Unmissable art exhibitions to see in London this Christmas 2024
The festive season in London is the perfect time to explore the city’s rich art scene. This Christmas, leading galleries and museums, including Tate, the V&A Museum, Whitechapel Gallery, and Dulwich Picture Gallery, are hosting a remarkable selection of exhibitions. From ticketed events to free displays, our guide highlights the top exhibitions to visit and make the most of the holiday period.
Installation view, Haegue Yang, FURLA SERIES #02, Tightrope Walking and Its Wordless Shadow, La Triennale di Milano, Italy, 2018. © Haegue Yang. Photo by Masiar Pasquali. Courtesy Fondazione Furla and La Triennale di Milano, Milan.
Haegue Yang: Leap Year
#FLODown: Leap Year by Haegue Yang at the Hayward Gallery marks the artist’s first major UK survey. Known for her innovative approach, Yang’s work encompasses installations and sculptures that weave together cross-cultural influences, modernism, and personal stories. This exhibition introduces three newly commissioned works alongside her iconic Venetian blind installations and immersive sonic sculptures. Through her distinctive artistic perspective, Yang transforms everyday objects into profound explorations of spiritual and cultural themes.
Date: 9 October 2024 – 5 January 2025. Location: Hayward Gallery, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX. Price: from £19, Free for Members & under-12s. Book now.
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers
#FLODown: The National Gallery hosts its first-ever Vincent Van Gogh exhibition, Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, to celebrate its 200th anniversary. Featuring over 50 works, it highlights Van Gogh’s imaginative transformations and poetic, romantic themes. Focusing on his time in Arles and Saint-Rémy, the exhibition explores his idealised depictions of places, series painting approach, and use of contrasts. Major works, including Sunflowers, from the gallery’s collection are on display.
Date: 14 September 2024 - 19 January 2025. Location: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Price: from £24. Book now.
#FLODown: Mire Lee creates the latest Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Known for her visceral sculptures combining kinetic and mechanised elements with organic forms, this marks Lee’s first major UK presentation. She uses materials like steel, cement, and silicone to explore the tension between soft and rigid systems, engaging the senses while reflecting on themes of emotion and desire.
Date: 9 October 2024 – 16 March 2025. Location: Tate Modern, Turbine Hall, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: Free. tate.org.uk.
Samia Halaby Fold 2 1988, still from kinetic painting coded on an Amiga computer. Tate © Courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut: Hamburg.
Electric Dreams
#FLODown: Electric Dreams at Tate Modern explores how artists used machines and algorithms to create mesmerising art from the 1950s to the early 1990s. Spanning op art to the dawn of the internet, it showcases optical, kinetic, programmed, and digital innovations. The exhibition features psychedelic installations from the 1950s, experiments with early digital tech in the 1970s and 80s, and offers a glimpse into artists' visions of future visual expression.
Date: 28 November 2024 – 1 June 2025. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: £22 / Free for Members. Concessions available. Book now.
Silk Roads
#FLODown: The Silk Roads exhibition redefines the traditional view of the Silk Road as merely a trade route between East and West. It presents the Silk Roads as a complex web of interconnected networks linking diverse regions from Japan to Britain and Scandinavia to Madagascar. Spanning five geographical zones, the exhibition features over 300 artefacts, including items like Indian garnets in Suffolk and Iranian glass in Japan, highlighting the extensive cultural and historical impacts of these routes.
Date: 26 September 2024 – 23 February 2025. Location: The Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, The British Museum, Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG. Price: Adults from £22, Members and under-16s free. britishmuseum.org.
Monet and London: Views of the Thames
#FLODown: The hugely popular exhibition featuring Claude Monet’s lesser-known Thames Series, painted during his London stays from 1899 to 1901, is on show at the Courtauld Gallery. These Impressionist masterpieces capture iconic London landmarks, including Charing Cross Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, with vibrant colours and an evocative atmosphere. Originally planned for a 1905 London exhibition, this collection is being shown in the UK for the first time, offering a unique glimpse into Monet’s artistic vision of this period. Tickets are selling quickly, and with limited walk-in availability, it is recommended to book in advance.
Date: 27 September 2024 – 19 January 2025. Location: The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN. Price: from £16. Book now.
