We’re now well into 2023 (Summer is finally here!), and for a real full-on art attack, London has you covered. Below, we’ve rounded up all the current and upcoming art exhibitions from London’s major galleries and museums, from the Tate Britain and Tate Modern to Somerset House, the V&A and the National Gallery.
These art exhibitions in London encompass everything from classic works to cutting-edge modern pieces, but all offer something for the curious. Prices quoted are generally for adults in advance. On-the-day, walk-up tickets will be a few pounds more, while students and other concessionary fares may be slightly less. There’s even a fair few free art exhibitions for the penny-pinchers among you here – winner, winner!
Colors Festival has finally opened its doors in London and you can still grab your tickets for it. It’s taking over 1000m² of reimagined space in one of London’s street art hubs, Camden for an unforgettable art experience. Taking place in Camden Market’s Hawley Wharf, you will get the chance to see the works of 35 incredibly talented artists from both the international and local art communities. The experience spans a number of artistic mediums and is displayed in larger than life fashion in rooms themed by colour.
1 Dockray Place, Camden Market Hawley Wharf, London, United Kingdom, NW1 8JZ.
Nearest station is Camden Town.
🎟️ Until July 23. Tickets from £15. Get your tickets here.
2. Frameless, Marble Arch
Frameless is a brand new culturally-rich, immersive, multi-dimensional art experience right in the heart of Central London.
Set within a 30,000 square-foot-venue, it offers four different galleries, and elevates the traditional art experience to a whole new level. Add in 158 state-of-the-art surround sound speakers and over 479 million pixels of light, and you can see that you’re in for a real experience here!
Frameless, 6 Marble Arch, London, W1H 7AP.
Nearest station is Marble Arch.
🎟️ Until August 2023. From £19.75. More info.
3. We Are Queer Britain, Queer Museum
The award-winning Queer Britain museum opened back in 2022, with an aim to save and preserve LGBTQ+ history, and the award-winning ‘We Are Queer Britain!‘ exhibition remains in place at Queer Britain.
The exhibition, which arrived in 2022 shortly after the museum’s opening, marks the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Pride March. It’s described as “a diverse and rich array of artifacts that culminates voices, objects and images from the worlds of activism, art, culture and social history covering over 100 years of queer life.”
Queer Britain, 2 Granary Square, London, N1C 4BH.
Nearest station is Kings Cross St. Pancras.
🎟️ Open indefinitely. Free! More info.
4. Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Rooms, Tate Modern
The mesmerising mirrored rooms of Yayoi Kusama delight whenever and wherever they appear, and that includes Tate Modern, where a pair of delightfully trippy installations have appeared. The first of these, named ‘Filled with the Brilliance of Life’, has spent plenty of time at Tate Modern, back when the gallery hosted a Kusama retrospective in 2012, and is one of the artist’s largest Infinity Rooms.
The other, entitled ‘Chandelier of Grief’, depicts a Swarovski-encrusted chandelier inside a mirrored room, which gives the impression of endless chandeliers stretching around you, as if one were in the most gloriously OTT dining room imaginable.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG.
Nearest station is Blackfriars.
🎟️ Until September 30 2023. Price £10. More info.
5. Oliver Beer’s Albion Waves, Bloomberg SPACE at the London Mithraeum
Situated on the ground floor of the famous London Mithraeum, Bloomberg SPACE showcases a series of contemporary art exhibitions responding, and bringing fresh perspectives, to the site’s rich archaeological history.
The latest of these is Oliver Beer’s Albion Waves, which ‘is inspired by the cultural and social changes in Britain’s material history and its ever-changing position across the globe‘. It features 28 historic vessels suspended from the ceiling, which draw inspiration from the 14,000 Roman artefacts found here.
London Mithraeum, 12 Walbrook, London, EC4N 8AA.
Nearest stations are Bank, Cannon Street, Mansion House and St Paul’s.
🎟️ Until July 15 2023. Free! More info.
6. Maria Bartuszová, Tate Modern
This Tate show takes Slovakian artist Maria Bartuszová as its subject, exploring the abstract sculptures she composed out of white plaster. It begins in the 1960s, when Bartuszová experimented using her own distinctive method of casting plaster by hand, and continues to the 1980s when she frequently photographed her works outdoors in order to emphasise their close ties to nature.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG.
Nearest station is Blackfriars.
