London is, quite frankly, full of art. You’ll find it scattered throughout the city on walls, street corners, and hidden away in quiet courtyards. But, naturally, you’ll also find it celebrated in the city’s many museums and galleries. Thanks to world-famous institutions such as the Tate museums, Somerset House, the V&A, and the National Gallery, our city is home to some pretty impressive artwork. And in addition to their permanent collections, they all host art exhibitions that bring even more stunning pieces to our capital.
But with so many exhibitions to explore, it’s hard to keep track of them all when they arrive. And some even sell out before they open! Fortunately for you, we’ve done the hard work and rounded up the best current and upcoming art exhibitions to check out in 2026.
This stunning Frida Kahlo exhibition celebrates the life of the infamous artist, exploring “the extraordinary story of how Frida Kahlo became one of the most influential artists of all time, a cultural phenomenon, and an internationally recognised commercial icon.” With over 130 items, visitors can dive deep into her fascinating life and career.
The exhibition also looks at Frida’s influence and legacy. It features “over 200 works by her contemporaries and the artists she inspired from later generations”. Alongside these works, visitors can also explore the capitalistic and commercial side of Frida’s fame, with over 200 “commercial objects that encompass her art, image, style and persona.”
🎟️ £25 / Free for Members
This nostalgia-tinged exhibition is dedicated to UK music venues that have sadly shut down. Lost Music Venues highlights the shocking amount of venues that we’ve lost, while celebrating the impact old venues had in their lifespan as hubs for creative expression. The exhibition features over 100 items telling the story of 50 former venues from across the UK.
Notable trinkets include posters, gig ticket stubs, membership cards, and photos of nights at the venues. They even have signage from some of the venues, such as the beloved London Astoria and Manchester’s mythical-status-boasting Haçienda Club. You can also explore recreations of some of the most iconic now-shuttered spots.
🎟️ Free
Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold is one of the largest exhibitions ever dedicated to Ancient Egypt, with over 180 authentic artefacts provided by the Egyptian Museum. It explores the legacy of Ramses II, a 19th-Dynasty king who ruled in the 13th century and was known as the ‘builder pharaoh’ for the large number of temples he commissioned.
Feast your eyes on shimmering gold jewellery and amulets, colossal statues, ancient hieroglyphics, and even animal mummies. These compelling items are all showcased with the special support of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who protect the cultural heritage of Egypt.
🎟️ From £20.84
Ever wondered just where mini golf comes from? Well, this playable exhibition – featuring 9 artist-designed holes – takes you back in time to explore the roots of the game. The curious exhibition, which makes its UK debut here in London, features holes with everything from “strap-on latex animal tails to a 1970s amusement park ride”. Yeah, needless to say, this ain’t your ordinary mini golf experience.
🎟️ From £15
Tracey Emin’s largest-ever exhibition looks back over the artist’s impressive 40-year career. The giant exhibition features some of her most well-known pieces, such as Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made 1996 and the Turner Prize-nominated My Bed 1998. It also displays works that have never been shown to the public before. Altogether, there are more than 90 works to check out across a variety of formats.
🎟️ £22 / Free for Members
The V&A East Museum’s inaugural exhibition is The Music Is Black: A British History, which explores the extraordinary contributions Black British music has made to culture in the UK and around the world.
Spanning over 125 years, the exhibition explores a range of different genres, from jazz to reggae, Drum & Bass, Trip Hop, UK Garage, Grime, and beyond. Highlighting the remarkable contributions of Black British musicians, the exhibition reveals the hidden stories behind some of the early 20th-century pioneers. It also explores international music-makers and today’s groundbreaking artists from Sampha to Little Simz, Tems, Jorja Smith, Ezra Collective, and more.
🎟️ From £9.50
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Aardman, the creators of Wallace & Gromit, this exhibition gives visitors a behind-the-scenes look at their favourite TV pair, as well as characters from the likes of Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and more.
🎟️ £12.50
In a landmark tribute marking the Queen’s centenary, Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style is the most comprehensive exhibition of her wardrobe ever staged. The show traces the monarch’s sartorial journey from childhood to her reign, featuring approximately 200 outfits and accessories – half of which have never been displayed before.
🎟️ From £11
Immerse yourself in the visionary world of M.C. Escher, where logic and dreams intertwine and mathematics meets paradox. After captivating over 20 million visitors worldwide, a major exhibition dedicated to his impossible art has landed in London for the very first time. The exhibition features some of his most famous works, as well as interactive installations. These allow visitors to get up close and personal with the conceptual mechanisms underlying his art. Who knows, you might end up seeing the world with a whole new perspective…
🎟️ From £16.50
This blockbuster new exhibition takes guests back in time to the oceans of 200 million years ago. At the time, “dinosaurs triumphed on land and pterosaurs [ruled] the skies.” But within the ocean’s depths, a different, arguably more fearsome, threat lurked. “Fearsome marine reptiles dominated the oceans… [feasting] on scores of underwater creatures, from intricate ammonites to giant fish – and even each other.”
Among the creatures featured in the exhibition, you’ll come face to face with the likes of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and the terrifying T. rexes of the sea, the mosasaurs.
🎟️ From £15
Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait is a stunning new exhibition, created in association with the Marilyn Monroe estate. The collection will display portraits of the Hollywood icon created by some of the most renowned photographers and artists in the world. Among them are works by the likes of Andy Warhol and Pauline Boty, Marlene Dumas, and James Gill, as well as photographers like Cecil Beaton, Philippe Halsman, Bernard of Hollywood, and many more.