Claude Monet (1840 - 1926), London, Parliament. Sunlight in the fog, 1904, oil on canvas, Musee d'Orsay. Photo © Grand Palais RMN (musee d'orsauy) Herve Lewandowski.
Sammy Baloji
#FLODown: Goldsmiths CCA presents a solo exhibition by Sammy Baloji, featuring two new commissions and significant recent works displayed in the UK for the first time. The exhibition explores themes such as climate, tropical architecture, Belgian Art Nouveau, and the extraction of resources from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Highlights include Baloji’s 2023 film, Aequare. The Future that Never Was, which critiques the colonial and ecological impacts on the Congo's rainforest, and Shinkolobwe’s Abstraction, which addresses Cold War uranium extraction from the DRC. The exhibition examines the legacy of colonialism, capitalism, and their entanglement with science and art.
Date: 4 October 2024 - 12 January 2025. Location: Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary, St James’s, New Cross, SE14 6ED. Price: Free. goldsmithscca.art.
Michael Craig-Martin
#FLODown: The Royal Academy of Arts hosts the UK’s largest exhibition dedicated to British artist Michael Craig-Martin. Known for his significant contributions to conceptual art, his work spans sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, and prints. Craig-Martin’s pieces blend pop, minimalism, and conceptualism, transforming everyday objects with bold colours and simple lines. The exhibition explores his influence on contemporary art and education, addressing the ongoing crisis in art education in the UK.
Date: 21 September - 10 December 2024. Location: Royal Academy of Arts,Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Price: £22- £24.50. Book. now.
Sonia Boyce, Exquisite Tension, 2005, Single-channel HD colour video with sound and archive colour photographic print. Video duration: 4 minutes © Sonia Boyce.All Rights Reserved, DACS/Artimage 2024Courtesy of the artist, APALAZZO GALLERY and Hauser & Wirth Gallery.
Sonia Boyce: An Awkward Relation
#FLODown: Sonia Boyce’s exhibition, An Awkward Relation, at Whitechapel Gallery runs concurrently with The I and the You, showcasing Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. The exhibition delves into themes of interaction and participation through rarely seen works by Boyce, including pieces focused on hair and the multimedia installation We Move in Her Way (2017). A special section pairs works from both artists, highlighting their shared and distinct approaches. The title, An Awkward Relation, emphasises the complex dynamics between artists, their works, and audiences.
Date: 2 October 2024 - 12 January 2025. Location: Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. whitechapelgallery.org.
REVERB by The Vinyl Factory
#FLODown: REVERB, an exhibition presented by The Vinyl Factory at 180 Studios, offers an immersive experience showcasing over 100 artists and musicians. The exhibit features a dynamic blend of installations, live performances, and thought-provoking discussions, focusing on the intersection of art and sound. Notable contributors include Theaster Gates, Es Devlin, and Julianknxx, alongside premieres by Kahlil Joseph and the late Virgil Abloh.
Date: 23 May – 22 December 2024. Location: 180 Studios, 180 The Strand, London, WC2R 1EA. Price: £25. 180studios.com.
180 Studios Reverb Carsten Nicolai. Photo by Jack Hems.
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection
#FLODown: This exhibition features over 300 rare prints from Sir Elton John and David Furnish's private collection. Showcasing modern and contemporary photography by 140+ photographers like Mapplethorpe, Sherman, Eggleston, and Arbus, it spans from the 1950s to the present. Themes include fashion, reportage, celebrity, the male body, and American photography. Commemorating 30 years of collecting, it highlights portraits of icons and pivotal historical moments, including the Civil Rights movement, AIDS activism, and 9/11.
Date: 18 May 2024 – 5 January 2025. Location: V&A Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL. Price: £20. Book now.
Hew Locke: what have we here?
#FLODown: The British Museum hosts a major new exhibition by Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke this autumn. Following a two-year curatorial collaboration, the exhibition explores British imperial power and cultural heritage, showcasing treasures and lesser-known objects from Africa, India, and the Caribbean. Featuring over 150 objects, including newly commissioned sculptures, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with nuanced and often contentious historical debates. This marks Locke’s first artist-curated museum show.
Date: 17 October 2024 – 9 February 2025. Location: The Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery, The British Museum, Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG. Price: Adults from £12, Members and under-16s free. britishmuseum.org.
