Top exhibitions on now in London

LONDON EXHIBITIONS OPENING THIS MONTH

Lina Ghotmeh, Serpentine Pavilion

The idea of togetherness will take centre stage this summer in Kensington Gardens.

Lebanese-born architect Lina Ghotmeh has been selected as the next designer for the Serpentine Pavilion – last year designed by Theastre Gate. Titled À table, the French call to sit down together at mealtimes, Ghotmeh’s pavilion will welcome visitors to sit and chat around a circular table.

The timber structure, described as ‘echoing the structures of tree leaves’, and slender wooden parasol will be ‘an open inviting shelter, a place to sit and eat and talk together in nature and rethink our relationship to each other and the living world’, says Ghotmeh.

Born in 1980, Ghotmeh studied architecture in Beirut and Paris before working with Jean Nouvel and Norman Forster. She opened her one practice in 2016 and won international recognition with her Stone Garden building in Beirut, which was exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale last year.

London Gallery Weekend and galleries to visit in June

Over 150 of London’s leading contemporary galleries will come together for London Gallery Weekend, offering special events, late-night openings & more.

London Design Biennale 2023 Highlights

The London Design Biennale opens at Somerset House, bringing together over 40 participants worldwide under the theme: The Global Game: Remapping Collaboration.

Through installations, pavilions, digital experiences and performances, artists and designers explore collaborative practice in challenging times.

Be prepared to bake bread, converse with an AI Robot, virtually visit a garden in Korea or a Museum in Congo and much more...

Here is a selection of our favourite design experiences.

​National Portrait Gallery grand re-opening with Yevonde, the pioneer colour photographer

The National Portrait is reopening on 22 June after a three-year closure and £41m redevelopment. Beyond the architectural revamp of the building, the gallery is also rethinking its collection to ensure that it becomes a ‘gallery for everyone’ – as per chief curator Alison Smith's words – that better acknowledges the UK’s history and diverse population.

For the occasion, it will exhibit newly discovered photographs by Yevonde, one of the pioneers of colour photography, who immortalised 1930s celebrities like Vivien Leigh and John Gielgud.

Life is more important than art at Whitechapel Gallery

Taking inspiration from the words of writer and novelist James Baldwin, Whitechapel Gallery’s summer season will host a three-month programme of collaborations with artists, performers and thinkers, which will explore the interface between art and everyday life. Co-curated by artist Janette Parris and Director Gilane Tawadros, the exhibition will feature sculpture, photography, film and installation by artists including Susan Hiller, Alia Syed, Mitra Tabrizian and Mark Wallinger, and new works by Rana Begum and Janette Parris.

The first part of the programme will be dedicated to Somali arts and culture. After that, the summer season will continue with ‘Sculpting Conversations.’

AI: Who's looking after me?

Are you worried about AI?

The Science Gallery’s exhibition, created by artists, technologists and King’s College researchers, will bring a nuanced and provocative look at recent developments in AI and its role in our justice systems, healthcare, love lives, politics, pet care and daily commutes.

Stepping back from the generalisation and apocalyptic discourse, ‘AI: Who’s Looking After Me?’ will consider who holds power in technological advancement and how humans might take more collective ownership of the systems that feel beyond control.

​Capturing the moment Tate Modern

What is the relationship between painting and photography? Tate Modern attempts to answer the question through the work of some of the world's most famous artists – Lucien Freud, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Peter Doig, Alice Neel, Dorothea Lange and Gerhard Richter.

Jean Cooke at the Garden Museum

Overshadowed by her husband painter John Bratby, Jean Cooke was little-known to the broader public but enjoyed a high reputation among fellow artists. She became a member of the RA in 1972.

This exhibition will focus on Cooke’s magnificent paintings of two of her gardens: a wild, overgrown city plot in Blackheath, London, and a clifftop meadow at her coastal Sussex cottage.

It will also feature a series of expressive self-portraits that Cooke created in defiance of her husband, who limited the time she could devote to her practice and often painted over or slashed her canvases.

