Local residents are so lucky to have this gallery in their midst. It is a pity it is under-marketed by Southampton CC. If the Council were smart, it could charge of many of its specialist exhibitions. This was my first visit since lock down and proved to be more interesting than I expected. As always, about three exhibitions running con-currently, the one with the highest marketed visibility was the Nahem Shoa "Face of Britain" portrait exhibition. I knew nothing of the artist nor his work. The curating proved to be totally different to what I expected (probably says more about me than the marketing) and was surprisingly interesting: A very clever artist with amazing colour and brush skills. The comparisons with portraits done by white skinned artists of white and coloured skinned peoples were stark and apparent. Shorter versions of the Hospital Rooms exhibition has been running for some time but really demonstrates what can be achieved with some colour and skills applied by empathetic artists to bring joy and light into mental health establishments. The Shade and Light exhibition I found to be predominently underwhelming, reminding me somewhat ironically of Jeff Koons work at the very end. Well worth a visit. A great pity that Southampton Art Gallery hasn't bothered to update it's web site given the Central Library had to be closed because of a confirmed case of C19. The public needs to be able to make its own informed decisions to attend or not.

We enjoyed our visit to this art gallery which is free to enter. We spent about an hour enjoying the exhibits. We may well have taken longer but the main exhibition focused on exploring the legacy of the Pre-Raphaelites. We are very familiar with Birmingham Art Gallery which has one of the worlds's largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, so this was perhaps more familiar to us. Definitely worth a visit.

This is a wonderful gallery. It's such a pity the City Council doesn't promote it nor fund it sufficiently to open it for longer hours and on Sundays ! The main gallery has recently been rehung and some of my favourites have been archived but they have been replaced by some very contemporary art which is fascinating. In one of the side galleries, there is a display of Southampton Water paintings and for me the stand out one is by CRW Nevinson of the port, done as he was returning to the Front Line. An under-exhibited artist. Just about worth the removal of the William Roberts' ! Pity the gifts and books are rather tired. It needs a major overhaul.