Andelli Art are delighted to present The First Stranger, a solo exhibition showcasing the imaginative visual language of Joseph Dilnot.

Joseph Dilnot (b.1997, Brighton, England) lives and works in East Sussex. Informed by a personal mythology, literature, historical research and a deep connection to his local landscape, Joseph's lyrical paintings unfurl personal reflections and insights creating visual poems in which the earthly co-exists alongside enigmatic phenomena.
The artist engages in detailed world building by suggestion, knowingly leaving gaps and mysteries as you might find in historical manuscripts, weathered and erased by time. He paints immersive landscapes such as hidden glades, living mountains and ethereal clouds bathed in rich, glowing colours. Figures walk in and out of these, sometimes half hidden or remaining on the edges of the scene, absorbed by the landscape.
As in mythology, Joseph invents hybrid creatures. Characters include archetypes such as exiles, strangers, adventurers, ghosts and lone travellers, navigating the enormity of the physical world whilst simultaneously engrossed in an insistent, internal drive to find answers to unknown questions. The paintings are inspired by a long standing love of the natural world and Joseph's studies of zoology.
In 2019, Joseph received the Newman Young Artist and RosePaul scholarships to study at The Essential School of Painting in London. He has exhibited in galleries and institutions including Hastings Contemporary, Hastings; Glyndebourne, East Sussex; Mepaintsme, USA; Weald Contemporary, Sussex; Blue Shop Gallery, London; Lido Stores, Margate.

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The First Stranger

A stranger approaches. It may be a creature, a landscape, an object in the sky. A stranger represents mystery and a suspense that can only be assuaged by approaching what is unknown.
The word ‘stranger’ has meant and represented many different things throughout our history. Whether it is a threatening ‘other’, a God in disguise, a foreigner or a projection of one’s self. A stranger is neither friend nor enemy as they are still alien to us – and as such, are symbols of new beginnings.
The earliest mention of the surname ‘Dilnot’ was in 1392 in Canterbury, Kent. A man named John Dilnot, whose origins were most likely in the Lowlands and who would later purchase his Freedom of the City, was listed as a ‘stranger’.
This ‘First Stranger’ has an important role in Joseph Dilnot’s imagined worlds and mythology – taking the shape of figures, landscapes and phenomena. As in many of our own historical interpretations, the stranger takes the form of the physical and psychological. A far off silhouette between the trees, a part of ourselves we do not yet know.

Exhibition runs:
10–31 October 2026
Open Thursday –Sunday | 10am–5pm (other times by appointment)
Opening preview: Saturday 10 October | 6.30–8.30pm

Please email us for a preview of works from the exhibition