Every Exhibition To See In London This Autumn
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From 15th Century portraiture to queer fairies, here's what not to miss...
T’is the season! No, not that one, the other one – the one where almost every gallery in London has overhauled its displays and re-opened its doors with sparkling new exhibitions. From 15th century portraits to the mid-century Burkino Faso music scene, surrealist pipes to queer fairies, here’s every exhibition to see in London this Autumn.
The Best Exhibitions In London
Fairyland Parade, Joe Sweeney, Matthew Keller, Harry Keita, Bolly Illusion, James Corbin, Oliver-Bijan Daryoush, Jack Newman, Yos Clark and Joseph O’Rourke, London, 2023, by Tim Walker © Tim Walker
Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends at the National Portrait Gallery
Tim Walker is one of the UK’s most prolific magazine and music photographers – he’s shot the likes of Lady Gaga, Frank Ocean and Rihanna (the latter with her baby, Rocki) and was even behind Harry Styles’ Fine Line album cover. He’s now spent the last five years working on his latest project, Fairyland, which explores queer identity, community and love through a whimsical landscape of freedom and creativity.
WHERE: National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, WC2H 0HE
WHEN: Until 7 February 2027
Juergen Teller, Young Pink Kate, London 1998 © Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
The 90s: Art and Fashion, Tate Britain
If you haven’t spotted Juergen Teller’s photograph of a pink-haired Kate Moss peaking out from behind a crisp white duvet that’s pasted all over London’s buses, tubes and billboards, you must be living under a rock. It’s (literally) the poster child of the Tate Britain’s new exhibition The 90s, curated by Edward Enninful and exploring the pervasive impact that art, fashion and music has had on our culture. Expect Tracy Emin, Alexander McQueen, and Damian Hirst: The 90s is a celebration of a decade in which creativity, chaos and hedonism knew no bounds.
WHERE: Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG
WHEN: Until 14 February 2027
André Derain, Matisse and Terrus, 1905. Oil on canvas, 40.3 x 54.3 cm. Private Collection
Painting the French Riviera, Royal Academy of Art
In the twentieth century, the Cote D’Azur became a hotbed for holidaymakers of the esteemed kind – politicians, celebrities and writers all took to the South of France, in part inspired by the works of the century’s greatest artists. The Royal Academy is bringing this inspiration under one sun-drenched roof, bringing Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Renoir and Klein into a scene of Mediterranean paradise in the heart of London.
WHERE: Royal Academy of Art, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD
WHEN: Until 31 January
‘Hi Tension’, 1979 © Adrian Boot, urbanimage.tv
The Music Is Black: A British Story at V&A East
The V&A East opened earlier this year in Stratford, and its first major exhibition, The Music is Black, is groundbreaking both in its subject and its form. On arrival, you’re presented with a pair of headphones and invited to move through 125 years of Black music, including Jazz, Reggae, 2 Tone, Drum & Bass, Trip Hop, Garage, Grime, celebrating the trailblazing way in which it’s shaped British culture.
WHERE: V&A East, East Bank, 107 Carpenters Rd, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, E20 2AR
WHEN: Until 10 January 2027
La Promenade, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,1870. © J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles)
Renoir & Love, The National Gallery
Described as the most uplifting exhibitions on the current exhibition circuit, Renoir & Love at the National Gallery brings together French impressionist Renoir’s work in all its glory: exploring romance, friendship and joy, it waltzes you through the gardens and dance halls of twentieth century France, and immerses you in the intimacy of its subjects.
WHERE: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN
WHEN: Until 31 January 2027
Gala Mitchell Photographed by Celia Birtwell © Celia Birtwell
Ossie Clarke + Celia Birtwell, The Fashion and Textile Museum
For anyone interested in the music and fashion of the 60s and 70s, and, indeed, the entire 20th century, Ossie Clarke + Celia Birtwell is a must-visit. It charts the visionary designer couple’s journey as they dressed the most photographed celebrities of the era (including the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) and explores how fashion evolves, builds upon itself and circles back – and makes clear Clarke and Birtwell’s enduring impact today.