The exhibition is taking place this year to celebrate what would have been the star’s 100th birthday.
🎟️ From £25
If fashion is more your thing than strictly paintings (it’s all art of a different format!), this is a must-visit. Nigo: From Japan with Love is a brilliant next exhibition dedicated to streetwear icon Nigo. Featuring over 700 personal items from the visionary founder, the exhibition charts his journey from Tokyo street culture to the heights of Parisian luxury.
🎟️ From £7.65 / Free for Members
In the worlds of fashion and art, one name that has always bridged the two fields is Elsa Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli was originally a talented painter and sculptor before becoming an inventive and revolutionary designer as she founded the Schiaparelli brand. Over the course of her life, she created wearable art that pushed people’s understandings of what fashion and art could be. And now, her life and legacy are being celebrated with a momentous UK-first-of-its-kind exhibition.
🎟️ From £28
One of London’s most iconic royal palaces is hosting a rare new exhibition exploring the untold story of Queen Victoria’s trailblazing suffragette goddaughter. The Last Princesses of Punjab tells the story of Sophia and the women who shaped her life: her sisters Catherine and Bamba, her mother, her grandmother, and her godmother Queen Victoria.
🎟️ Included in palace admission / Free for Members
Yup, that Jack White of White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather, and, well, Jack White fame. He’s just launched his debut visual art exhibition at Damien Hirst’s Newport gallery. Visitors can see a range of the artist’s work, including sculptures, interactive works, installations, furniture design products, and more. And it’s free to visit!
🎟️ Free
James McNeill Whistler
If you’ve seen ‘Bean’, the marmite-y 90s Mr Bean movie, you’re familiar with James McNeill Whistler’s work. That’s because it’s his infamous ‘Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1’, also known as ‘Whistler’s Mother’, that Mr Bean unwittingly destroys. (Spoiler alert…)
Even if you haven’t seen the film, you’ll likely recognise Whistler’s world-renowned works. So be sure to visit this exhibition, which is Europe’s largest retrospective of James McNeill Whistler in 3 decades. Wander around and find out just how many of his works you recognise.
🎟️ £24 / Free for Members
Fancy a journey back in time? We can’t direct you to a time machine, but we can direct you to the Timewalk exhibition, which is the next best thing. Viewers are invited to journey through centuries of human history. Along the way, they’ll discover 4,000-year-old civilisations lost to time. The immersive exhibition is brought to life with spellbinding visuals, atmospheric soundscapes, illuminating sculptures and interactive elements, promising a dynamic and engaging exploration.
🎟️ From £22.70
When the Queer Britain museum reopened earlier this year, it did so with all-new exhibitions and gallery displays. These highlight queer stories that range across music, football, LGBTQ+ activism, and more. They also announced upcoming exhibitions, such as the limited-time Trans is Human show.
The exhibition will feature portraits by renowned photographer Mariano Vivanco. They will celebrate “thirteen inspiring, familiar and very ordinary transgender people from across the UK.”
🎟️ Pay what you can
A contender for the most-anticipated exhibition to hit the city, the upcoming Bayeux Tapestry exhibition recently commanded online ticket queues akin to Glastonbury ticket releases! Some found themselves in multiple-hour-long waiting rooms in hopes of securing the chance to see the incredible sight.
The exhibition is a homecoming of sorts for the ancient artefact. It’s returning to the UK for the first time since it was created – almost 1,000 years ago!
🎟️ From £25
An impressive new art exhibition is set to hit The British Museum later this year, with a stunning showcase of Korean art and culture. Featuring pieces that have never been seen before in the UK, Korea will feature “outstanding examples of sculpture, painting and decorative arts over two millennia – up to the present day”. The items have largely come from the National Museum of Korea (NMK) and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), and range across more than 2,000 years of creativity.
🎟️ From £14 / Free for Members
This show will be the biggest collection of Renoir’s work in the UK since the last National Gallery run in 2007. It’s made up of a series of loans of his classic painting, which includes his seminal Bal au Moulin de la Galette (1876), which usually lives in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It marks the first time this work has ever gone on display in the UK, so make the most of this chance if you’re into your Renoir.
Renoir and Love has been put together through a partnenship between the d’Orsay and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and focuses on Renoir’s work between the mid-1860s and the mid-1880s. In total, there will be more than 50 works at the exhibition.
🎟️ Pricing to be confirmed / Free for Members
For many, the 90s are a decade clouded in a haze of nostalgia, accompanied by blurry photos and half-remembered events. But one of London’s leading museums is attempting to define that indefinable time with an exhibition that will transport us back in time to the much-discussed era.
Curated by Edward Enninful OBE, who has shaped much of contemporary fashion for the past three decades, the exhibition will attempt to condense the intangible feeling that the 90s provoke. Just what was it that sparked such a wave of creativity and collaboration that had such an impact on British culture? Find out later this year…
🎟️ £22 / Free for Members
Okay, sure, we’re looking pretty far into the future for this one – but this year is already passing in the blink of an eye. And before you know it, the new Monet exhibition will have opened. The 2027 show will be the Tate Modern’s first exhibition devoted to the beloved artist. And it’s set to be a truly magnificent collection of his works. The exhibition will feature “paintings from lenders across the globe, including rarely seen works from private collections.”
For many of the artworks, this exhibition could be your only chance to see them in person!
🎟️ Pricing to be confirmed / Free for Members
