Tell: Tidawhitney Lek, Emil Sands, Khalif Tahir Thompson, held at Victoria Miro, London, November 2025 to January 2026.
Sands' essay Struck on one Side, was published in the March 2023 edition of The Atlantic. He will publish his memoir I Am Not Achilles with Scribner (US) and Picador (UK) in 2027.
