What’s On

One of the most influential artists of our time, Anish Kapoor returns to the Hayward Gallery, where he staged his first major UK survey almost 30 years ago.

Kapoor’s exhibition fills the entire gallery building with a series of immersive works, many of which press against the gallery walls and floors or descend from the ceiling to create an uncanny sensation of awe and wonder.

The exhibition features works from many of Kapoor’s most iconic series: flawless steel mirror sculptures that warp, distort and disorient; mysterious objects coated in Vantablack – the blackest known substance in the world – that mystify us with their extraordinary light-absorbing properties; and seemingly depthless voids opening within the gallery, drawing us in with a thrilling sense of vertigo.

The exhibition also introduces dramatic recent works: visceral paintings and sculptures that confront us with the fragility of human existence.

In addition, the artist presents several new works that appear to turn the world inside out and upside down, including a pair of monumental installations in the artist’s signature red.

Part of Hayward Gallery’s 75th anniversary celebrations, the exhibition is curated by Ralph Rugoff, marking his final show as Director of the Hayward Gallery after 20 years in the role.

Over his decades-long career, Kapoor has become known for ambitious, large-scale works such as the breathtaking Sky Mirror and Chicago’s Cloud Gate (known as The Bean).

£22

Tue – Fri, 10am – 6pm
Sat, 10am – 8pm
Sun, 10am – 6pm

The Royal Academy of Arts presents the 258th Summer Exhibition, a unique celebration of contemporary art and architecture, providing a vital platform and support for the artistic community.

The exhibition will feature over 1500 artworks, the majority of which will be available to buy. Sales will directly support the exhibiting artists and the RA’s charitable work, including training the next generation of artists at the Royal Academy Schools.

Internationally acclaimed artist and Royal Academician Ryan Gander has co-ordinated this year’s Summer Exhibition and, with the Summer Exhibition Committee, will explore the theme of ‘Interconnectedness’. This year, the Royal Academy is celebrating 20 years of Insight Investment sponsoring the Summer Exhibition. In line with the theme, art works in different media, including architecture, print, painting and sculpture, will be integrated throughout the exhibition, creating conversations with each other rather than being confined to their own spaces. Gander has introduced an exhibition device to connect each room in the exhibition and create cohesion; a horizontal line that travels at eye level around the walls of the galleries. This line will sit two metres above the floor, with artworks being placed above or below it.

£23.50-£25.50 (including donation)

Tues-Sun 10am-6pm

Fri: 10am-9pm

The Courtauld Gallery will present the first exhibition devoted to Barbara Hepworth’s lifelong fascination with colour, shedding light on an unexpected and unexplored aspect of the work of one of the most celebrated British artists of the 20th century.

Barbara Hepworth (1903 – 1975) is best known for her abstract sculptures inspired by nature and the rugged seaside landscapes of Cornwall where she lived and worked from 1939. Throughout her life she emphasised the primacy of direct carving and adhered to the ethos of ‘truth to materials’. Discussing her innovative use of colour with her son-in-law, the art historian Sir Alan Bowness, she said: “In a way my colour has been accepted but never understood.”

Bringing together some 20 sculptures and 30 drawings and paintings, The Joseph Hage Aaronson & Bremen Exhibition: Hepworth in Colour will be the first exhibition to focus on this important but often overlooked aspect of her work. Hepworth’s early interest in colour dates to the mid-1930s, when she and her future husband, Ben Nicholson, formed part of the European avant-garde. When in 1939, days before the outbreak of the Second World War, she left London for Cornwall with her three young children, Hepworth took with her a single sculpture – her first study for a sculpture with colour. Over the coming years, the landscape of Cornwall inspired her to develop this initial experiment, taking her work in new directions and establishing a lifelong fascination with colour.

Tickets from £18

Opening hours: 10:00 – 18:00 (last entry 17:15).

Discover seven decades of joyful works by the late Argentinian artist Julio Le Parc, which turns visitors into active participants.

Playful and mesmerising, this immersive exhibition celebrates the visionary work of Julio Le Parc. Featuring his striking interactive installations, shimmering light sculptures, and large-scale geometric paintings, the show spans an extraordinary career from the late 1950s to the 2020s.

