Entanglements: Sara Berman on Billy Budd

Headlining our exhibition programme this Festival season is a major body of new work by Sara Berman, a former fashion designer turned painter. Granted unprecedented access to Glyndebourne’s costume department over the last year, the presentation draws directly from original costumes and elements of set design of Michael Grandage’s award-winning production of Billy Budd. 

Entanglements: Sara Berman on Billy Budd includes a series of large-scale paintings, drawings, text pieces and textile installations, some made with fabric remnants from Glyndebourne. Images of tangled rope appear repeatedly – from iterative drawings made with rough charcoal blocks to the many permutations of Billy Budd’s hands clasping ship’s rope. Berman uses this motif to explore ideas of rank and discipline, but also vulnerability in Britten’s much-loved opera.

The exhibition is available to view for all ticket holders and by appointment. All works for sale, starting at £1,500. For appointments and enquiries please contact art@glyndebourne.com

Entanglements: Sara Berman on Billy Budd is on display in the Art Gallery.

Berman (b.1975) is a London based artist, best known for her luminous and arresting figurative paintings which explore ideas of performance, identity and the politics of representation. She trained in fashion design at Central Saint Martins College of Art, where her graduate collection was taken up by Fenwicks. She established an eponymous fashion label in the 1990s and worked for numerous high-profile brands, including as Creative Director for N.Peal. In 2016, she graduated with a Masters of Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art and has focused on painting ever since. Berman has exhibited work internationally in London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, Miami, New York, Palm Beach and Rotterdam. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Circus, Mimmo Scognamiglio, Milan (2026), Playing the Fool, The Arts Club, London (2025), Where Muses Dare, Larsen Warner, Stockholm (2025) and Lapdogs and Fools, Vielmetter, Los Angeles (2024). This exhibition marks her first collaboration with an opera house.