🎟️ Until June 27, 2023. Price £16. More info.
7. David Hockney: Bigger and Closer, Lightroom
Now, this man really needs no introduction. The legend that is David Hockney is back with a bang at this fantastic art exhibition, taking us on a journey exploring over 60 years’ worth of his art.
In a cycle of six themed chapters – with a specially composed score by Nico Muhly and a commentary by the artist himself – Hockney reveals his process to us in a brand-new, fully-projectable space in London’s Kings Cross St. Pancras. It promises to be an excellent addition to this art exhibitions roundup that’s for sure.
Lightroom, 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, London, N1C 4DY.
Nearest station is Kings Cross St Pancras.
🎟️ Until October 1 2023. Price £25. More info.
8. The Offbeat Sari, Design Museum
Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG.
Nearest station is High Street Kensington.
🎟️ Until September 17 2023. Price £12.60. More info.
9. Isaac Julien: What Freedom Is To Me
This ambitious art exhibition reveals the scope of celebrated film and video artist Isaac Julien’s pioneering work in film and installation from the early 1980s right up until the present day. It examines the way his work breaks down barriers between different artistic disciplines, drawing from film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture by delving into the diverse themes of desire, history and culture.
Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG.
Nearest station is Pimlico.
🎟️ Until August 20 2023. From £17. More info.
10. Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, Commercial 106
One of the most popular art exhibitions of the year has to be this incredible immersive installation dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh, where you can literally step into his paintings.
Treat yourself to this all-encompassing, 360-degree display of the Dutchman’s work – which takes over all your surroundings with the use of several dozen projectors and hyper-realistic VR headsets. Tickets for this exhibition have been flying out faster than any swish of any paintbrush could manage, so grab yours here before they’re gone.
Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, 106 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LZ.
Nearest stations are Liverpool St and Aldgate East.
🎟️ Until July 30 2023. Price from £13.90.
11. Dalí Cybernetics: The Immersive Experience
Take an awe-inspiring journey into the incomparable universe of Salvador Dalí, the artistic genius behind surrealist masterpieces such as ‘The Persistence of Memory’ (famous for its melting clocks).
Explore Dali’s life, his work, and his paintings as never before through cutting-edge 360-degree digital projections, a one-of-a-kind VR experience, and a uniquely atmospheric light and sound show. Become completely immersed in the works of art around you, and feel the shift in reality as you dive deep into the world created by Dalí’s brush strokes.
Get your tickets for Dalí Cybernetics: The Immersive Experience in London here.
The Boiler House, 152 Brick Lane, London, E1 6RU.
Nearest stations are Shoreditch High Street, Liverpool St. and Aldgate East.
🎟️ Until July 3 2023. From £22.90.
12. Dopamine Land: An Immersive Experience, 79-85 Old Brompton Road
Can you imagine a space created just to delight your senses and stimulate dopamine? Welcome to Dopamine Land, the immersive experience in London, an interactive museum of dopamine-inducing sensory experiences.
Explore a series of spaces designed to stimulate touch, sight, smell and even memory. Pop bubbles, relax in meditative spaces, and channel the limitless imagination of your inner child. Grab your Dopamine Land tickets here.
Dopamine Land, 85 Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 3LD.
Nearest station is South Kensington.
🎟️ Until July 30 2023. From £17.50.
13. Hallyu! The Korean Wave, V&A Museum
The V&A is bringing a massive cultural phenomenon to town this September, with the arrival of Hallyu! The Korean Wave, the first UK exhibition dedicated to the music, art, cinema, fashion, and beauty of modern South Korea. Which no doubt means K-pop fans will be queueing out the door to get inside…
V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL.
Nearest station is South Kensington.
🎟️ Until June 25 2023. Price £20. More info.
14. Souls Grown Deep Like The Rivers, Royal Academy of Arts
Discover the black artists from the Southeastern United States who created some of the most spectacular and ingenious works of the last century at this exciting new exhibition.
You’ll discover sculptures, paintings, reliefs, drawings, and quilts – most of which will be seen in the UK and Europe for the first time. It will also feature the celebrated quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, Alabama and the neighbouring communities of Rehoboth and Alberta, and artists on show here will include Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley and Ronald Lockett.
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD.
Nearest stations are Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Oxford Circus and Bond Street
🎟️ Until June 18 2023. £15. More info.
