Radiohead singer Thom Yorke and the band’s album cover artist’s creative work will be featured together for the first time in a public exhibition.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is hosting the event showcasing the creative partnership of Radiohead’s frontman Thom, 56, and artist Stanley Donwood, also 56, whose evocative artwork has defined the group’s visual identity for decades.
Titled ‘This Is What You Get: Stanley Donwood, Radiohead, Thom Yorke’, after a lyric from the iconic Radiohead song ‘Karma Police’, the exhibition will feature over 120 pieces, spanning paintings, drawings, and digital works.
Among the highlights are Yorke’s personal notebooks and sketchbooks, being displayed for the first time, and Stanley’s iconic designs from Radiohead’s career.
An Ashmolean spokesperson said: “It’s an opportunity to see the interplay between two creative forces who’ve shaped not just music, but its visual storytelling.”
Essex-born Stanley, whose real name is Dan Rickwood, has been integral to Radiohead’s visual output since their third EP My ‘Iron Lung’ in the mid-1990s.
He met Thom at the University of Exeter and has worked on every album cover from ‘The Bends’ onward, including Grammy-winning artwork for ‘Amnesiac’.
His collaborations also extend to Yorke’s side projects, such as ‘The Smile’, and to external commissions such as Glastonbury Festival.
Opening on 8 August 2025, the exhibition will explore the duo’s 40-year partnership and the complex relationship between visual art and music.
Radiohead fans will recognise iconic imagery from albums such as ‘OK Computer’ and ‘In Rainbows’, alongside promotional material and unseen works.
Tickets for non-members will go on sale in April 2025, while museum members can attend for free.
The exhibition’s Oxford location is particularly fitting – Radiohead formed nearby at Abingdon School in 1985, and the band has since become one of Britain’s most celebrated acts, with six UK number one albums and seven top 10 singles to their name.
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