Art exhibitions opening in London in February 2025

February will see the opening of several highly anticipated and exciting exhibitions across London, offering a unique opportunity to experience groundbreaking works from a diverse range of artists. From a retrospective of the late Noah Davis at the Barbican to exhibitions by Linder, Theaster Gates, and Ai Weiwei, as well as a celebration of Leigh Bowery at Tate and an exploration of The Face magazine at the National Portrait Gallery, here is our guide to some of the must-see shows in the city this month.

Leigh Bowery!

Fergus Greer, Leigh Bowery Session I Look 2 1988 © Fergus Greer. Courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery.

#FLODown: Tate will open an exhibition celebrating the groundbreaking career of Leigh Bowery (1961–1994), a fearless and original artist who redefined art, fashion, and popular culture. Showcasing his bold and dazzling costumes alongside painting, photography, and video, the exhibition traces Bowery’s journey from a young boy in Australia to a globally influential cultural icon. It offers a vivid portrait of his outrageous, complex, and creative legacy.

Date: 27 February – 31 August 2025. Location: Tate Modern, Natalie Bell Building, Level 3 Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: £18 / Free for members. Book now.

Click here for more fashion exhibitions to see in London in 2025.

Noah Davis

Noah Davis, Untitled, 2015. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © The Estate of Noah Davis. Courtesy The Estate of Noah Davis and David Zwirner. Photo: Kerry McFate.

#FLODown: The Barbican will host the UK’s first institutional survey of American artist Noah Davis (1983–2015), showcasing over 50 works spanning painting, sculpture, and works on paper. The exhibition explores Davis’s figurative paintings, which capture the emotional and fantastical aspects of everyday life. It covers his work from 2007 to 2015, alongside his involvement in politics, family, race, and history.

Date: 6 February - 11 May 2025. Location: Barbican Art Gallery, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £18 + BF. Book now.

Claudia Pagès Rabal

Claudia Pagès Rabal, production image, 2024, Courtesy of the artist.

#FLODown: Claudia Pagès Rabal’s exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery explores themes of resistance and colonial history through a new moving-image work. Centred on five defence towers built during the Hispanic March, Pagès uses dance, light, and sound to trace the rhythms of self-defence and examine how colonial practices of erasure endure over time. The work also reflects on the lasting impacts of colonialism and the ongoing struggle for autonomy.

Date: 28 February – 11 May 2025. Location: Chisenhale Gallery, 64 Chisenhale Road, London, E3 5QZ. Price: Free. More info.

Linder: Danger Came Smiling

Linder, Principle of Totality (Version I), 2012, detail. Image: © Linder. Courtesy of the artist; Modern Art, London; Blum, Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York; Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Paris and dépendance, Brussels.

#FLODown: Linder’s first London retrospective will open at the Hayward Gallery, showcasing 50 years of the feminist artist’s work and exploring society’s fascination with the body and its representation. The exhibition spans her early punk-era photomontages from 1970s Manchester to new digital montage pieces, marking her continued evolution.

Date: 11 February – 5 May 2025.Location: Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX. Price: from £19. Book now.

Goya to Impressionism:

Masterpieces from the Oskar Reinhart Collection

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Faience Jug and Fruit, c. 1900. Image: The Swiss Confederation, Federal Office of Culture, Oskar Reinhart Collection “Am Römerholz”, Winterthur.

#FLODown: The Courtauld Gallery will present the Oskar Reinhart Collection ‘Am Römerholz’, a remarkable exhibition featuring masterpieces by some of the most iconic artists in history, including Goya, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Cézanne. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to explore the rich tapestry of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, complemented by key precursors that shaped the development of modern art.

Date: 14 February – 26 May 2025. Location: Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries, Floor 3, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN. Price: from £16. Book now.

The Face Magazine: Culture Shift

Girls on Bikes (Sarf Coastin’), by Elaine Constantine, styled by Polly Banks, December 1997, © Elaine Constantine.

#FLODown: This exhibition celebrates The Face magazine, which shaped youth culture and style from 1980 to 2004. With over 200 photographs by more than 80 photographers, it offers a rare opportunity to view these iconic images beyond the pages of the magazine.