WHERE: Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3XF
WHEN: Until 11 April 2027
René Magritte, La Lampe philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp), 1936, Oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 26 inches (50 x 66 cm) © 2026 C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Courtesy Private Collection, Brussels, Kingdom of Belgium
This Is Still Not A Pipe: The Afterlife of a Magritte at Gagosian
If the round-the-block queues that circled the Gagosian when this exhibition opened are anything to go by, This Is Still Not A Pipe is not one to miss. Gagosian has brought together Magritte’s work from a range of private collectors and galleries, and is displaying some of his best known pieces, from The Philosopher’s Lamp to The Interpretation of Dreams. The surrealist artist has created some of the most recognised paintings of the 20th century, but be quick: you only have until 12 December to catch it.
WHERE: Gagosian, 20 Grosvenor Hill, W1K 3QD
WHEN: Until 12 December 2026
Sanlé Sory: Colour Years at The Photographer’s Gallery
Sanlé Sory is one of Burkina Faso’s most influential photographers, and over his sixty year career has taken an estimated one million portraits of people, places and political change in the West African country. After cutting his teeth as a documentary photographer shooting the scenes of automobile accidents, he became prolific as a photographer of the Burkinabe club scene in the 60s and 70s. Colour Years brings together some of his lesser-known colour work that has been meticulously restored from the negatives in his archive, alongside his images of the bands, fashion and music that flourished in Burkina Faso after the country’s independence.
WHERE: The Photographer’s Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW
WHEN: Until 21 February 2027
Salman Toor, The Bar on East 13th (2019), Oil on panel, 91.4 x 121.9cm, Private Collection. © Salman Toor; Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo Geneviev
Salman Toor: Someone Like You at The Cortauld Gallery
You’d be forgiven for mistaking the work of New York-based Pakistani painter Salman Toor for something out of the 18th century – in fact, one of his principle works, The Bar on East 13th (2019), explicitly revisits Édouard Manet’s, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882). But while inspired by Baroque, his paintings, he says, “depict queer and immigrant lives that straddle different cultures and inhabit the tension between intimacy and exposure, belonging and estrangement. What it means to find a community, but also the daily costs associated with visibility”.
WHERE: The Cortauld Gallery, Somerset House Strand, London WC2R 1LA
WHEN: Until 10 January 2027
Ana Mendieta, Bird Run 1974. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. DACS 2026. Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London
Ana Mendieta at The Tate Modern
When the Cuban-American multidisciplinary artist Ana Mendieta died in 1985, aged 36, the circumstances were dubious – she’d fallen out of a window, in an act that her husband claimed was suicide, but was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder – after a nonjury trial, he was acquitted. In this light, this in-depth examination of Ana Mendieta’s work, which explores the connections between the body and nature, feel particularly poignant: a mix of sculpture, painting, photography and film, it moves beyond the gallery walls and into the outside world.
WHERE: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
WHEN: Until 17 January
Coming soon…
The Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck, 1434, oil on wood 82.2 × 60 cm, © The National Gallery, London
Van Eyck: The Portraits at The National Gallery
The Netherlandish painter, described as the ‘inventor of oil painting’ changed modern art as we know it. His paintings were the first to use light, perspective and emotion in a way that communicated such a degree of intimacy to its audience, and this new exhibition at the National Gallery brings together Van Eyck’s nine known portraits in Europe – half of his known portraits that exist across the world – to showcase the artist’s ability to breathe over six hundred years of life into his subjects.
WHERE: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN
WHEN: Opens 21 November
Nan Goldin, Joey on David’s bed, Brooklyn, 1999. © Nan Goldin, courtesy the artist and Gagosian.
Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong at The Hayward Gallery
Since the display of her groundbreaking collection of work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, in 1985, Nan Goldin has become one of the world’s most revered photographers. This new solo show displays four of Goldin’s recent films: Memory Lost (2019–2021), Stendhal Syndrome (2024), You never did anything wrong, Part I (2024), and the public debut of You never did anything wrong, Part II (2026) alongside a selection of photos from her archive, and explores the connection between the human, animal and environmental existence.
WHERE: The Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
WHEN: Opens 24 November
Featured image: René Magritte, Le Lieu commun (The Commonplace), 1964, Oil on canvas, 39 3/8 x 31 7/8 inches (100 x 81 cm) © 2026 ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London; Private Collection