​Dear Earth at Hayward Gallery

This exhibition will explore how international artists are helping to reframe our responses to the climate crisis through notions of care, hope and compassion for our planet.

It will feature works by, Cristina Iglesias, Richard Mosse and Cornelia Parker amongst others.

ONGOING EXHIBITIONS THAT WE'VE SEEN AND RECOMMEND

Tomás Saraceno, Webs of Life – beyond the walls of the Serpentine Gallery ★★★★★

An exhibition for humans and other species made by humans and other species.

The Serpentine Gallery has always tried incorporating the park element into its exhibitions. And until now, these exhibitions have been addressed to a human audience.

But how about birds, dogs and squirrels?

Well, Tomás Saraceno and his creative team have taken the non-human species element into account. Their living organism exhibition, which might change your opinion on spiders, is meant to be enjoyed by all park dwellers, animals included!

So while humans can admire some truly artistic cobwebs, dogs and squirrels should (hopefully) be tempted to visit the gallery on their own – with a room opening into the park especially conceived for them. And birds can make the most of the gigantic statue built for their comfort.

If pets are welcome, mobile phones are not! Indeed humans are invited to leave their precious belonging in the entrance lobby built for this effect. A video interview with indigenous communities in Salinas Grande, Argentina, where lithium is extracted, is a reminder of how making those devices impact the planet.

A joyful exhibition with a big sustainable message that is worth visiting.

The Offbeat Sari, Design Museum review ★★★★★

When the Head of Curatorial at the Design Museum Priya Khanchandani moved temporarily to India a few years ago, she was amazed by how Delhi women wore their sari. She realised that what used to be seen as an old fashion costume had become a way to express one'.

The sari had become 'cool', and fashion designers and people on the streets were reinventing the way to wear it, not afraid of pushing the boundaries.

This year, Khanchandani curates the Offbeat Sari exhibition, which is opening in May and will explore this reinvention, shedding a spotlight on contemporary Indian fashion

Luxury and power: Persia to Greece, The British Museum, review ★★★★★

History is written by the victors is the common saying, and that’s certainly true when it comes to the Greeks defeating the Persians over 2,500 years ago. In Western history the Greeks are often shown as the defenders of democracy and the Persians as decadent savages - a myth that has even been perpetuated through pop culture, such as in the film 300.

The British Museum has assembled a collection of luxurious items to show us the real truth that while the Greeks did initially reject Persian ideals, they ended up adopting much of the Persian concept of luxury and by the time of Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia a lot of its customs had been assimilated into Greek life.

Sarah Sze, The Waiting Room, Peckham Rye Station, review ★★★★★

Sarah Sze and Artangel light up an old station waiting room in Peckham with a stunning art installation

Ai Weiwei: Making Sense, The Design Museum, review ★★★★★

Political artist and activist Ai Weiwei is arguably one of the world’s most important contemporary artists. His work lulls you with beautiful aesthetics before knocking you out with the hammer blow of what his work represents.

That’s exactly what happens at the Design Museum as a long rectangle of small ceramic balls feels more suited to the museum’s ASMR exhibition and yet we discover these are cannonballs made during the Song dynasty in China – something that appears decorative was actually a weapon of war used to kill and maim.

Hilma Af Klint & Piet Mondrian: forms of life, Tate Modern, review ★★★★★

Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) was virtually unknown until her abstracts took the world by storm in 2013 when shown at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet – the sensational exhibition was the most popular the museum ever had.

She and Dutchman Piet Mondrian were two giants of abstract art and while they both lived at the same time, they never met or interacted. However, Tate Modern has decided to posthumously pair them to draw comparisons between the works of the two - particularly the spiritualism and connections to nature that can be found in both artist's works.

The exhibition features around 250 works, including paintings, drawings and archival materials, revealing how their art reflected radical new ideas, theories and scientific discoveries in an era of rapid social change.