Date: 13 February – 1 June 2025. Location: National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin’s Pl, London WC2H 0HE. Price: £23 / £25.50 with donation. Book now.

Click here to discover more exhibitions opening at the National Portrait Gallery.

Theaster Gates: 1965: Malcolm in Winter: A Translation Exercise

Credit: Courtesy Theaster Gates Studio.

#FLODown: White Cube will present a major exhibition by Theaster Gates, honouring the archive of late journalist Ei Nagata and his wife, Haruhi Ishitani, who preserved Malcolm X’s legacy in Japan. The exhibition features architectural interventions, large-scale installations, films, and archival displays, exploring Blackness in Japan.

Date: 7 February – 6 April 2025. Location: White Cube, Bermondsey, 144-152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ. More info.

Collect Art Fair 2025

Left to right: Chaise Bergère, Agnès Debizet, represented by Galerie Melissa Paul; An expanded fragments: Blue oriental, Minyeol Cho, represented by Siat Gallery; Seom/ Island 4001, Park Sung-wook, represented by Lloyd Choi Gallery; Prism Side Table, Angus Ross, represented by Contemporary Applied Arts (Photograph: Jake Curtis, Styling: Alex Kristal).

#FLODown: Collect Art Fair returns for its 21st edition at Somerset House, showcasing over 400 living artists from 40 international galleries. The fair highlights contemporary craft and design, including ceramics, glass, furniture, art jewellery, and more, with pieces priced from £500 to over £50,000.

Date: 28 February - 2 March 2025. Location: Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA.Price: from £23. Book now.

Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker

Donald Rodney, Autoicon 1997-2000 CD ROM, digitally transferred dimensions variable. Image © The Donald Rodney Estate. 

#FLODown: Whitechapel Gallery presents a major survey exhibition of the late British multimedia artist Donald Rodney, spanning his works from 1982 to 1997. The exhibition touches on themes of racial identity, Black masculinity, chronic illness, and Britain’s colonial history, showcasing oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic sculptures, and rare archival materials.

Date: 12 February - 4 May 2025. Location: Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. whitechapelgallery.org. 

Ai Weiwei: A New Chapter

Lisson Gallery will open an exhibition by artist Ai Weiwei on 7 February 2025.

#FLODown: Lisson Gallery will showcase new works by Ai Weiwei, focusing on contemporary issues through historical and artistic references. Highlights include F.U.C.K. (2024), an installation of 9,000 buttons on military stretchers, and Go Fuck Yourself (2024), which critiques political polarisation. Ai will also reinterpret Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? using toy bricks, alongside works like Wheat Field with Crows, reimagining Van Gogh with drones. These pieces explore identity, politics, and memory, encouraging reflection on current societal challenges.

Date: 7 February – 15 March 2025. Location: Lisson Gallery, 27 Bell St, London NW1 5BY. More info.

Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser: Salt Cosmologies

HylozoicDesires. Soap of the Sages, Sun of the Sea , 2024. Courtesy the artists.

#FLODown: Salt Cosmologies at Somerset House presents a multi-dimensional project by Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser), exploring the complex histories and myths surrounding Britain’s imperial salt monopoly in India. The exhibition spans three spaces, with a large-scale installation in the Courtyard mapping the 2,500-mile Inland Customs Line, using block-printed fabrics dyed with native plants. The newly refurbished Salt Stair, open to the public for the first time, offers a site-specific experience exploring the intertwined histories of salt and colonialism.

Date: 20 February – 27 April 2025. Location: Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, Terrace Room, and Salt Stair, Somerset House,Strand, London WC2R 1LA. Price: Free. somersethouse.org.uk.

Galli: So, So, So

Galli in her studio, 2003. Photo: Edeltraud Veidt.

#FLODown: Galli’s highly anticipated first major solo exhibition in the UK, originally scheduled for 2024, will open at Goldsmiths CCA in February. The exhibition offers a powerful exploration of the body, corporeality, and identity, showcasing a diverse array of works, including paintings, books, collages, and drawings. Through these pieces, Galli invites viewers to engage with her unique approach to understanding the complexities of the human form and its representation.

Date: 7 February – 24 May 2025. Location: Goldsmiths CCA, St James’, New Cross, London SE14 6AD. Price: Free. More info.

