Hackney Art Week is back. Running from 4 to 14 June 2026, the festival turns one of London’s most densely creative boroughs into ten days of exhibitions, open studios, performances, workshops, talks, and the kind of art-meets-community programming that larger, better-funded events rarely pull off with any authenticity. Founded by Hackney residents Lisa Baker and Anna McHugh, the festival brings together more than 130 artists across 60 venues spanning Dalston, Clapton, London Fields, De Beauvoir, Stoke Newington, Haggerston and Hackney Wick.
This is not an art fair, and it is not trying to be. The venues are cafés, pubs, bakeries, record shops, public spaces and artist-run rooms, the kind of places where art sits alongside ordinary life rather than being cordoned off from it. That’s the point, really. The festival exists to create opportunities for artists while building genuine connections with local audiences, and this year’s programming reflects that dual ambition with real substance.
The opening is at the Rose Lipman Building in De Beauvoir, the Brutalist landmark that always delivers well for events like this. The programme there centres on female-led artists, curators and photographers, with works by Amelia Troubridge, Katie King, Thelma Speirs and CA Halpin, alongside performances from experimental collective EXPORT IMPORT—a strong start.
Over at The Old Bath House, curator Mei Hui Liu presents an Asian art and food programme through ESEACC, combining exhibitions, film screenings, a curated market, and dumpling pop-ups. Artists include Jun Jun, Bee Dwo Lin, Kelly Kiwi, Berlinda Chen and Ivy Mei. The combination of food and art programming can feel forced when poorly executed, but Liu has a good track record with this kind of thing, and the venue suits it well.
Community participation runs through the whole programme, but A Place at the Table is the kind of project that actually earns that description. Led by artist Henny Beaumont and ceramicist Brigit Connolly, it brings together residents and young people with learning disabilities through collaborative ceramics workshops and a public market. Rosie Storey’s The Art of Noticing, a writing workshop, takes a slower approach, asking participants to pay more careful attention to the world immediately around them. Both feel like genuine additions to the neighbourhood rather than parachuted-in additions.
Out in public space, multidisciplinary artist Claudi Panaite transforms Wilton Way with a large-scale outdoor projection, and Holly-Anne Buck’s Collagism Art Hunt scatters artworks through bakeries, cinemas and unexpected corners of London Fields in what amounts to a borough-wide treasure hunt—good idea, well placed.
Photography has a strong presence this year. Tara Darby, nominated for the National Portrait Gallery Portrait Award, makes her debut with The White Cage, a photographic installation built around one of Hackney’s last remaining gang-neutral football spaces. GG the Illustrator presents work documenting the borough’s council estates and working-class communities. Both feel rooted in something real.
Hackney Art Week runs from 4 to 14 June 2026. Full programme at hackneyartweek.co.uk.
New Programming Announced
More than 130 artists and creatives across 60 Hackney venues
Second, a bigger edition of Hackney Art Week follows the breakout first year, 4-14 June 2026 – Across Hackney, London
Venues including Rio Cinema, Chats Palace, The Rose Lipman Building, St Augustine’s Tower, ESEACC at The Old Bath House and more…
Art, music and culture spill across Hackney — from ceramics markets, sound systems and outdoor projections to unexpected art installations, sculptures, and exhibitions throughout the borough.
Free and open to all.
Returning in summer 2026, Hackney Art Week is a borough-wide celebration of contemporary creativity, bringing together more than 130 artists and creatives across 60 venues in one of London’s most dynamic cultural areas. Founded in 2025 by Hackney residents Lisa Baker and Anna McHugh, the festival unfolds across Dalston, Clapton, London Fields, De Beauvoir, Stoke Newington, Haggerston, and Hackney Wick — transforming the borough into a network of cultural moments.
Far from a traditional art week, Hackney becomes a loose constellation of happenings. Markets, exhibitions, murals, workshops — popping up across studios, streets and neighbourhood spaces, where exhibitions, food, music and performance intersect in unexpected ways. Across ten days, the borough’s creative scene moves outwards — into Brutalist buildings, hidden galleries, public spaces, shops, and late-night venues — creating a programme that unfolds across the borough.
Highlights:
• PINK CHAOS — Prokofiev Studio, 1–9 June
A maximalist group exhibition curated by Mei-Hui Liu, bringing together more than 30 artists and over 100 works spanning sculpture, painting, fashion, photography, installation, and performance — all through a bold, unapologetically pink lens. Featuring artists including Alex Box, Andrew Logan, Babak Ganjei, Roxana Halls, Philip Colbert, Tatty Devine and Pandemonia, the exhibition blends East London nightlife energy with radical self-expression and excess. Opens 2 June with a pink-themed launch party: dress code pink; password “Pink”.
• VERTICAL RESISTANCE — St Augustine’s Tower 2-14 June
Curated by Paola Lucente inside one of Hackney’s oldest surviving buildings dating back to 1275, this site-specific exhibition unfolds through the Tower’s vertical architecture with works exploring endurance, transformation and memory. Featuring sculpture, textile, sound and installation by seven Hackney-based artists alongside workshops, live performance and late openings.