Hew Locke with The Watchers, the British Museum © Richard Cannon.
Anthony McCall: Solid Light
#FLODown: Solid Light installations by Anthony McCall are on display at Tate Modern, showcasing the British-born artist’s innovative use of light and material film installations. The exhibition features four interactive solid light works, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the art and create new shapes and perspectives as they move through the translucent sculptures. It also includes film, photography, and archive material documenting McCall’s early career and the development of his practice, including early performances and installations such as Landscape for Fire and Room with Altered Window.
Date: 27 June 2024 – 27 April 2025. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: £10. Concessions available. Book now.
Zanele Muholi
#FLODown: Tate Modern presents a major UK survey of Zanele Muholi, the acclaimed visual activist and photographer, featuring over 260 works documenting South Africa’s Black LGBTQIA+ communities. Highlights include key series such as Only Half the Picture, which captures both intimate and traumatic moments; Faces and Phases, an archive of portraits that challenge perceptions; Brave Beauties, celebrating non-binary and trans women; and Being, which portrays couples. Muholi’s self-portraits in Somnyama Ngonyama explore themes of labour, racism, and sexual politics. The exhibition builds on Muholi’s 2020-21 show at Tate Modern and includes new works.
Date: 6 June 2024 – 26 January 2025. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: £18. Concessions available. Book now.
NAOMI
#FLODown: The V&A Museum hosts NAOMI, a unique exhibition celebrating Naomi Campbell's 40-year career as a trailblazing British fashion model and icon. The exhibition features around 100 looks from top global designers, along with fashion photography curated by Edward Enninful. It also highlights Campbell's advocacy for social change and her support for emerging creatives.
Date: 22 June 2024 - 6 April 2025. Location: V&A South, Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL. Price: £18. Concessions available. Book now.
NAOMI is at the V&A, 22 June 2024 – 6 April 2025. Photographer by Marco Bahler.
Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent
#FLODown: The Archive of Dissent at Whitechapel Gallery presents Kennard's five-decade career across three former library galleries. Known for iconic resistance images from the Vietnam War to current issues, his photomontages challenge norms in a printed materials archive. Inspired by John Heartfield, Kennard's work explores power dynamics amidst societal fractures. Installations like Boardroom and Double Exposure reinterpret photomontage with light and projection, alongside The People’s University of the East End, honouring the space's protest tradition.
Date: 23 July - 19 January 2025. Location: Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. Price: Free. whitechapelgallery.org.
The Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence
#FLODown: Great Mughals: Art, Architecture and Opulence showcases the rich and international culture of Mughal Hindustan during the reigns of emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. This exhibition presents a fresh narrative on the origins of Mughal art, highlighting the significant Iranian influence on the region’s craft traditions and the impact of Jesuit missionaries and European traders. Featuring a diverse array of Mughal court arts—including contemporary portraits, jewelled gold vessels, and exquisite carpets—the exhibition combines historical essays with object-focused texts to reveal the unique dynamics of each emperor’s reign and tell unexpected stories about this influential dynasty, renowned for commissioning the Taj Mahal.
Date: 9 November 2024 - 5 May 2025. Location: Galleries 38 &39, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL. Price: from £22. Concessions available. Book now.
Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious
#FLODown: Dulwich Picture Gallery hosts the first major exhibition dedicated to visionary artist and designer Tirzah Garwood (1908–1951). Known previously as the wife of Eric Ravilious, Garwood was a skilled fine artist and printmaker. This retrospective features over 80 of her captivating works, offering a comprehensive view of her artistic output. The exhibition also includes 11 pieces by Ravilious, highlighting the thematic connections and distinct artistic identities of this remarkable couple.
Date: 19 November 2024 - 26 May 2025. Location: Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21 7AD. Price: from £18. Concessions available. Book now.
Tirzah Garwood, Spanish Lady,1950, oil on canvas. Private collection.
Lygia Clark: The I and the You
#FLODown: The I and the You is the first major UK public gallery survey of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark (1920–1988). Focusing on Clark’s work from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, the exhibition highlights her role in the Brazilian Neo-concrete movement and her shift towards more experimental and participatory art. Featuring paintings, works on paper, and her iconic ‘Bichos’, the show illustrates how Clark’s art evolves to foster greater audience interaction. An integrated programme of talks and participatory events provides further context. The exhibition is presented alongside Sonia Boyce’s An Awkward Relation.
