Your guide to London's top exhibitions
London’s galleries are preparing for a packed new season. Across the capital, landmark retrospectives sit alongside immersive installations, rare loans and exhibitions showing familiar artists in a new light.
This London exhibition guide brings together the shows worth planning for now, from the shifting light of the French Riviera to Hokusai’s complete vision of Mount Fuji. Whether you’re drawn to photography, fashion, painting, music or contemporary installation, discover the current exhibitions in London and the major openings arriving over the next few months.
Current exhibitions in London
Tate Modern
Set inside the former Bankside Power Station, Tate Modern is one of the world’s leading destinations for modern and contemporary art. Its vast Turbine Hall, riverside setting and international collection make the building as compelling as its exhibition programme.
How to get there: The closest stations are Southwark Underground station and Blackfriars Underground and National Rail station.
Frida: The Making of an Icon
Until 3 January 2027
Frida Kahlo’s influence reaches far beyond her paintings. Bringing together more than 30 of her works, personal clothing, jewellery, photographs and pieces by artists she inspired, this exhibition examines how Kahlo became a revolutionary artist, cultural figure and global icon. Its final section explores the commercial imagery that has shaped her public legacy, revealing the many versions of Frida claimed by different generations and communities.
Ana Mendieta
Until 17 January 2027
This major exhibition explores the work of Cuban-born American artist Ana Mendieta through films, paintings, sculptures and photographs, including works rarely seen in the UK. Mendieta’s celebrated Silueta Series traced the human form through fire, water, flowers and earth, opening wider questions about identity, displacement and our relationship with the natural world.
Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography
14 October 2026 to 21 February 2027
More than 200 rare prints chart the international rise of pictorialism, the movement that transformed photography into an expressive art form. Featuring over 80 artists from cities including Seoul, Sydney, Cape Town and Singapore, Light and Magic reveals how early photographers used the darkroom to manipulate atmosphere, light and texture long before digital editing existed.
Julio Le Parc: Light. Colour. Action.
Until 3 May 2027
Seven decades of movement, colour and optical experimentation come together in this expansive exhibition devoted to Argentinian artist Julio Le Parc. Interactive installations, light sculptures, mirrored surfaces and geometric paintings encourage visitors to become active participants in the work. For anyone searching for cool exhibitions in London, this is one of the season’s most absorbing choices.
V&A
The V&A’s programme now stretches across three distinct London locations. Its South Kensington museum brings together art, design, fashion and performance across centuries, while Young V&A in Bethnal Green is designed around imagination, play and making. The new V&A East Museum in Stratford explores how design and culture shape the contemporary world.
How to get there: The closest stations are South Kensington for V&A South Kensington, Bethnal Green Underground or Cambridge Heath Overground for Young V&A and Stratford or Stratford International for V&A East Museum.
Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends
Young V&A | Until 15 November 2026
Step behind the scenes of Aardman’s stop-motion animation at Young V&A. Created during the studio’s 50th anniversary year, the exhibition shows how Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Morph are developed from early ideas into expressive characters and detailed screen worlds. An exhibition pass allows visitors to return throughout its run.
Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art
V&A South Kensington | Until 15 November 2026
The first UK exhibition dedicated to Elsa Schiaparelli traces the fashion house from its radical beginnings in the 1920s to its current direction under Daniel Roseberry. Historic garments appear alongside photography, jewellery and collaborations with figures including Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau, showing how Schiaparelli brought Surrealism into the language of fashion.
The Music is Black: A British Story
V&A East Museum | Until 10 January 2027
Covering 125 years of Black music-making in Britain, this immersive sound exhibition brings together more than 120 tracks alongside instruments, stagewear, photographs and objects. Visitors move through a history shaped by migration, innovation, resistance and joy, from influential early performers to grime and contemporary club culture.
Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific
V&A South Kensington | Until 10 January 2027
Created with the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Rising Voices presents rare works by more than 40 artists from across the Asia Pacific region. First Nations perspectives and a wide range of artistic approaches offer a layered view of a region that cannot be defined through a single history or identity.
National Gallery
Overlooking Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery holds one of the world’s most significant collections of Western European painting. Its temporary exhibitions often bring major international loans into conversation with familiar works from the gallery’s own collection.
How to get there: The closest station is Charing Cross Underground and National Rail, with Embankment and Leicester Square also nearby.
Renoir and Love
Until 31 January 2027
Renoir’s scenes of friendship, family life and social connection take centre stage in the most significant UK exhibition of his work in 20 years. Around 40 paintings trace his development during the 1860s to 1880s, including Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, shown in the UK for the first time. Expect sunlit gardens, crowded dance halls and closely observed encounters from modern Paris.
Yinka Shonibare and Thomas Gainsborough: A Conversation
15 October 2026 to 7 February 2027
Thomas Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Andrews meets Yinka Shonibare’s provocative response to it. Shonibare removes the couple’s heads, dresses their sculptural forms in West African textiles and draws attention to the colonial networks behind displays of British wealth. Shown together for the first time, the two works create a focused dialogue about land, privilege and power.
Van Eyck: The Portraits
21 November 2026 to 11 April 2027
All nine of Jan van Eyck’s known painted portraits will be assembled for the first time. Together, they account for half of the artist’s surviving works and reveal the astonishing detail that made his subjects appear alive: flushed cheeks, fine stubble, watchful expressions and carefully rendered fabrics. This is a rare opportunity to view the paintings, normally held across Europe, in a single gallery.
