National Portrait Gallery’s Exhibition of ‘Pedestrian’ Photos Called ‘Nepotism’
Photographers are accusing the National Portrait Gallery of nepotism after it appeared to cater to a high-profile donor by hosting a photography exhibition for Zoë Law.
Law, a makeup artist turned photographer, is the ex-wife of Andrew Law, the chairman and chief executive of major hedge fund Caxton Associates which operates the Law Family Charitable Foundation, a major donor of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG). The Foundation made a substantial donation to the £41 million renovation of the NPG. While Zoë Law divorced Andrew Law in 2024 and resigned from the foundation that same year, photographers are still crying foul over her exhibition in one of the most prestigious galleries in the United Kingdom.
The controversy, originally reported by Harry Borden and then by the The Guardian, stems from the fact that exhibitions in galleries like the NPG are major stepping stones for artists and can make a career. So while Law isn’t currently a member of the foundation and is also divorced from Andrew Law, the optics of granting someone with a limited history in photography an exhibition who was tied to donations has caused many to cry “nepotism.”
“Government funding for cultural institutions should remain independent from the influence of wealthy benefactors,” Museum as Muck, a network for working-class artists, says. “Relying on additional funds from the affluent can skew the priorities of these institutions, granting undue influence on a select few.”
The Guardian quotes multiple artists who agree that it looks as though Law and the NPG engaged in what is colloquially known as “pay for play,” which is ethically questionable.
“It just makes plain what was always the case, no? Art is a rich man’s game made up of rich hobbyists who keep their money circulating among themselves,” Jesse Darling, winner of the Turner Prize in 2023, tells The Guardian.
Another Turner award winner who wasn’t named was quoted as saying, “That show had a lot of publicity around it for basically an unknown practitioner so it looked a bit odd… the work is pedestrian at best. A lot of photography is about access, which she had, but that was it. It’s a nepotism thing clearly and would be difficult to defend otherwise. It is interesting in that it brings up the fundamental question of what is the NPG for? Is it a gallery just for and about celebrity? It shouldn’t be.”
Adding to the controversy, The Guardian says it has been informed that the choice to display Law’s work was not brought before the NPG’s ethics committee, although the gallery says the committee was “informed” of the decision. That further sounds as though the powers that be simply said the exhibition was happening and did not ask for any feedback. It should be noted that the NPG’s own rules state that donations must be conducted “with integrity” and that receiving one cannot give an “inappropriate advantage” to the donor, “such as the award of a contract.”
“It’s concerning when someone seemingly emerges out of the blue with a major exhibition, and when you Google them, nothing comes up. Nine years ago, she was a Tory fundraiser and make-up artist. I’m all for reinvention, but it strikes me as odd,” Harry Borden, a UK-based portrait photographer, says in a YouTube video (above) about the exhibition and the NPG.
“I’ve never heard of her.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