Date: 2 October 2024 - 12 January 2025. Location: Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX. whitechapelgallery.org.
Anastasia Samoylova: Adaptation
#FLODown: Adaptation by Anastasia Samoylova at Saatchi Gallery is the first major survey of the contemporary American photographer. The exhibition features works from five significant series—Landscape Sublime, Image Cities, FloodZone, Floridas, and Breakfasts—alongside previously unseen video work in the UK. Samoylova’s photography explores how the environment adapts to human intervention and addresses the social and political resistance to change.
Date: 5 November 2024 - 20 January 2025. Location: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Rd, London SW3 4RY. Price: from £6. Book now.
Louis Blue Newby & Laila Majid: Inner Heat
#FLODown: Goldsmiths CCA presents Inner Heat, the first institutional exhibition by artist duo Louis Blue Newby and Laila Majid. The show features new drawings and sculptural elements of public infrastructure, exploring the relationship between private image consumption and public space. Their work, often reconfiguring visuals from online forums and social media, engages with themes of gender fluidity and non-normative sexual practices. Central to the exhibition is the Contact series, where digital images are painstakingly translated into graphite drawings, creating tension between the familiarity of the images and the labor-intensive process of their reproduction. The artists investigate how we engage with and interpret visual media.
Date: 8 November 2024 – 12 January 2025. Location: Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, St James's, London SE14 6AD. Price: Free. Book now.
We Want to Breathe, 1975, Ink, cotton, wood, Nicola L Image: Courtesy of Alison Jacques, London. Copyright Nicola L Collection and Archive.
Nicola L.
#FLODown: A new exhibition by Nicola L. will open at Camden Arts Centre, showcasing her innovative artistic practice across sculpture, performance, painting, collage, and film. For the first time in the UK and Europe, the exhibition will feature her provocative Pénétrables sculptures, interactive textile works, and documentation of significant performances like The Blue Cape and Red Coat. It will also highlight her oversized furniture sculptures and feminist-themed series, such as The Femme Fatale, emphasising her exploration of equality and societal roles. Additionally, the exhibition will present her influential work in moving image, including feature films and documentaries, showcasing Nicola L.’s profound impact across various artistic disciplines.
Date: 4 October - 29 December 2024. Location: Camden Art Centre, Arkwright Rd, London NW3 6DG. Price: Free. camdenartcentre.org.
The 80s: Photographing Britain
#FLODown: On show at Tate Britain, The 80s: Photographing Britain is a major exhibition featuring 350 works that capture the social and political upheavals of the 1980s. With images from over 70 photographers, the exhibition highlights iconic moments such as the miners’ strikes, social security offices, and portraits of Middle England. It also explores photography’s role in representing marginalised communities, with contributions from Black, South Asian, and LGBTQ+ photographers. The exhibition concludes by examining how underground club culture and fashion photography shaped British youth at the decade’s end. Click here for more.
Date: 21 November 2024 – 5 May 2025. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Price: £20. Concessions available. Book now.
Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2024
#FLODown: The Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize returns for its 17th year, celebrating contemporary photography from talented young photographers, amateurs, and professionals. The exhibition features a diverse array of portraits, ranging from formal commissions to intimate, spontaneous moments. The 2024 edition also highlights new work by Diana Markosian, an established photographer, in the annual In Focus display, alongside a piece by 2023 commission prize winner Serena Brown, now part of the Gallery’s Collection.
Date: 14 November 2024 - 16 February 2025. Location: National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Pl, London WC2H 0HE. Price: from £8.50. Concessions available. Book now.
Mike Kelley, Ahh...Youth! 1991. © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved / VAGA at ARS, NY.
Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit
#FLODown: The UK's first major exhibition of American artist Mike Kelley showcases his imaginative and provocative creations spanning from the late 1970s to 2012. Kelley's diverse body of work includes drawing, collage, performance, found objects, and video, highlighted by his groundbreaking 'craft' sculptures and multimedia installations like Day Is Done. Drawing from popular culture, literature, and philosophy, Kelley explores the interplay between societal roles, historical truths, and fictional personas from media. A decade after his death, Kelley's profound reflections on identity and memory remain impactful and relevant.
