Margate has the proud heritage of being one of Britain’s first seaside resorts. It’s easy access from London meant that huge numbers of city workers during Georgian and Victorian times, as well as the upper classes, used to escape the smoke in favour of the fresh air of Margate, with many arriving by boat at Margate’s pier.

On Saturday 16 April 2011 this new gallery, designed Stirling Prize Winner, David Chipperfield Architects, opened. Situated on Margate’s seafront, on the same site where Turner stayed when visiting the town, the gallery is the largest exhibition space in the South East, outside of London.

Throughout his career Turner was considered a painter of the elements. This exhibition IS Turner Contemporary’s first major show of Turner works and explores the important role the depiction of the elements played in Turner’s landscape watercolours and late paintings.