What I Paint Is History – The Gallery of Everything

Discover What I Paint Is History, the first UK solo exhibition dedicated to Sam Doyle, one of the most distinctive figures in twentieth-century African-American art.

Bringing together more than 20 paintings and sculptures, many shown publicly for the first time, the exhibition explores Doyle’s role as a visual chronicler of St Helena Island in South Carolina. His work records a community shaped by histories of slavery and emancipation, preserving local people, beliefs and stories through a deeply personal visual language.

Working with house paint on corrugated roofing tin, sheet metal and found wood, Doyle created portraits of friends, neighbours and local heroes alongside historical figures and events. Displayed across the front of his home, these works became what he called the St Helena Outdoor Art Gallery, forming a living archive of the island’s distinctive Gullah culture.

Highlights include rarely seen portraits, religious subjects and a depiction of Dr Buz, the legendary St Helena healer whose image also links Doyle’s work to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.

Taking place from 4 October to 22 November 2026 at The Gallery of Everything on Chiltern Street, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to explore Doyle’s extraordinary contribution to twentieth-century art.

Find out more here.