Art exhibitions opening at Whitechapel Gallery in 2025
Whitechapel Gallery’s 2025 programme offers an exciting range of exhibitions, celebrating innovative artistic visions and addressing vital social themes. Highlights include a major retrospective of Joy Gregory’s groundbreaking photographic work and the dynamic live performances of The London Open Live. The year also features powerful surveys of Donald Rodney and Hamad Butt, alongside a special celebration marking 15 years of Duchamp & Sons, Whitechapel’s acclaimed youth collective. Below is a guide to the exhibitions opening at Whitechapel Gallery in 2025.
Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker

Donald Rodney, In Retrospect, Installation view at iniva, London, 2008. Photo: Thierry Bal.
A comprehensive survey of late British multimedia artist Donald Rodney’s influential work. The exhibition showcases Rodney’s innovative use of materials to confront themes such as racial identity, chronic illness, and colonialism, featuring iconic works like The House that Jack Builtand Autoicon.
Date: 12 February – 4 May 2025. More details.
15 Years of Duchamp & Sons

Duchamp & Sons, Filming Alone Together performance with Seth Pimlott, 2018. Photo: Renee Odjidja.
This free exhibition celebrates the 15th anniversary of Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective, Duchamp & Sons. The display, co-curated by young people and artist Holly Graham, reflects on their collaborative artistic projects and their evolving impact on arts education and representation.
Date: 5 February – 5 May 2025. More details.
Hamad Butt: Apprehensions

Hamad Butt, Fly-Piece, from the series “Transmission”, 1990 reconstructed in 2024. Wall-mounted wood and glass vitrine, gold paint, paper, live flies. Research and development conducted by bio-artist Anna Dumitriu and microbiologist John Paul. Courtesy of the IMMA Collectors Circle and Jamal Butt.
The first major survey of Hamad Butt, exploring his sculptural installations that delve into themes of desire, death, and racial difference. Works like Transmission and Familiars invite audiences into spaces of fear and precarity, drawing analogies to disease and environmental crises.
Date: 4 June – 7 September 2025.
The London Open Live

Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz, Performance of Les Gayrillères, 2022. As part of Moving Bodies, Moving Images at Whitechapel Gallery. Performers: Julie Cunningham and Harry Alexander. Photo: Hannah Burton.
This year’s edition of Whitechapel’s triennial focuses on live art. Featuring performances that reflect on life in London, this free programme celebrates artistic expression and intimacy, offering a platform for emerging and established artists to engage audiences.
Date: 4 June – 7 September 2025. More details.
Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey

Joy Gregory The Drawing Room (Little or no breeze) 2021 Archival digital print on fine art paper 84.1 59.4cm.
A major retrospective of photographer Joy Gregory, showcasing over 100 works from her four-decade career. Gregory’s politically nuanced practice explores themes of identity, race, and gender through photography, video, and textiles.
Date: 8 October 2025 – 11 January 2026.
Candice Lin