Mickalene Thomas: All About Love

Mickalene Thomas, 2023. Photo by Malike Sidibe.

#FLODown: All About Love at the Hayward Gallery will showcase two decades of work by renowned artist Mickalene Thomas. The exhibition will feature large-scale paintings, photographs, collages, and installations that celebrate Black women in repose, with vibrant patterns and rhinestones. Drawing on European art history and feminist literature, Thomas will reclaim space for Black and LGBTQIA+ individuals within a male-dominated artistic tradition. The exhibition will also include bespoke wallpapers and textiles evoking Thomas’s 1970s childhood, paying homage to the late bell hooks. It will highlight themes of love, glamour, and empowerment through the artist’s distinctive and celebratory lens.

Date: 11 February – 5 May 2025. Location: Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Price: £19. (concessions available). Book now.

Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture

Aimée Hoving, Compost, 2019. © Aimee Hoving, flowers by Brigitte Gentis van Dam Merrett.

#FLODown: Saatchi Gallery presents an exploration of flowers’ lasting influence on creativity and human expression. Featuring over 500 artworks and objects, the exhibition spans multiple mediums and highlights how flowers are depicted in art, fashion and music.

Date: 12 February – 5 May 2025. Location: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Rd, London SW3 4RY.  Price: from £12. Book now.

Somaya Critchlow: The Chamber

Somaya Critchlow, The Chamber Il (detail), 2024, oil on linen, 901 x 1153 mm.

#FLODown: Dulwich Picture Gallery will host The Chamber, the first solo exhibition in a UK public institution by Somaya Critchlow. Opening on 4 February 2025, the exhibition will feature new figurative paintings inspired by classical poses and Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. Critchlow explores power, mythology, and history, offering a contemporary take on the Old Master collection.

Date: 4 February – 20 July 2025. Location: Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, London SE21 7AD. Price: Entry included with a Gallery admission ticket. More info.

Derrick Adams: Situation Comedy

Derrick Adams, Only Happy Thoughts, 2024.Acrylic and fabric collage on wood panel, in artist's frame. 60 3/8 x 60 3/8 x 2 1/2 inches (153.4 x 153.4 x 6.4 cm). © Derrick Adams Studio. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian.

#FLODown: Artist Derrick Adams will showcase Situation Comedy at Gagosian, an exhibition exploring Black Americana through everyday moments of leisure. Using acrylic and fabric collage, Adams draws inspiration from sitcoms and pop culture, blending nostalgia with reflections on cultural rituals and identity.

Date: 13 February – 22 March 2025. Location: Gagosian, 17–19 Davies Street London W1K 3DE. More info.

Hardeep Pandhal: Inner World

Hardeep Pandhal, Thugs and Vandals: Charmed by Gorgoroth 13, 2021, Indian ink on paper, 56 x 76 cm, courtesy Jhaveri Contemporary and the artist.

#FLODown: Hardeep Pandhal’s Inner World will be his first solo exhibition in a public London gallery. Drawing from religion, video games, comics, and music, Pandhal creates mythical narratives that explore race, class, and power. The exhibition will feature a site-specific wall drawing wrapping around the gallery, alongside new and earlier works. Pandhal’s art delves into themes of migration, colonialism, and cultural assimilation.

Date: 13 February – 13 April 2025. Location: Drawing Room, Unit 1B New Tannery Way, London SE1 5WS. Price: Free. More info.

Dada Khanyisa

So we met on that Latitudes weekend…plenty of mutuals. I can’t tell you his name- I think you know him and you possibly know stuff I’m not ready for. Anyways, there was a potent vibe between us, like a serious vibe. Sharp! he took my number and we decide to…, 2024. wood, oil paint and textiles. 70.5 x 91.2 x 27 cm / 27 ¾ x 35 ⅞ x 10 ⅝ in.

#FLODown: Sadie Coles HQ presents new works by Dada Khanyisa, whose sculptural paintings explore social dynamics and community. Inspired by South African culture, modernist shapes, and social media, Khanyisa’s works celebrate identity and the power of shared histories.

Date: 26 February – 12 April 2025. Location: Sadie Coles HQ, Davies Street, London, W1K 3DB. More info.