We’re now fully into winter and for a real full-on art attack, London has got you well and truly 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!
1. 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 April 28 2024. Price £10. More info.
2. Delight: Media Art Exhibition, Borough Yards
As if Borough Yards wasn’t enough of a vibrant destination already, the district is now home to Delight – ‘an innovative media art exhibition that provides a fresh and creative interpretation of urban city life‘. You can discover 25 immersive and interactive art installations thanks to the use of cutting-edge technology. Visuals, sounds, lighting, and more are coming together to capture the realities of cities worldwide, including reflections on Seoul’s culture and people. Cop your tickets here.
Borough Yards, London
Nearest stations are London Bridge, Borough, and Southwark
🎟️ Until April 30 2024. From £12.30.
3. The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks, Lightroom
Ever wanted to go to space with the legendary, two-time Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks? Well now you can with this fantastic new exhibition, which ‘offers a unique new perspective on humankind’s past and future voyages to the moon‘. Hanks himself narrates it, and he’ll be giving you an insight into all the different Apollo missions in intimate detail. Of course this being Lightroom in King’s Cross, you can also expect some pretty epic projections and installations! This ain’t one to miss out on folks…
Lightroom, 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, London, N1C 4DY.
Nearest station is Kings Cross St Pancras.
🎟️ Until April 21 2024. Price £25. More info.
4. 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 Street and Aldgate East.
🎟️ Until April 14 2024. Price from £18.
5. Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads, The Courtauld Gallery
This is the first time Auerbach’s extraordinary post-war drawings, made in the 1950s and early 1960s, have been brought together in a comprehensive collection. They will be shown together with a selection of paintings he made of the same sitters; for him, painting and drawing have always been deeply entwined. The markings of this vigorous process are evident in the finished drawings which can be seen to be richly textured and layered. The characters of the drawings represent the time as people were remaking their lives after the destruction caused by the war.
Frank Auerbach: The Charcoal Heads is being showcased at the Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN.
Nearest station is Temple.
🎟️ Until May 27 2024. Price from £14.
6. WOMEN IN REVOLT! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990, Tate Britain
The very first of its kind in the UK, this exhibition is a wide-ranging exploration of feminist art by over 100 women artists working throughout the entirety of the UK. It explores the new wave of feminism which emerged from the 1970s and 80s, where omen used their lived experiences to create art, from painting and photography to film and performance, to fight against the injustice they were facing. Issues tackled throughout the exhibition include a stand for reproductive rights, equal pay and race equality too, so this is definitely well worth paying a visit to!
WOMEN IN REVOLT! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990 is playing at the Tate Britain, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG.
Nearest station is Pimlico.
🎟️ Until April 7 2024. Price from £17.
7. 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.
🎟️ Until April 28 2024. From £20. More info.
8. Douglas Gordon: ‘All I need is a little bit of everything,’ Gagosian Gallery
All I need is a little bit of everything features numerous text works translated for the first time into multiple languages. The exhibition also features the encyclopedic installation Pretty much every film and video work from about 1992 until now… (1999–) and a new work, 2023EastWestGirlsBoys (2023), which reflects on the artist’s memories of London’s Soho. Drawing from a variety of inspiration such as literature, cinema and pop culture – Gordon examines individual collection memory by making reference to his own, asking moral and ethical questions while investigating the physical and mental state.
📍 Gagosian Gallery, 20 Grosvenor Hill, London W1K 3GD.
🚇 Nearest station is Bond Street.
🎟️ Until March 15 2024. Free. More information here.
9. And the Winner is…, 45 Park Lane
To celebrate awards season, iconic celebrity photographer Andy Gotts has curated a new exhibition exclusively for 45 Park Lane. Drawn from across 30 years of his work, these are his favourite portraits of accolade-winning actors Robert Di Niro, Rami Malek, Olivia Coleman… you name it.
45 Park Lane, 45 Park Lane, London W1K 1PN.
Nearest station is Green Park.
🎟️ Until May 16 2024. More information here.
10. Mantegna: The Triumphs of Caesar, National Gallery
Considered to be among the finest achievements in Italian Renaissance art, a total of nine exquisite canvases were painted by legendary artist Andrea Mantegna in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. For the first time ever, six of them are leaving their Royal palace abode, the UNESCO-listed Hampton Court, while the Mantegna Gallery is under renovations. This means dear reader that you can get to see them with zone one – in none other than the National Gallery we might add – plus, it’s free to enter! Win, win.
