Radiohead are to stage a major exhibition of record cover artwork at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.

The art of the band's singer Thom Yorke, and Stanley Donwood, the artist behind the band’s album covers, will be featured together for the first time in a public show.

The exhibition called This Is What You Get: Stanley Donwood, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, named after a lyric from the band’s song Karma Police, will feature more than 120 works by the musician and Donwood.

READ MORE: Lack of platform capacity for new Oxford rail route 

Essex-born artist Donwood has worked on all of Radiohead’s cover art from second album The Bends onwards, and Yorke’s other projects, including The Smile, made up of Yorke, Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood and Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner.

Also on display will be promotional band images and Yorke’s never-before-seen personal notebooks and sketchbooks.

(Image: Stanley Donwood/Ashmoleaqn Museum/PA) Opening on August 8, 2025 at the Beaumont Street museum, the display will include paintings, drawings and digital art from the 1980s onwards, and will examine the complex relationship between visual art and music.

Entry to the event will be free for museum members and tickets for non-members will go on sale in April 2025.

Radiohead were formed at Abingdon School in 1985 and are best known for the albums Ok Computer, The Bends and In Rainbows, as well as singles including Creep, Paranoid Android and No Surprises.

Made up of Yorke, guitarist Greenwood, bass player Colin Greenwood, guitarist Ed O’Brien and drummer Philip Selway, they have had seven UK top 10 singles and six UK number one albums.

Donwood, 56, whose real name is Dan Rickwood, began working with Yorke after meeting him at the University of Exeter and has worked with the band since their third EP, My Iron Lung. He has also created artwork for Glastonbury Festival.

(Image: PA) In 2001, Radiohead won a Grammy Award for the band’s album Amnesiac for Best Recording Package.

That was the year they performed a homecoming gig at South Park in Oxford, playing in front of more than 30,000 fans.

Supergrass and Beck were among the support acts.

After the announcement about the gig was made, music fans queued for hours on the Cowley Road to get their hands on tickets.

(Image: Oxford Mail) The band famously played Creep as an encore at the concert, as some fans started to make their way home in the rain.

There has not been a concert of a similar size in the city since.

Thom Yorke recently joined thousands of musicians, actors, and authors in signing an open letter protesting the use of creative works for training generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Help support trusted local news 

Sign up for a digital subscription now: oxfordmail.co.uk/subscribe 

As a digital subscriber you will get:      

  • Unlimited access to the Oxford Mail website   
  • Advert-light access       
  • Reader rewards          
  • Full access to our app 

About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

You can also read his weekly Traffic and Transport newsletter.