• PEOPLE OF HACKNEY — Pop-up photo booth on London Fields – weekends
Portrait of Britain-winning photographer Jennifer Forward Hayter hosts a free public pop-up photo booth capturing the faces of East London during Hackney Art Week weekends. Visitors receive their own portrait while contributing to People of Hackney, an evolving photographic archive celebrating the communities, characters and everyday life that define the borough.
• THE QUEEN ADELAIDE TAKEOVER — Hackney Central
Hackney Art Week expands into East London nightlife with programming at legendary queer pub The Queen Adelaide. Events include the official Friday afterparty alongside exhibitions, DJs, tattoos, tarot, merch, and queer-led programming from Taylor Silk, Anka Dabrowska, and Stav B, curated by Ryan Coleman Connolly, celebrating Pride Month, fetish culture, and trans visibility.
• DREAM DINNER TABLES — Tonkotsu East, 6 June
Artist Annie Frost Nicholson joins food writer and stylist Rosie French for a conversation exploring painting, cooking and memory as spaces of refuge, imagination and connection. Taking place at Tonkotsu East, the event examines how food and art can evoke dreamlike interiors, imagined guests and otherworldly experiences — positioning creative practice as an antidote in times of global crisis. (Ticketed).
• WALKING SCORES FOR HACKNEY —Clapton Commons
Artist and researcher Clare Qualmann presents a participatory series of walks, prompts, and “scores” that encourage audiences to rediscover Hackney through movement, observation, and chance encounters. Rooted in walking art and collective experience, the project invites audiences to engage differently with the borough’s streets and public spaces.
• MANAL MASSALHA — Dalston Curve Garden
Hackney-based photographer and visual storyteller Manal Massalha presents work exploring community, coexistence and “everyday conviviality” through participatory image-making rooted in Hackney’s shared spaces and social fabric. For Hackney Art Week, she shows her work in the much-loved Dalston Curve Garden.
• GG THE ILLUSTRATOR — Estate of Mind at The Cannery
London-based artist GG the Illustrator presents Estate of Mind, a solo exhibition drawn from her ongoing visual archive of council estates, including Hackney’s Morland Estate. Working across acrylic, watercolour and digital illustration, GG documents working-class neighbourhoods and everyday life as they undergo rapid transformation. Her intricately observed paintings preserve places often overlooked, exploring questions of class, memory and representation within the contemporary art world.
• FROM HACKNEY, WITH LOVE — Richard Yeboah at The Cannery
Hackney-born writer, public servant and historian Richard Yeboah presents a talk exploring themes from his 2025 book From Hackney, With Love: An Intimate History of Gentrification. Combining memoir, local history and political reflection, the work examines the social impact of gentrification on Hackney’s communities, past and present. Richard will speak at The Cannery on Sunday, 3 June at 3 pm.
• STEPHEN ELLCOCK AND JOHN MARCHANT ON JAMIE REID — Strongroom
Hackney Art Week and Strongroom present a special conversation between Stephen Ellcock and John Marchant of the Jamie Reid Archive, joined by artist and curator Anne McCloy. Exploring the work and cultural legacy of Jamie Reid — whose iconic graphics helped define the Sex Pistols’ visual identity — the discussion traces Reid’s practice across art, music and political culture. Mike Nichols will also share first-hand insight into the creation of Strongroom’s legendary interiors, developed with Jamie Reid over a fifteen-year collaboration often described as one of the artist’s proudest projects. (Free, ticketed).
• LIAQAT RASUL — Dalston & Clapton
London-based collage artist Liaqat Rasul presents richly layered works that explore South Asian migration, labour, social history, and collective memory through archival imagery and found materials.
ALSO FEATURED ACROSS THE FESTIVAL:
• ROSE LIPMAN WAS HERE — The Rose Lipman Building
A major opening night takeover on 3 June featuring female-led curators, installations, live performance and photography from Anne McCloy, Amelia Troubridge, Katie King, Thelma Speirs and CA Halpin.
• THE WHITE CAGE — Tara Darby at Homerton Library
A powerful photography exhibition from NPG Portrait Award nominee Tara Darby exploring youth, football and belonging in Hackney. The White Cage – the Regent’s Estate football pitch – is one of Hackney’s last remaining gang-neutral spaces. Through intimate portraits and lived stories, the work follows the kids, mentors and families who rely on the cage as a place of freedom, discipline and escape.
• COLLAGISM™ ART HUNT — Across Hackney
A borough-wide immersive art treasure hunt unfolding through bakeries, cinemas and hidden locations.
• DALSTON CULTURAL QUARTER TAKEOVER — 6–7 June
Open studios, ceramics markets, workshops and music across Ashwin Street.
• ESEACC AT THE OLD BATH HOUSE — 6–7 June
An Asian art and food-led programme curated by Mei Hui Liu featuring exhibitions, markets and dumpling pop-ups. Artists include Kelly Kiwi and Anni Hung.
