By Gabriel Moran
Turning off of Bold Street, arriving at FACT Liverpool’s bold, glass-and-metal facade; you immediately sense that this is not your contemporary white-cube gallery. Located at 88 Wood Street, at the heart of Liverpool’s creative quarter, FACT is a centre for art that is rewriting what a gallery can be through: film, digital culture and a sense of community.
Established in 2003, it was Liverpool’s first new arts building in over 60 years and quickly became a world-leading exhibitor and producer of digital art. FACT has continued to progress their identity to converge different aspects of life into one accessible space. Combining new media technologies and public participation FACT asks: what happens when art becomes immersive and interactive?
Their 2025 exhibitions highlight this evolution as they host solo exhibitions, digital commissions and socially engaged projects throughout the year.
Current Exhibitions
On the ground floor, visitors will find exhibitions designed to command attention. Running until 22 of February 2026, these free exhibitions spotlight artists who use digital media to navigate human experiences in abstract forms.
Bassam Issa Al-Sabah presents THE MISSION IS THE END, THE END IS ALL I WANT! (2025), an immersive CGI film surrounded by monumental sculptural forms. His surreal environment explores how digital space can blur reality and change the world around you. Using two-channel videos with sound to create an installation environment, Bassam Issa Al-Sabah has completely transformed the gallery with animation, painting, sculpture and textiles to create a space for reflection. An unmissable hard truth experience that will make you rethink what is possible.
Alongside this, Nina Davies exhibition MEET ME IN THE DIGITAL TWIN works with young patients from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre: Eve, Luke and Mel to weave an emotional landscape where technology becomes a vessel of reflection. Using an immersive podcast with fictional characters to tell the story, it unfolds like an investigative documentary keeping you on your feet to what might happen next.
It blurs fact and fiction to make a speculative world that reflects the lived experiences of young people facing cancer. This fictional landscape pulls at real world strings, allowing us to put ourselves in others’ shoes.
The exhibition titles – THE MISSION IS THE END, THE END IS ALL I WANT! and MEET ME IN THE DIGITAL TWIN – speak to our cultural moment of entangled possibilities, whether the beginning or the end. The artist’s ability to turn these new media technologies into immersive and thought-provoking experiences is commendable and I truly hope that they can inspire others the same way I have been.
Up on the second floor you’ll find immersive exhibitions by Gavin Gayagoy and Helen Anna Flanagan, with Doomscroll_1 and Burnt Toast respectively. Running until 23 November 2025, the artists’ explore different relationships by illuminating overlooked aspects of our lives in life-like and digital ways. Whether you are interested in mobile overuse or marginalised groups in society, these exhibitions will leave you awestruck.
Beyond the gallery walls
FACT’s impact doesn’t stop at their extraordinary exhibitions. They have a deeper mission of using creativity as a tool for social change by making art that doesn’t just sit on walls but lives in conversation with people’s real experiences. In the process, they have developed long-term partnerships that bring art into communities across the Liverpool city region.
Additionally, FACT provides platforms and opportunities for artists to make sense of the world today. Offering a Studio/Lab talent and skills development programme and a learning programme to develop artistic practises but also explore the understanding of the world through digital tools.
FACT also houses a Picturehouse cinema showcasing the best in independent, arthouse, foreign language and quality mainstream cinema from around the world.
Why FACT Matters
In a world where technology often distances us, FACT uses it to bring people closer – closer to stories, to ideas and to each other. Reminding us that digital art can still be human; both futuristic and grounded in lived experiences.
For Liverpool, FACT isn’t just a gallery. It’s the heartbeat of cultural innovation. A place where pixels meet participation and where creativity points us toward the future.
Plan your visit
Location: FACT Liverpool, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
Opening Hours: Galleries Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm (closed Mondays) Admissions: Free entry for most exhibitions
Facilities: Galleries, cafe, bar, cinema, Studio/Lab
If you are concerned about your accessibility, FACT Liverpool has you covered. The gallery and Picturehouse pride themselves on inclusivity, offering services for blind, partially sighted, and deaf visitors. For all accessibility enquiries, please call FACT’s dedicated accessibility hotline 0207 294 7908 (Text Relay call 18001 02072 947908).
For more information visit fact.co.uk.