15. Saint Francis of Assisi at the National Gallery
This next addition to this art exhibitions roundup will give you the chance to face-to-face with one of history’s most inspirational and revered figures. Presenting the art and imagery of Saint Francis (1182–1226) from the 13th century to today, this exhibition looks at why this saint is a figure of enormous relevance to our time due to his spiritual radicalism, commitment to the poor, and love of God and nature.
It will also give you the chance to discover his powerful appeals for peace, and openness to dialogue with other religions.
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN.
Nearest station is Charing Cross.
🎟️ Until July 30 2023. Free. More info.
16. Ai Weiwei: Making Sense, Design Museum
This major new exhibition – developed in collaboration with Ai Weiwei – will be the first to present his work as a commentary on design and what it reveals about our changing values.
Through his engagement with material culture, Ai explores the tension between past and present, hand and machine, precious and worthless, construction and destruction. The exhibition draws on Ai’s fascination with historical Chinese artefacts, placing their traditional craftsmanship in dialogue with the more recent history of demolition and urban development in China.
Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6AG.
Nearest station is High Street Kensington.
🎟️ Until July 30 2023. From £15. More info.
17. After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art, National Gallery
This fantastic art exhibition at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square celebrates the achievements of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin – and follows the influences they had on younger generations of French artists, on their peers and on wider circles of artists across Europe in Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels and Vienna.
The exhibition follows the creation of a new, modern art, free of convention, taking in Expressionism, Cubism and Abstraction, and also features artworks from Klimt, Munch and Matisse.
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN.
Nearest station is Leicester Square.
🎟️ Until August 13 2023. Price from £24. More info.
18. Crown to Couture, Kensington Palace
The glittering world of the Georgian court will come head-to-head with the high glamour of the modern-day red carpet in a new exhibition set to open at Kensington Palace – famously a stage set for historic fashion – this April.
Crown to Couture will see contemporary couture worn by high-profile celebrities including Lizzo and Lady Gaga, displayed alongside historic costumes – drawing fascinating parallels between the world of the red carpet and the world of the Royal Court in the 18th century.
To bring the experience to life, Historic Royal Palaces – the charity that cares for Kensington Palace – is working with Emmy award-winning production designer Joseph Bennett, who is best known for his creation of Alexander McQueen’s famous catwalk shows.
Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, London, W8 4PX.
Nearest stations are High St Kensington and Queensway.
🎟️ Until October 29 2023. £25.40. More info.
19. Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondrian – Forms of Life, Tate Modern
This is a unique chance to discover the visionary work of Swedish painter Hilma af Klint and experience Dutch painter Piet Mondrian’s influential art in a new light. Though both artists never actually met, they both had a ‘shared desire to understand the forces behind life on earth’.
This fascinating art exhibition will explore the powerful and groundbreaking work of both of these modern artists, who each shared an interest in new ideas in spirituality, scientific discovery and philosophy. The exhibition itself will take the form of vibrant signs, shapes and colours, and visitors will be immersed in these different forms throughout the duration of the display.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG.
Nearest station is Blackfriars.
🎟️ Until September 3 2023. From £20. More info.
20. Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece, British Museum
This major exhibition at the British Museum will explore the relationship between luxury and power in the Middle East and southeast Europe between 550-30 BC. This was a period when the Persian empire of ancient Iran clashed with the cities and kingdoms of Greece before it was conquered by Alexander, king of Macedon, known to history as ‘Alexander the Great’.
Among the exceptional loans to the exhibition is the extraordinary Panagyurishte Treasure from Bulgaria. Accidentally discovered by three brothers way back in 1949, these treasures are outstanding examples of ancient metalworking and demonstrate the influence of Persian and Greek luxury across the Balkans.
British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG.
Nearest stations are Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Russell Square and Goodge Street.
🎟️ Until August 13 2023. From £12. More info.
21. The Spaces In-Between, Outernet
This fantastic (and free!) art exhibition is brought to you by the immersive experience studio Pixel Artworks and visual light artist Rupert Newman at London’s hottest new venue Outernet – the largest digital exhibition space in the whole of Europe.
It consists of three separate artworks: ‘Tessellations’ and ‘Transcendence’ – which will transport visitors through a digital natural world – and ‘A Step Beyond’, where geometric shapes respond to your every body move!
Outernet, Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 8LH.
Nearest station is Tottenham Court Road.
🎟️ Until the foreseeable future. Free! More info.