• CLOSING PARTY AT UNLOCK — 14 June
Composer and Nonclassical founder Gabriel Prokofiev performs live at Unlock, Hackney Wick, for the festival closing event, which also features poetry from Sammi Gale, performances from Flown, Martin Samways and art from Jay Yeomans, Russell Bamber and Hunaid Natalia.
CURATORS & PRODUCERS
Anne McCloy, Caroline McCambridge, Indy Calland, Maria Guy, Mei Hui Liu, Ryan Coleman Connolly.
ARTISTS:
Aiko & Werner, Aileen Kelly, Alex Booker, Alex Economopoulos, Alex Heim, Amelia Troubridge, Ana Genovés, Andrea Hasler, Andrew Logan, Amanda Benson, Annabelle Harty (Arrange Whatever Pieces Come Your Way), Anka Dabrowska, Anne McCloy, Annie Frost Nicholson, Arlette Ess, Aya Fukami, Babak Ganjei, Bee Dwo Lin, Ben Smith, Benjamin Blanc, Belinda Worsley, Berlinda Chen, Bloody Bishop, Brigit Connolly, CA Halpin, Caroline Bugby, Caroline McCambridge, Cecilia Reeve, Cécile Emmanuelle Borra (CUNTINA COUTURE), Chelsea Berlin, Chris Bianchi, Claudi Panaite, Codi Hardcastle, Coco Lom, CollagismTM, David Hughes, Davies Monaghan Klein, Diogo Gama, Ed Bridges, Emma Turpin, Emily Tracy, Etienne Clément, Export Import, Francesca Van Haverbeke, Francis Visagie-Brooks, Flown, Gabriel Prokofiev, Gabrielle Z Travis, Georgia Kinsella, GG the Illustrator, Gianluca Bonomo, Giles Edwards, GREYGREY, Hayley Reynolds-MacLean, Henny Beaumont, Henny Burnett, Herve Constant, Hettie Judah, Hunaid Nagaria, Imogen Head, Isha Bøhling, Ivy Mei, Jay Yeomans, Janet Platt, Jeanne Gourlaouen, Jennifer Forward-Hayter, Jeremy Hutchison, Jenny Lewis, John Marchant, Jonathan Schofield, Jordan Hearns, Josephine Bourdariat, JR Chuo, Jun Jun, Karen Thomas, Kat Five, Kate Lyddon, Katie King, Katy Binks, Kelly Kiwi, Kim Golding, Kurtis Lincoln, Kwasi Awotwi, Lakwena Maciver, Liaqat Rasul, Lindsay Mapes, Louisa Tan, Louise Boughton, Love Infinity (Tim Yip), Lucie Jelfs, Lucy Muss, Manal Massalha, Mariot Berg, Martin Samways, Martina O’Shea, Max Allen, Max Petts, Natalie Webb, Nicola Hepworth, Nikki Edwards, Ornella Novello, Pandemonia, Pat Dam Smyth, Patterngarden, Paula Parole, PomagranArt, Richard Yeboah, Rosanna Dean, Rosie Storey, Roxy Lee, Roxana Halls, Sam Shaw, Sammi Gale, Simon Gray, Sophie Turner, Sisetta Zappone, SomeProduct, Stephen Ellcock, Stav Bee, Stephen Harwood, Sue Dray, Tara Darby, Taylor Silk, Tessa Garland, Thelma Speirs, Vedika Lall, Victoria Caution, Victoria Ruiz, Visa Reason, Walking Scores, Womanewer, YiMiao Shih.
VENUES:
Albers, Alex Booker Studio, Autofoto, Batsford Gallery & Bookshop, Beck Road Studios, Bootstrap Charity, Café OTO, Chats Palace, Clapton Commons, Climpsons & Sons, Clissold Park Tavern, Dalston Curve Gardens, De Beauvoir Deli Café, Dogsnug, Donlon Books, e5Bakehouse, Elephant, ESEACC at The Old Bath House, Everybody Lives Gallery, Eyes of Stokey, Findlay Property, Finch Gallery, Forno, Glasshouse Contemporary, Hackney CVS, Herve Constant Studio, Homerton Library, Leigh’s London, Malavenda, Mare Street Market, Numbers Wine, Perk, Prokofiev Studio, Retrouvé Broadway Market, Shine on the Green, Space Studios, St Augustine’s Tower, Strongroom, The Cannery, The Clarence Tavern, The Hornecker Centre, The Lanterna, The Lauriston, The Luminary Bakery, The Prince George, The Queen Adelaide, The Rio Cinema, The Rose Lipman Building, The Scolt Head, Tonkotsu, Toppers of Hackney, Unlock Pizza, V22, We The Conscious, Wilton Way Deli, Wilton Way Gallery.
Locations:
Dalston, De Beauvoir, Clapton, London Fields, Hackney Wick, Haggerston, Stoke Newington hackneyartweek.com / @hackneyartweek
Top Photo: P C Robinson © Artlyst 2026