Turner seascapes and Damien Hirst sharks: Liverpool anniversary exhibition hopes to surprise

Damien Hirst’s sharks on display alongside Turner’s The Wreck Buoy, at Turner: Always Contemporary, which opens on 25 October in Liverpool. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Visitors to a major JMW Turner exhibition may well be surprised to see the opening work is by Jeff Koons, and Damien Hirst sharks, a Bridget Riley stripe painting and some Doc Marten boots supplied by the curator herself are also on display.

“Surprised? That’s what we’re hoping,” said Melissa Gustin, the curator of British art at National Museums Liverpool. But by the end it will all make perfect sense, she hopes. “That is the vibe we are after. We want visitors to see the connections, the histories and the legacies.”