The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, WC2N 5DN.
Nearest station is Charing Cross.
🎟️ Until 2026. Free! More info.
11. Zineb Sedira: ‘Dreams Have No Titles,’ Whitechapel Gallery
Zineb Sedira’s Dreams Have No Titles addresses the turning point in the history of cultural and avant-garde film production in the ’60s and ’70s in countries such as France, Italy and Algeria. Sedira blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality with the use of cinema and performance to foreground the importance of “collective shared experiences” while also aiming to raise a word of caution about “the failure of the emancipatory dream,” a promise which for many people remains an unfulfilled dream. Originally a film, the Gallery space will be turned into a series of film sets.
Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX.
Nearest station is Aldgate East.
🎟️ Until May 12 2024. Price £12.50. More information here.
12. Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You, Serpentine Gallery
Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. at the Serpentine is Kruger’s first solo show in London in over 20 years. It features a unique selection of installations alongside moving image works and soundscapes. The immersive video installation explores contemporary modes of creating and consuming content online. Kruger also combines text, audio clips, and an archive of images and memes from the Internet, ranging from blurred-out selfies to animated photos of cats.
Kensington Gardens, London, W2 3XA.
Nearest station is Knightsbridge.
🎟️ Until March 17 2024. Free. More information here.
13. DIVA, V&A
Certainly one of the best art exhibitions running at the moment in our beloved capital we’d argue… The immersive, audio-visual exhibition ‘DIVA’ will span two centuries and celebrate the trailblazing performers who have broken boundaries, challenged the status quo, and used their voices and platforms to encourage social and political change.
The exhibition will showcase 60 different looks and more than 250 objects and artefacts (from fashion and photography to costume and design) and will be accompanied by a captivating audio journey that will be triggered (through a pair of elegant headphones, might we add) as visitors move between the displays, making it a truly sensory experience. The exhibit will be spread across three acts: “Act One is the history, Act Two is the thematic, and Act Three brings together the stars” shares Kate Bailey – curator of the exhibit.
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL.
Nearest station is South Kensington.
🎟️ Until April 7 2024. From £20. More info.
14. Impressionists on Paper – Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec, Royal Academy of the Arts
This rich exhibition brings together 77 different works on paper by leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists – including Degas, Cézanne, Morisot and Van Gogh. As the name suggests, this one isn’t about paintings, but more the drawings, pastels, watercolours, temperas and gouaches on which these landmark artists helped pave the way for later movements like Abstract Expressionism.
Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD.
Nearest stations are Piccadilly Circus and Green Park.
🎟️ Until March 10 2024. From £19. More info.
15. Philip Guston, Tate Modern
For well over 50 years now, acclaimed artist Philip Guston restlessly made paintings and drawings that captured the anxious and turbulent world in which he was witnessing. Themes touched on in his paintings include racism in America and wars abroad, and this exhibition is designed to ‘explore how his paintings bridged the personal and the political, the abstract and the figurative, the humorous and the tragic‘. It’s the first of its kind in the UK for over 20 years now, so this one is well worth a visit!
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG.
Nearest station is Blackfriars.
🎟️ Until February 25 2024. Price £20. More info.
16. Holbein at the Tudor Court, The Queen’s Gallery
Hans Holbein was considered one of the most talented artists of the 16th century – he painted none other than Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas Moore after all. This fascinating exhibition at none other than Buckingham Palace showcases one of the most important surviving collections of his work, and includes drawings, paintings, miniatures and book illustrations too. This is one you really don’t want to miss!
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, SW1A 1AA.
Nearest stations are Victoria and St. James’s Park.
🎟️ Until April 14 2024. Price £17. More info.
17. Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, V&A
Last but by no means least is this humdinger of an exhibition, which is running at South Kensington’s prestigious V&A Museum until the end of February. It’s the first exhibition ever in the UK which is dedicated solely to the legendary French couturière, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, and will explore her rise to fame and the the establishment of the iconic ‘House of Chanel’ which influences women’s clothing to this very day.
V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
Nearest station is South Kensington.
🎟️ Until February 25 2024 Price £24. More info.
So there you have it – a rundown of some of the best art exhibitions in London for 2024. So what are you waiting for culture vultures? Get out there and explore!
Also published on Medium.