Date: 2 October 2024 – 9 March 2025.Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Price: £18 / free for members, Concessions available. tate.org.uk.
Vital Signs: another world is possible
#FLODown: Vital Signs: another world is possible at Science Gallery London is a free multimedia exhibition that presents hopeful approaches to the climate crisis through collaborations between artists, designers, and researchers. Key works include Ackroyd & Harvey’s grass banners inscribed with poetry by Sir Ben Okri, advocating for a renewed relationship with nature; Gayle Chong Kwan’s bio-waste-based installations exploring human waste’s connection to the River Thames; Cathy Mager’s Night Bloom, an immersive piece using biodiversity to address the resilience of the deaf community; and Birungi Kawooya’s bark cloth sanctuaries promoting rest as resistance.
Date: 13 November 2024 - 16 May 2025. Location: Science Gallery London, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 9GU. Price: Free. london.sciencegallery.com.
William Morris & Art from the Islamic World
#FLODown: The William Morris Gallery is hosting an exhibition on the influence of Islamic art on William Morris, a key figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. It will feature over 60 works, including Morris’s designs alongside Islamic textiles, ceramics, and manuscripts from major UK collections. Notable items include rare Turkish and Iranian textiles, and a 17th-century Ottoman velvet hanging used as Morris’s coffin pall. The exhibition will also highlight Morris’s role in promoting Islamic art in Britain and the contributions of his daughter, May Morris.
Date: 9 November 2024 - 9 March 2025. Location: William Morris Gallery, Forest Road London, E17 4PP. wmgallery.org.uk.
Misfits, 2021, Nairy Baghramian.
Nairy Baghramian: Jumbled Alphabet
#FLODown: The South London Gallery presents an exhibition of Sophia Baghramian’s conceptually rigorous sculptures, which challenge perceptions of self, space, and objects. Using diverse techniques and materials, Baghramian explores the spatial, architectural, social, and political contexts of contemporary art. Her works blend geometric shapes, organic matter, and industrial processes to subtly examine the intersections between art, interior design, dance, and theatre. The exhibition features sculptures from her Misfits series, alongside collaborative works created with other artists, on display in the Fire Station galleries.
Date: 27 September 2024 - 12 January 2025. Location: South London Gallery, 65 Peckham Rd, London SE5 8UH. Price: Free. southlondongallery.org.
Lap-See Lam
#FLODown: Marking Lap-See Lam's UK debut, this exhibition at Studio Voltaire follows her presentation at the 60th Venice Biennale. Inspired by the 'Sea Palace', a haunted funhouse once a floating Chinese restaurant, Lam delves into cultural heritage and diasporic identity. The showcase includes a new film intertwining the restaurant's history with Cantonese Opera themes, alongside a large-scale bamboo scaffolding installation.
Date: 18 September – 15 December 2024. Location: Studio Voltaire,1A Nelsons Row, London SW4 7JR. Price: Free. studiovoltaire.org.
Igra morilec : Killer pretend play, Palermo, 1982 © Letizia Battaglia.
Letizia Battaglia
#FLODown: Letizia Battaglia’s first major exhibition at The Photographer’s Gallery showcases her renowned photography and photojournalism. Battaglia gained acclaim for her powerful documentation of the Sicilian Mafia from the 1970s to the early 1990s, capturing scenes of daily terror and organised crime that often made headlines. Her 40-year career covered a wide range of subjects, including murder victims, religious festivals, the stark contrasts of wealth and poverty, and the beauty and decay of Palermo and its surroundings. Her work offers both a broad and intimate portrayal of this iconic Sicilian city.
Date: 9 October 2024 – 23 February 2025. Location: The Photographers' Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW. thephotographersgallery.org.uk.
Lauren Halsey: emajendat
#FLODown: Serpentine presents emajendat, the first UK exhibition of LA-based artist Lauren Halsey. Held at Serpentine South, the exhibition has transformed the gallery into an immersive environment inspired by Kensington Gardens. Halsey's work reflects her South Central LA roots, blending African diaspora cultures, ancient Egypt, and funk aesthetics. The installation features vibrant sand dunes, mirrored CDs, and sculptures, creating a futuristic ‘funk garden’ that celebrates and resists gentrification.
