This Spring museums and galleries outside of London and across the UK will host a variety of major exhibitions. 2026 is the 250th anniversary of John Constable and his birth county Suffolk celebrates the occasion with a year-long programme starting with two exhibitions this Spring. The Gwen John exhibition continues its UK tour, Frank Bowling opens at The Fitzwilliam, Cambridge, Joan Eardley in Edinburgh and Paula Rego at Newlands House & Gallery. See the full Artlyst guide below.
The Pilgrim by Gwen John. Photo credit – Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Gwen John: Strange Beauties
National Museum Cardiff
7 February – 28 June 2026
Gwen John is one of Wales’ most extraordinary artists. She saw the world differently — quietly, attentively, and with extraordinary depth. That difference shaped everything: her subjects, her method, her colours, her words, her work.nGwen John: Strange Beauties is a once-in-a-generation exhibition, bringing together rarely seen works from Amgueddfa Cymru and collections from around the world to celebrate her 150th birthday. It is the first major collection of her work in over forty years.
It tells Gwen’s story as it’s never been told before — revealing new ways of seeing her life and art and celebrating an artist whose vision still feels strikingly modern today.
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© Andy Hollingworth
I Photograph Comedians! Photography by Andy Hollingworth
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
18 Feb – 31 May
I photograph comedians! is a major photographic exhibition of some of the UK’s comedy legends past and present by British photographer Andy Hollingworth. The exhibition features nearly 80 images, including studio portraits, rare contemplative moments off-stage and live stage performances. It also features comedy memorabilia including a signed pair of Rik Mayall’s underpants and photographs of iconic objects such as Billy Connolly’s banana boots. The show celebrates comedy legends including Ken Dodd, Sean Lock, Rik Mayall and Victoria Wood. As well as portraits of current, established and rising stars, such as Maisie Adam, Rhod Gilbert, Rosie Jones, Sarah Millican and Paul Smith.
£9
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Frank Bowling, left: Swan 1964, right: Potarospray 1980
Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime
27 March 2026 – 17 January 2027
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
One of the most important British artists working today, Frank Bowling has, for over six decades, relentlessly pursued a practice that boldly expands the possibilities and properties of paint. The Fitzwilliam will present a career-spanning survey of Bowling’s work, bringing together figurative pieces from the early 1960s, poured works from the 1970s and concluding with a significant new painting, Untitled Map Painting 2 (2025).
Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime offers a rare opportunity to see the breadth of Bowling’s career, from his earlier figurative works from the 1960s to the dramatic, abstract paintings that the artist is best known for today.
Free
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Vivienne Westwood
Vivienne Westwood: Rebel – Storyteller – Visionary
Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
28 March – 6 September 2026
A multi-gallery exhibition honouring one of fashion’s most provocative and imaginative British designers, Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022). Spanning the early 1980s to 2000s, the show charts Westwood’s extraordinary journey following the rebellious energy of punk from her early partnership with Malcolm McLaren (1946–2010), to her reinvention of historical dress and couture in the 1980s and ’90s.
Featuring many pieces from rarely seen private collections, Vivienne Westwood: Rebel – Storyteller – Visionary offers an unprecedented glimpse into Westwood’s artistry, one that defied convention and challenged the fashion world. Uncover the making of Westwood’s work through mock-up calico toiles and digitally deconstructed garments, alongside complete ensembles that unfold chronologically, paired with historic objects from The Bowes Museum’s own collection.
Day ticket: £20
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Walter Sickert, Ennui, unframed Courtesy Piano Nobile
Walter Sickert: Working Notes
Charleston Lewes
2 May–11 October 2026
Discover a fresh perspective on Walter Sickert, one of the most provocative figures in early twentieth-century British art.
Focusing on his works on paper, including drawings and prints, it reveals an artist deeply engaged with repetition and translation in his quest to create extraordinary works carrying the uneasy charge of everyday life. For Sickert, drawing and print were not secondary to painting but central ways of thinking through modern experience. Exhibition created in partnership with Piano Nobile.
£8
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Paula Rego
Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature
Newlands House Gallery
22 May to 06 September 2026
Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature presents a major body of work by one of the most significant figurative artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Developed by Hayward Gallery Touring, the exhibition explores Rego’s lifelong engagement with storytelling and literature through printmaking. One of the great printmakers and storytellers of our time, Paula Rego drew inspiration from a vast range of sources – from traditional folklore and fairy tales, to literary classics and nursery rhymes.
Adults (16 years and over): £14.50
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Norman Ackroyd
Norman Ackroyd: The Transience of Light
Victoria Art Gallery Bath
22 May 2026 to 6 September 2026
An exhibition celebrating the artist and master printmaker Norman Ackroyd CBE RA (1938-2024).Spanning five decades of practice, this exhibition brings together Ackroyd’s spectacular etchings from the 1980s onwards, with a focus on how he portrayed natural light with exceptional finesse. From subtle refracted rainbows in early works, to dramatic contrasts, hazy skies and glimmering vistas, his ability to capture the atmosphere of a place in print was unparalleled. Curated with his studio manager and family, who have contributed their unique insight to Ackroyd’s remarkable life and work.
£9
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Joan Eardley courtesy the Estate of the artist
Joan Eardley | The Nature of Painting
National Galleries of Scotland, Modern Two
2 April – 28 June 2026
Often thought of as an isolated figure, Joan Eardley | The Nature of Painting offers a unique opportunity to look at how the much-loved artist engaged with the world and artists around her. Discover Eardley’s oil paintings alongside a selection of works from Scotland’s world class national collection by artists such as John Constable, Claude Monet, contemporaries such as Jean Dubuffet and Antoni Tàpies, and closer to home Scottish artists from William McTaggart to Bet Low. Joan Eardley | The Nature of Painting takes a fresh look at the artist’s work in a wider context. Offering a rare insight into how Eardley viewed artists both of and before her time, discover the artistic synergies between their work.
Free
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John Constable (1776–1837) The Leaping Horse, 1825, © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London
Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited
Constable 250
As part of the 250th anniversary of John Constable’s birth, two exhibitions in Suffolk celebrate the artist.
Gainsborough, Turner and Constable
Gainsborough House, Sudbury, Suffolk
25 April – 11 October 2026
For Constable 250 the main exhibition at Gainsborough’s House will explore the emergence of landscape painting in Britain as led by three of its greatest exponents: Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88), JMW Turner (1775-1851) and John Constable (1776-1837). It will feature over 40 oil paintings, watercolours and drawings, mainly from private collections and therefore rarely seen, by Gainsborough, Turner and Constable, but also by their contemporaries, including the likes of Alexander Cozens (1717-86), Francis Towne (1738-1816) and Thomas Girtin (1775-1802). It will also include several works by their European forerunners, such as Antonio Joli (1700-77) and Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-89).
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Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
Constable: A Cast of Characters
Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
28 March – 14 June 2026
Constable: A Cast of Characters will introduce visitors to the people who inspired and supported the artist, including works by Suffolk artists Thomas Gainsborough and George Frost and lesser-known artists in the Colchester + Ipswich Museums collections.
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