Candice Lin, Pigs and Poison (2022). Installation view, Spike Island, Bristol. Courtesy the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles. Photograph by Max McClure.
Renowned for her multi sensory installations, LA-based artist Candice Lin will present Whitechapel Gallery’s annual commission. The exhibition will interrogate marginalised histories and colonial legacies, bringing these narratives to life through evocative materials and interactive installations.
Date: 8 October 2025 – 11 January 2026.
Pioneering choreographer Merce Cunningham’s work will “forever” be revered. The Van Cleef & Arpels Dance Reflections festival has brought two of his works back to life performed by the Lyon Opera Ballet at Sadlers’ Wells…
Born in 1937 in what is now West Bengal, Arpita Singh is one of India’s pioneering post-independence artists. Remembering marks her first institutional solo exhibition outside India, featuring key works from her prolific six-decade long career…
Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary will be marked with a free four-day celebration in May 2025, featuring art displays, live performances, music, workshops, and family activities….
There were two compelling reasons to attend this performance: the venue itself and the cutting-edge artist collective known as (LA) HORDE. Sadler’s Wells’ newest state-of-the-art venue is a welcome addition to Stratford, boasting rehearsal studios…
Gabriele Beveridge is known for her sculptural and conceptual practice that combines materials as diverse as hand-blown glass, photo chemicals, and found images…
The legacy company of the pioneering American choreographer Trisha Brown opened the Van Cleef & Arpels Dance Reflections Festival at Sadler’s Wells with a striking performance…
Design and Disability will showcase the radical contributions of Disabled, Deaf, and neurodivergent designers, exploring accessibility, innovation, and identity through 170 objects spanning fashion, art, architecture, and technology…
Robyn Orlin is a South African dancer and choreographer born in Johannesburg. Nicknamed in South Africa "a permanent irritation", she is well known for reflecting the difficult and complex realities in her country. Robyn integrates different media into her work (text, video, plastic arts) to she investigates a certain theatrical reality which has enabled her to find her unique choreographic vocabulary…
Chiharu Shiota: The Soul Trembles · The Flowers of Yves Saint Laurent · Collective Joy – Learning Flamboyance! · The People of the North · Corps et âmes · Louvre Couture: Art and Fashion—Statement Pieces · David Hockney 25 · Paris Noir · Olga de Amaral · Azzedine Alaïa / Thierry Mugler: 1980-1990 – Two Decades of Artistic Affinities
Katrina Palmer, an artist known for exploring materiality, absence, and dislocation, recently spoke to us following her year-long residency at the National Gallery about her exhibition The Touch Report…
The British Pavilion at the 2025 Architecture Biennale in Venice will explore the role of architecture in addressing the legacy of colonial geological extraction through innovative, earth-based repair practices in a UK-Kenya collaboration…
Lola Young at O2 Forum Kentish Town · British Pie Week · Romeo and Juliet at The Royal Opera House · Weather Girl at Soho Theatre · Czech Philharmonic with Sheku Kanneh-Mason · Jasmin Vardimon: NOW at Sadler’s Wells East · Mitsuko Uchida · Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025 · Jorge Jobim: Fantastical Autonomy · Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300‒1350· Art After Dark…
Leigh Bowery (1961-1994) packed more into his brief life than most would manage in two lifetimes. He passed away from an AIDS-related illness in 1994, at the age of just 33….
For the first time in the UK, the Royal Academy of Arts will present an exhibition exploring the lasting influence of Vincent van Gogh on Anselm Kiefer Hon RA. Running from 28 June to 26 October 2025…
AllBright’s Step Forward Summit · Firebird & Friends with Savannah Hagendijk · Art Exhibitions Celebrating Female Artists · Art After Dark · Marylebone Village Celebrates Female Founders · International Women’s Day Dinner at CORD by Le Cordon Bleu · WOW at 15 with Angela Davis · Boxcar Bar & Grill x Sara Dongiovanni · International Women’s Day Art of Self-Connection Workshop…
Arments Pie and Mash · Holborn Dining Room at Rosewood London · The 411 · The Audley Public House · The Devonshire · St John · Three Cheers Pubs · The Georgian at Harrods · The Marksman · The Connaught Grill · Quo Vadis…
The British Council has announced that Lubaina Himid CBE RA will represent Great Britain at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2026…
Enej Gala is an artist who splits his time primarily between London and his hometown of Nova Gorica, Slovenia. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and the Royal Academy Schools (2023), Gala first gained our attention with Neighbour’s Harvest, an installation that cleverly combined puppetry and conceptual art…
Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art (Goldsmiths CCA), located on the campus of Goldsmiths, University of London, has announced its exciting exhibition programme for 2025. From immersive digital worlds to poignant reflections on the female experience…
babirye bukilwa’s debut play is an unflinching expose of psychosis and manic depression, and the impact it can have on our relationships, love and identity…
Collect Art Fair · Flavour&Some X Control Room A · Highsnobiety’s Not In London · Paavo Järvi Conducts Stravinsky’s The Firebird · Young Barbican Takeover Festival 2025 · Winter Sculpture Park · Leigh Bowery! · Claudia Pagès Rabal · Ella Kruglyanskaya · Dada Khanyisa · The Arts Society…
Feel the Sound, a new multi-sensory exhibition opening at the Barbican Centre in May 2025, will feature 11 installations, including six new commissions, and a new club space in the Centre’s car park…
The timing of this exhibition could not be better. At the end of a long winter, and egging on London’s reluctant spring, the Saatchi Gallery brings us FLOWERS in full bloom…
Little Simz, one of the UK’s most innovative and celebrated artists, has been announced as the curator for the 30th edition of the Southbank Centre’s Meltdown Festival, set to take place in June 2025…
David Ottone is a Founding Member of Award-winning Spanish theatre company Yllana and has been the Artistic Director of the company since 1991. David has created and directed many theatrical productions which have been seen by more than two million spectators across 44 countries…
Darren Appiagyei is a London-based woodturner whose practice embraces the intrinsic beauty of wood, including its knots, cracks, bark, and grain. Highly inspired by Ghanaian wood carving, Darren explores raw textures and new woods in his work…
Huimin Zhang is an artist specialising in 22K gold, known for her innovative craftsmanship. She combines various cultural techniques, including filigree, engraving, and European gold and silver thread embroidery, to create unique works…
Photo London returns to Somerset House from 15-18 May 2025 to celebrate its tenth anniversary with a special edition that honours both London and its long-standing photographic traditions…
babirye bukilwa’s debut play is an unflinching expose of psychosis and manic depression, and the impact it can have on our relationships, love and identity…