Date: 11 October – 2 March 2025. Location: Serpentine South, Serpentine Gallery, W2 3XA. Price: Free.
Lauren Halsey, land of the sunshine wherever we go II (detail), 2021, white cement, wood, and mixed media, 82 1/2 x 79 x 77 in. (209.6 x 200.7 x 195.6 cm). Courtesy Lauren Halsey.
Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504
#FLODown: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c. 1504 at the Royal Academy of Arts, explores the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo and their influence on Raphael. The exhibition will showcase over 40 works, including Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo, Leonardo’s Burlington House Cartoon, and Raphael’s Bridgewater Madonna. It highlights the vibrant artistic atmosphere of Republican Florence, focusing on their preparatory drawings for unfinished murals. The exhibition will culminate in Raphael’s drawing that copies Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari.
Date: 9 November 2024 – 16 February 2025. Location: Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Price: from £19. Concessions available. Book now.
Geumhyung Jeong: Under Construction
#FLODown: Geumhyung Jeong’s exhibition Under Construction, on display at The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), highlights her unique blend of choreography and technology. Featuring new installations of sculpture and video, the exhibition explores the dynamic between humans and machines through animatronic figures and Jeong’s own body. It includes autonomous sculptures and videos documenting the interactions between Jeong and her creations.
Date: 25 September – 8 December 2024. Location: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH. Price: from £6. Free on Tuesdays. Book now.
Surrounded, 1996, © Tim Burton.
The World of Tim Burton
#FLODown: Tim Burton, known for his whimsical style, has shaped celebrated films for four decades. Thenexhibition at the Design Museum offers a deep dive into his creative universe, showcasing his work as an illustrator, painter, photographer, and author. Curated by Jenny He with Burton's collaboration, this retrospective delves into his personal archive, featuring drawings, paintings, photographs, and more.
Date: 25 October 2024 — 21 April 2025. Location: Design Museum. 224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG. Price: Adult tickets from £19.69/ children aged 6 to 15 from £9.85. Under 6s go free. Book now.
Self-Made: Reshaping Identities
#FLODown: Self-Made is an exhibition of contemporary ceramics exploring the complexities of identity and self-creation through the transformative nature of clay. Featuring work by Phoebe Collings-James, Rachel Kneebone, Matt Smith, and Renee So, the show delves into how class, gender, sexuality, cultural heritage, and history shape identity. Each artist uses clay’s malleability to express narratives of transformation, reflecting on the ever-evolving nature of self. The exhibition highlights the challenging yet empowering process of shaping identity, drawing connections to the Foundling Museum’s themes of care, belonging, and reinvention.
Date: 15 November 2024 - 1 June 2025. Location: Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ. Price: from £12.75. Concessions available. Book now.
© Jose Manuel Grandio.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year
#FLODown: The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, celebrating its sixtieth year at the Natural History Museum, showcases 100 striking photographs of wildlife and nature, highlighting the beauty and complexity of the natural world. To mark this milestone, a timeline of key moments in the competition’s history is displayed alongside the images. The exhibition reflects a record 59,228 entries from photographers worldwide, demonstrating creativity and technical excellence. Visitors can expect to see not only award-winning images but also powerful narratives about conservation and the environment.
Date: 11 October 2024 - 29 June 2025. Location: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 5BD. Price: from £15.50, off-peak concession ticket £12.50, and off-peak child ticket £9.25. Book now.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: It Will End in Tears
#FLODown: Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s commission at The Curve features a diverse array of drawings, paintings, and installations, exploring themes of home, hybrid identities, and unity. Inspired by her experiences across Africa, South Asia, and North America, Sunstrum collaborates with Remco Osório Lobato to create an installation that transports visitors to an imagined rural life in a twentieth-century colonial outpost, loosely based on her grandmother’s hometown in Botswana.
Date: 18 September 2024 – 5 January 2025. Location: The Curve, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London,EC2Y 8DS. Price: Free. barbican.org.uk.
Gieve Patel, Off Lamington Road, 1982-86. Collection: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi © Gieve Patel. Courtesy Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art.