Southbank Centre
The Southbank Centre is one of London’s largest cultural destinations, bringing visual art, music, literature, performance and festivals to the heart of the city. Its Hayward Gallery is known for major contemporary exhibitions, while the adjacent HENI Project Space presents a programme of free shows.
How to get there: The closest station is Waterloo Underground and National Rail.
Andrius Arutiunian: They Tried to Count Us
24 November 2026 to 7 March 2027
Mythology, astronomy and sound converge in Armenian-Lithuanian artist Andrius Arutiunian’s first UK solo exhibition. New commissions appear alongside a reconstructed fragment of an Armenian radio telescope’s anechoic chamber, sculptures and a sound work inspired by stars. The exhibition considers how ancient ideas of the afterlife sit beside modern attempts to understand the universe. Entry to this exhibition is free.
Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong
24 November 2026 to 14 March 2027
Nan Goldin’s photography has documented personal relationships, addiction, community and activism across five decades. Her first institutional UK exhibition since 2002 focuses on four recent films, accompanied by stills and images from her archive. The works move between personal histories, classical art, animal consciousness and the natural world.
National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery tells British history through the people who shaped it, bringing painting, photography, sculpture and works on paper together in one central London location. Following its major refurbishment, its temporary exhibitions place established names beside emerging photographers and new commissions.
How to get there: The closest station is Leicester Square Underground, while Charing Cross Underground and National Rail station is also a short walk away.
Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026
5 November 2026 to 17 January 2027
One of the most anticipated annual photography exhibitions returns with work by emerging photographers, gifted amateurs and established professionals. The selected portraits range from formal commissions to intimate studies of friends and family, demonstrating how contemporary photographers approach character, place and identity.
Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends
9 October 2026 to 7 February 2027
British photographer Tim Walker is known for portraits shaped by fairytales, theatrical sets and unexpected landscapes. Developed over five years, this exhibition features new photographs of activists, performers, artists and writers, exploring queer identity, community and love through Walker’s distinctive visual language.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Opened in 1811, Dulwich Picture Gallery was the world’s first purpose-built public art gallery. Its intimate rooms house historic European paintings, while its temporary programme combines internationally recognised artists with more unexpected subjects.
How to get there: The closest stations are West Dulwich and North Dulwich National Rail, both around a 10-minute walk from the gallery.
Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji from the Iuchi Collection
20 October 2026 to 17 January 2027
For the first time in the UK, all 46 prints from Hokusai’s complete Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series will be shown together. Shifting seasons, viewpoints and scenes of daily life reveal the many ways Hokusai placed the mountain within Japanese culture. Highlights include a rare version of Red Fuji and a preserved impression of The Great Wave.
Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse…and You
3 November 2026 to 7 February 2027
Early sketches, unpublished studies and original illustrations give a closer look at Charlie Mackesy’s artistic process. Alongside works from The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse and its follow-up, visitors can see how loose preparatory drawings develop into illustrations recognised by readers around the world. The exhibition also includes an opportunity to create a drawing in response.
Royal Academy of Arts
Founded in 1768 and governed by artists and architects, the Royal Academy of Arts remains a place where work is made, exhibited and debated. Its Burlington House galleries host large-scale international exhibitions alongside free displays by students and Royal Academicians.
How to get there: The closest stations are Piccadilly Circus and Green Park Underground stations.
Day
Until 8 November 2026
This free exhibition presents work by Royal Academy Schools students Anna Metzger, Sam Tromp and Joel Wycherley. Moving between internal, bodily and architectural scales, the artists explore what happens when separate narratives begin to overlap and familiar rules become less stable.
Painting the French Riviera
Until 31 January 2027
More than 160 paintings, sculptures, posters and films trace the influence of the Côte d’Azur on modern art. Works by Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Renoir and Klein show how the region’s intense colour and light transformed artistic practice from the 1870s to the 1960s, while also shaping the Riviera’s international image through fashion, literature and cinema.
Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector
21 November 2026 to 14 March 2027
Before Peggy Guggenheim became one of the 20th century’s best-known collectors, she opened a radical gallery on Cork Street. This exhibition reconstructs that brief but influential period, reuniting works by artists including Eileen Agar, Salvador Dalí, Barbara Hepworth, Vasily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. Together, they show how Guggenheim challenged London’s conservative art establishment and developed her own eye as a collector.
Plan your London exhibition calendar
Some of these exhibitions require timed tickets, so book popular shows in advance and check the gallery’s opening hours before travelling.
Several galleries can also be combined for a day full of art. Follow the Thames Path between Tate Modern and Southbank Centre, or explore the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Academy in one central London itinerary.
If you’re searching for exhibitions in London now, begin with Julio Le Parc, Frida Kahlo, Ana Mendieta and the V&A’s current programme. From October, the London exhibition calendar expands with major shows devoted to Renoir, Hokusai, Tim Walker and the French Riviera.
The capital’s programme extends from historic institutions and purpose-built galleries to a former power station and the new V&A East Museum. Return to this London exhibition guide when planning your visit, as dates, opening hours and ticket availability may change.