He is best known for his pioneering kinetic sculptures, which use light, movement and mirrored surfaces to surprise and draw in the viewer. Le Parc wants to make viewers feel active, with their acts of looking and experiencing bringing each artwork to life. He wants to make more democratic art that everyone can easily enjoy.

The show also explores the depth and diversity of Le Parc’s talent, with trailblazing installation art plus canvases and works on paper experimenting with colour combinations and dynamic visual effects.

£15

Sunday to Thursday 10.00–18.00

Friday to Saturday 10.00–21.00

In celebration of the Hollywood star’s 100th birthday and in association with the Marilyn Monroe estate, Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait will explore the life, career and legacy of Marilyn Monroe through portraits created by some of the greatest photographers and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Bringing together works by Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, Marlene Dumas, James Gill, Rosalyn Drexler and Audrey Flack, alongside over 20 era-defining photographers, including Cecil Beaton, Philippe Halsman, Bernard of Hollywood, André de Dienes, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Milton Greene, Sam Shaw, Richard Avedon and George Barris, the exhibition will foreground Monroe’s collaborative approach to image making and her creative agency.

The exhibition will also include personal belongings such as scripts and clothes to enrich understanding of the woman behind the image.

From the earliest ‘cheesecake’ pin-ups made when she was a young model named Norma-Jeane, to the most poignant final photographs taken on the beach in Santa Monica in 1962, Marilyn Monroe was one of the most photographed people in the world. A defining presence in popular culture, she captivated audiences with performances in much loved films such as Some Like it Hot.

In the 1950s and 60s, Marilyn Monroe’s popularity secured her starring roles in the work of artists including Richard Hamilton, Pauline Boty and Andy Warhol, whose ‘Marilyn’ portraits are among the most highly prized works of art in the world. She continues to fascinate artists, drawn to her iconic presence and fascinating life.

£25–27 / £27.50–30 with donation

Open daily: 10.30 – 18.00
Friday & Saturday: 10.30 – 21.00

A truly global figure, Whistler re-wrote the rules of what it meant to be an artist. He pioneered new and innovative techniques, creating astonishingly beautiful, ethereal visions of modern life that would earn him a place as one of the most influential artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

This retrospective – the first major European exhibition of Whistler’s work in 30 years – brings together the artist’s world-famous paintings alongside rarely, or never seen, works. It includes exquisite portraits, drawings, prints, and designs, from as early as his teens in St. Petersburg to the enigmatic late self-portraits.

The exhibition presents both a boldly experimental artist and cosmopolitan celebrity, disrupting the conventions of Victorian society in pursuit of truth, beauty, and progress.

£24

Monday to Sunday 10.00–18.00

Kew Gardens in London will showcase a once-in-a-generation presentation of artworks by Henry Moore, one of the most influential and internationally recognised artists of the 20th century. Monumental Nature represents the largest and most comprehensive showcase of Moore’s work to date, featuring 30 works across Kew’s varied landscape and inside the iconic Temperate House, the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world.

This major exhibition, the largest of its kind on Moore anywhere in the world to-date, will offer a fresh perspective on his lifelong engagement with natural forms and materials, creating new opportunities for visitors to encounter his monumental sculptures alongside Kew’s iconic vistas and historic glasshouses. Throughout Moore’s career, this connection to nature remained a constant theme, reflected in his ability to transform its complexity and beauty into abstract forms that feel profoundly human. Moore believed that landscapes provided the perfect setting for his sculptures, where the natural architecture of the environment could amplify their visual and emotional impact.

Alongside the works across the Gardens, visitors will also be able to enjoy a comprehensive exhibition in Kew’s Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, featuring over 90 works including bronzes, stone and wood carvings, prints and drawings, exploring Moore’s unique process of ‘thinking through nature’.

10am to 7pm (last entry 6pm)

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery closes at 5pm daily

£27.50

The first major monographic exhibition in the UK devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664).

Along with Diego Velázquez (1599–1660) and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682), Zurbarán was one of the leading painters of 17th-century Spain. His paintings, which include stunning life-size depictions of saints, soaring altarpieces and contemplative still lifes, are celebrated for their naturalism, directness and deep emotional power.