The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998
#FLODown:The Barbican Art Gallery presents a groundbreaking exhibition exploring India’s transformative cultural and political era through the works of 30 visionary artists. Spanning nearly 150 pieces across painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and film, this landmark group show dissects pivotal moments of the late 20th century while capturing the intimate, everyday moments that define this period. A specially curated film season, Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after 1970, runs concurrently with the exhibition.
Date: 5 October 2024 – 5 January 2025. Location: Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS. Price: £20+BF. Book now.
As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic
#FLODown: As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic features works from African diasporic culture selected from the Wedge Collection. Organised by Aperture and curated by Elliott Ramsey, the exhibition at Saatchi Gallery highlights Black artists from Canada, the United States, Great Britain, the Caribbean, and Africa. Established in 1997 by Dr. Kenneth Montague, the Wedge Collection is Canada’s largest privately owned collection dedicated to Black artists. The exhibition explores themes of community, identity, and power, showcasing renowned artists such as Horace Ové and Carrie Mae Weems, alongside emerging talents like Texas Isaiah. The title reflects Dr. Montague’s father’s saying, “Lifting as we rise,” emphasising the importance of community empowerment and the diverse experiences of Black life through the collective gaze of Black photographers.
Date: 5 November 2024 - 20 January 2025. Location: Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Rd, London SW3 4RY. Price: from £6. Book now.
Dawit L. Petros, Hadenbes, 2005.
Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst: The Call
#FLODown: The Call, the first UK solo exhibition by Berlin-based artists Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, is on display at Serpentine North. The exhibition explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and collaborative artmaking, addressing societal concerns around AI while showcasing musical ensembles from across the UK. Through the creation of new vocal datasets and polyphonic AI models, Herndon and Dryhurst highlight AI as a “coordination technology” similar to group singing, fostering communication and meaning. The exhibition invites audiences to engage in the evolving relationship between human and machine voices.
Date: 4 October 2024 – 2 February 2025. Location: Serpentine North and The Magazine, West Carriage Drive, W2 2AR. Price: Free. serpentinegalleries.org.
Francis Bacon: Human Presence
#FLODown: An exhibition dedicated to renowned artist Francis Bacon is on display at the National Portrait Gallery, focusing on his works from the 1950s onwards. It explores Bacon’s deep connection to portraiture and his challenge to traditional definitions of the genre. Featuring pieces from private and public collections, the exhibition highlights his responses to earlier artists, large-scale paintings of lost lovers, and self-portraits. The works include portraits of sitters such as Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne, Peter Lacy, and George Dyer, offering insight into Bacon’s life.
Date: 10 October 2024 - 19 January 2025. Location: National Portrait Gallery , St. Martin's Pl, London WC2H 0HE. Price: £23 / 25.50 + donation. npg.org.uk.
Study for a Self-Portrait, 1979 by Francis Bacon © The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved. DACS 2023.
Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s food replica culture
#FLODown: Explore the fascinating world of shokuhin sanpuru, the highly realistic food replicas displayed outside restaurants in Japan, at the exhibition Looks Delicious! Exploring Japan’s food replica culture at Japan House. The exhibition features specially crafted models from Iwasaki Group, showcasing dishes from all 47 prefectures, including Okinawan goya chanpuru and Hokkaido’s Ainu ohaw. An interactive zone allows visitors to create their own bento box of replica food, offering a hands-on experience of this unique aspect of Japanese culture.
Date: 2 October 2024 – 16 February 2025. Location: Japan House, 101-111 Kensington High St, Kensington, W8 5SA. Price: Free. japanhouselondon.uk.
Felicity Aylieff: Expressions in Blue
#FLODown: Expressions in Blue by Felicity Aylieff at Kew Garden’s Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art showcases monumental porcelain ceramics crafted in Jingdezhen, China. The exhibition features large-scale, hand-thrown vessels adorned with traditional Qing Hua painting techniques. Inspired by botanical illustrations, these works celebrate Aylieff’s ongoing collaboration with local artisans, blending the beauty of ceramics with the wonders of nature.
Date: 26 October 2024 - 23 March 2025. Location: Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Gardens. Price: Admission to Kew Gardens starts at £20/ £5.50 adult/child, which includes access to the exhibition. Tickets from £10 for under 29s. Book now.
Image courtesy of Adrian Sassoon, London. Photography by Alun Callender.
