London’s Must-See Art Exhibitions Of 2026
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3 weeks ago
Where to get your culture fix in the capital
From the Tates to the Royal Academy and the galleries of Mayfair and the Barbican, London is bursting with exciting art exhibitions at any time of year. Here are the shows not to be missed in 2026.
London’s Best Art Exhibitions 2026
Harland Miller, Design Museum
Harland Miller’s colour saturated show at The Design Museum is a free invitation to luxuriate in the large-scale canvases of his Letter Paintings. It’s as though you’re holding a page of text close to the eye, and the letters and slogans begin to make your head swim. As C&TH discovered last year, Miller’s love of typography runs deep. Thanks to his mother’s work with journalists (she taught young reporters for The Manchester Guardian shorthand and how to type), Miller grew up surrounded by text and the idea of it. These paintings draw on all of this, as well as his obsession with medieval illumination.
Details: Until 25 January 2026 at the Design Museum (224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG). No pre-booking required.
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Richard Avedon: Facing West, Gagosian
Photography fans can plan a double billing thanks to Gagosian: two stand out photography shows are set to run in parallel at two of the super-gallery’s London locations. At Grosvenor Hill there’s the chance to see the master Avedon’s explorations of the American West. Curated by the photographer’s granddaughter Caroline Avedon, Richard Avedon: Facing West is an exhibition of rare prints from the photographic series In the American West (1979–84), his search for subjects across 21 states.
Details: 15 January to 14 March 2026 at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill (20 Grosvenor Hill, London W1K 3QD), open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday.
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Nan Goldin: The Ballad Of Sexual Dependency, Gagosian
At the same time fans can see all 126 photographs from Nan Goldin’s classic photobook The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, first published in 1986. This is the first time the entire body of work has been shown in the UK – not to be missed.
Details: 13 January to 21 March 2026 at Gagosian (17-19 Davies St, London W1K 3DE), open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Saturday.
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NPG 7195 Bella in her Pluto T-Shirt (etching), 1995.
Lucian Freud: Drawing Into Painting, National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery’s spring exhibition Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting is the first museum show to focus on the artist’s works on paper. Twelve new Freuds have recently been acquired by the gallery and will form part of the show, including an etching of his designer daughter Bella.
Details: 12 February to 4 May 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery. Tickets are £23pp.
Tracey Emin, My Bed, 1998 © Tracey Emin. (Courtesy The Saatchi Gallery, London; photograph by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd)
Tracey Emin, Tate Modern
‘My Bed’ entered the national consciousness at 1999’s Turner Prize exhibit at Tate Britain. A quarter of a century on, Dame Tracey Emin at Tate Modern is 2026’s must-see show. Featuring work never previously exhibited, this show jumps back even further than that memorable Turner Prize year to offer a 40 year survey of Emin’s extraordinary career to date. This is the chance to see the artist’s recent visceral paintings in the company of some of her most memorable contributions to the YBA moment and recent art history, whether it’s in neon, embroidered work, text or electrifying video art.
Details: 27 February to 31 August 2026 at the Tate Modern (Bankside, London SE1 9TG). Tickets are £20pp.
David Hockney, London, 2023. (© Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima)
David Hockney: A Year in Normandie And Some Other Thoughts About Painting, Serpentine
It’s the ultimate in spring green inspiration at the Serpentine thanks to its new David Hockney exhibition. Free to all (ideal for families and multiple visits), this is Hockney’s very first Serpentine show. A green retreat within Kensington Gardens, it will include his monumental frieze A Year in Normandie, which explores the seasons at his former studio in France. Partly inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, you can compare it to the real thing in autumn when the 70-metre-long work returns to home soil for the first time in 1,000 years.
Details: 12 March to 23 August 2026 at Serpentine North Gallery (W Carriage Dr, London W2 2AR). Free to visit, but tickets should be booked ahead. Available soon.
The Only Blonde in the World, 1963, Pauline Boty. (© The estate of Pauline Boty/Tate)
Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait, National Portrait Gallery
Happy 100th birthday to Marilyn Monroe. One of the greatest muses of the 20th century, the National Portrait Gallery’s celebration of Monroe’s centenary will explore the model’s creative agency and bring together works by Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton and many more – as well as photographers for whose cameras she conjured pure magic, from Cecil Beaton to Philippe Halsman and Eve Arnold. Now if only Marilyn had sat for Lucian Freud…
Details: 4 June to 6 September 2026 at the National Portrait Gallery. Ticket prices TBC, on sale soon.
Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940. (© Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art/Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas, Austin)
Frida: The Making Of An Icon, Tate Modern
The biggest Kahlo celebration since the V&A’s 2018 show, Frida: The Making of an Icon will be a major moment at the Tate Modern this year. Drawing on her own archives, many of her most famous paintings and more than 80 works by artists she inspired, the Tate show will also serve as a major survey of Frida Kahlo’s life and work. As two major explorations of the role of women artists in culture, Kahlo and Emin make an incredible pairing in Tate’s programming for this year.
Details: 25 June 2026 to 3 January 2027 at the Tate Modern (Bankside, London SE1 9TG). Ticket prices TBC, on sale late January.
La Promenade, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,1870. © J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles)
Renoir And Love, National Gallery
The UK’s most significant exhibition of Renoir for two decades, Renoir and Love will land at the National Gallery this autumn, a joint project with Paris’ Musee D’Orsay (where the exhibition will premiere in spring) and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (where it journey afterwards). The sensuality of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s depictions of affection, seduction and camaraderie and his people watching of crowded theatres and cafés will be gathered in one stunning show – including the classic and gorgeous ‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’ (1876), never seen before in the UK.
Details: 3 October 2026 to 31 January 2027 at the National Gallery. Ticket prices TBC, on sale later this year.