22. Marcin Dudek: ‘Neoplan’, Edel Assanti
This intriguing exhibition is designed to harnesses the raw energy of a football fan club on the road, who are going to support their team at an away game in a hostile rival city. The imposing shell of a disused and disassembled tour bus runs across the gallery, branded ‘Neoplan’ and painted with the snarling dog logo of Bucharest team FC Dinamo.
Inspired by Polish artist Bronislaw Wojciech Linke’s surrealist painting, Autobus (1959-1961) – which features a city bus overflowing with a slew of nightmarish spectres and human-object hybrids – the bus’s interior is an echo chamber of visceral emotion and collective expression associated with the journey towards match day confrontation.
Edel Assanti, 1B Little Titchfield Street, London, W1W 7BU.
Nearest stations are Goodge Street and Oxford Street.
🎟️ Until September 1 2023. Free! More info.
23. Hardcore at Sadie Coles HQ
Sexuality is a limitless arena, and this intriguing art exhibition is designed to showcase all forms of it – even those aspects that may cause provocation to certain kinds of people. It focuses on 18 artists’ whose works centre on the power dynamics of sex, the diverse nature of intimacy, and our reaction to it. Not one for the faint of heart folks but brilliant nonetheless!
Sadie Coles HQ, 62 Kingly Street, London, W1B 5QN.
Nearest station is Piccadilly Circus.
🎟️ Until August 5 2023. Free! More info.
24. Anselm Kiefer: ‘Finnegans Wake’ at White Cube
Another one of the most exciting art exhibitions coming to London here, this one is certainly unique. It showcases the artist Anselm Kiefer’s new paintings, sculptures and installations, and explores how they respond to, struggle with and transform James Joyce’s novel of 1939. There are fields of rubble and wire, skeletal sunflowers, the DNA helix, the ouroboros snake that eats its own tail – in the words of White Cube themselves, it’s almost as if ‘language itself has become a material, a sculptural medium’.
White Cube Bermondsey, 144 – 152 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3TQ.
Nearest station is London Bridge.
🎟️ Until August 20 2023. Free! More info.
25. Capturing The Moment, Tate Modern
The arrival of photography changed the course of painting forever. In this unique exhibition, we explore the dynamic relationship between the two mediums through some of the most iconic artworks of recent times. From the expressive paintings of Pablo Picasso and Paula Rego, to striking photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto and Jeff Wall, you’ll see how these two distinct mediums have shaped each other over time.
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG.
Nearest station is Blackfriars.
🎟️ From June 13 2023 until January 28 2024. From £20. More info.
26. Martin Wong: Malicious Mischief, Camden Arts Centre
Martin Wong is widely recognised for his extraordinary depictions of social, sexual and political scenographies from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. This upcoming exhibition is designed to weave together narratives of queer existence, marginal communities, and urban gentrification, and Wong stands out as an important countercultural voice at odds with the art establishment’s reactionary discourse at the time. His work offers an important insight into a decisive period of recent American history, as told through its changing urban landscapes and unfolding hidden desires.
Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, London, NW3 6DG.
Nearest station is Finchley Road & Frognal.
🎟️ From June 16 2023 until September 17 2023. Free! More info.
27. A World In Common: Contemporary African Photography, Tate Modern
Bringing together a group of artists from a whole host of different generations, this much-anticipated photography exhibition at the Tate Modern ‘will address how photography, film, audio, and more have been used to reimagine Africa’s diverse cultures and historical narratives‘. Running from July 2023 until January 2024, it’ll reflect aspects of the whole continent and will explore themes of spirituality, identity, urbanism and the climate emergency too. Definitely worth of its place on this art exhibitions roundup then!
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG.
Nearest station is Blackfriars.
🎟️ From July 6 2023 until January 14 2024. Price £17. More info.
28. Marina Abramović, Royal Academy of Arts
Time for a spot of performance art, as pioneering practitioner Marina Abramović once again tests her physical and mental limits in the first major UK exhibition of her work. Like many art exhibitions, however, this one was also delayed by the pandemic.
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD.
Nearest stations are Piccadilly Circus, Green Park, Oxford Circus and Bond Street
🎟️ From September 23 2023 until December 10 2023. Price TBD. More info.
So there you have it – a rundown of some of the best art exhibitions in London. So what are you waiting for culture vultures? Get out there and explore!
Also published on Medium.