This exhibition of almost fifty paintings will span the chronological and iconographic breadth of the artist’s career. It will unite exceptional works from public and private collections, including the Musée du Louvre (‘Saint Bonaventure on His Bier’ and ‘Saint Apollonia’) and the Art Institute of Chicago (‘The Crucifixion’, ‘Saint Romanus of Antioch’ and ‘Saint Barulas’ and Juan de Zurbarán’s ‘Flowers and Fruit in a Chinese Bowl’), the two partner museums to which the exhibition will travel between October 2026 and June 2027, and from the collection of the National Gallery (including Saint Margaret of Antioch and Juan de Zurbarán’s Still Life with Lemons in a Wicker Basket).

£20 (off-peak, Sunday-Thursday)
£22 (Friday and Saturday)

daily 10am–6pm Friday until 9pm

Known for her vigorous brushwork, vivid colour and dynamic compositions, Cecily Brown presents paintings inspired by Serpentine’s unique location in Kensington Gardens, a site of personal significance to the artist.

Themes of nature and park life have long shaped Brown’s formal explorations. She experiments with scale, colour and recurring motifs, such as amorous couples, woodland scenes, and uncanny nature walks.

New works made specifically for the exhibition are shown alongside a selection of key paintings dating back to 2001, in addition to recent monotypes and drawings. The exhibition gestures to Brown’s early memories of the English landscape, her fascination with children’s book illustrations, and the darker undercurrents of cautionary tales.

Picture Making marks Brown’s first major solo presentation of paintings in a UK institution since her 2005 exhibition at Modern Art Oxford and represents a homecoming for the British artist who has worked in New York for the past thirty years.

Free

Monday 12-6pm, Tuesday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday-Sunday 10am-7pm

Hurvin Anderson’s first major solo show brings together more than 80 of his vibrant paintings, spanning the artist’s entire career, from his days as a student to new, never-before-seen paintings.

Through colour-drenched landscapes and interiors, Anderson meanders back and forth across the Atlantic, between the UK and the Caribbean. The youngest of eight children, he was the first to be born in the UK after his family left Jamaica for Birmingham in the 1960s. As a result, Anderson’s work reflects on his experiences of belonging and diaspora.

His works often feature family members, experiences from his youth and places of individual and cultural significance like the barbershop. By revisiting elements and sometimes layering one location onto another, he engages with the unreliability of memory and tension around cultural heritage.

Thanks to his profoundly atmospheric use of composition to explore the markers of identity, and his deep-rooted engagement with the traditions of British landscape painting, this exhibition confirms Anderson’s standing as one of the most important contemporary painters of his generation.

£18

Monday to Sunday 10.00–18.00

One of the most influential artists of our time, David Hockney invites viewers to slow down and notice the extraordinary within the everyday in his first exhibition at Serpentine. Created specifically for this presentation, Hockney’s new paintings extend his lifelong fascination with the act of looking, affirming his belief that simple beauty is worth celebrating.

The exhibition is conceived in close collaboration with the artist and brings Hockney’s celebrated ninety-metre-long frieze A Year in Normandie to London for the first time. Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, which will be on display at the British Museum in 2026, this monumental work captures the changing seasons at the artist’s former studio in Normandy. In the context of the exhibition at Serpentine, it opens a dialogue with the surrounding nature of Kensington Gardens.

Free but booking required

Tickets for March–May are available now. Tickets for June–August will be released at a later date.

Book Here

This landmark exhibition traces 40 years of Tracey Emin’s groundbreaking practice, showcasing career-defining sensations alongside works never exhibited before. Through painting, video, textiles, neons, writing, sculpture, and installation, Emin continues to challenge boundaries, using the female body as a powerful tool to explore passion, pain, and healing.

Dame Tracey Emin is one of the most important contemporary artists of her generation. She was catapulted into the public eye in the 1990s with iconic works like her Turner Prize nominated My Bed, which sparked fierce critical and public debate, challenging what art could be. Emin’s disregard for any separation of the personal and the public, along with her commitment to unapologetic self-expression, came to define a historic moment in British culture and global art history.

Broadening Emin’s story, this exhibition celebrates her raw and confessional approach as she poses profound questions on love, trauma, and autobiography. It also demonstrates her lifelong commitment to painting, showing her recent work as the culmination of the ways she has channelled her life into her art.

£20

Sunday to Thursday 10.00–18.00

Friday to Saturday 10.00–21.00