There are great works from both artists in this show but the nagging thought throughout is why pair the two together.

Gilbert & George centre, The Paradisical Pictures, review ★★★★★

Artist duo and self-titled ‘living sculptures’ Gilbert and George have been central to British art for decades – known best for their performances, but recently focusing more on wall-based, large-scale works. Given that they are entering their more mature years they’ve set up a permanent museum to showcase their works – unsurprisingly calling it the ‘Gilbert and George centre’.

Isaac Julien: What Freedom is to Me, Tate Britain, review ★★★★★

The death of Colin Roach, a 21-year-old black man shot at the entrance to Stoke Newington police station. The conversation on returning looted artefacts to their countries of origin. Celebrating black queer love. Isaac Julien tackles all of these important socio-political issues through his works and Tate Britain has brought together a selection of his films from the past 40 years for a major exhibition of his work.

Aladdin Sane: 50 Years, Southbank Centre

Throughout his long, chameleonic career as a rock musician, David Bowie was a restless image shifter, a daring, provocative creator of new personae, each signalling a new phase in his prolific music output.

From the mod look of his early albums through his androgynous, glam rock alter ego Ziggy Stardust to the severe, controversial, Berlin-inspired Thin White Duke, and more, Bowie’s image never settled – on the contrary, it remained multifaceted, always a composite.

But it’s perhaps fair to say that none of his public personae had the kind of impact of Aladdin Sane, an image which to this day retains the power to grab and hold the viewer.

Thin Air, The Beams review ★★★★★

Standing inside a vast misty warehouse, lights flash and the sound roars as if we’re living through an apocalypse. It feels like the roof could come crashing down or some giant mechanical beast will emerge from inside the mist and devour everyone in the space.

After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art, The National Gallery review ★★★★★

As far as Western art is concerned, Impressionism is the movement that sparked everything that was to come after it and the art that would come under the loose umbrella of ‘modern art’. The National Gallery has assembled dozens of spectacular artworks to tell the story of what came after Impressionism in the art equivalent of a Marvel Avengers movie. There are works by great artists such as Cézanne, Rodin, Gauguin, Picasso, Edvard Munch, Gustav Klimt and the list goes on and on… and on.

Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism, Dulwich Picture Gallery, review ★★★★★

Berthe Morisot was one of the foremost Impressionist artists of the 19th Century, but there’s never been a major exhibition of her work in the UK until now. Dulwich Picture Gallery, in partnership with the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, has brought together 30 of her masterpieces, admired for capturing contemporary life and intimate moments of domesticity. The works have gone on show together with pieces by Reynolds, Gainsborough and Fragonard.

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not further & smaller away), Lightroom review ★★★★★

David Hockney’s lifelong fascination with the possibilities of new media takes a new turn with the opening of Lightroom, a grand, immersive art venue which features large-scale projected images and animations of the artist’s work.

The four-storey space, which opened in King's Cross in February, is equipped with state-of-the-art digital projections and audio technology, and promises to host ‘spectacular artist-led shows’.

David Hockney has worked closely with the creative team to take the audience on a personal journey through his art, featuring well-known paintings alongside some rarely seen pieces and some newly created work. The show features interviews and archives and is accompanied by the artist's voiceover and a musical soundtrack composed by Nico Muhly.

The project is supported by Ukrainian-born philanthropist Leonard Blavatnik and 59 Productions – a London and New York-based design studio co-founded by the Bridge Theatre director (and former National Theatre director) Nicholas Hytner.

Hytner, who is also the executive producer of the Hockney show, said in a statement: ‘Listening to Hockney's voice in this astonishing new space while seeing his artworks unfurl around the four walls is going to be both an experience and an education. It suggests how potent this medium will be for the other creators and artists with who we will make new and original Lightroom shows in the year to come.’

Anthony Caro: The Inspiration of Architecture, Pitzhanger Manor review ★★★★★

Walking into the main space at Pitzhanger Gallery will bring you face to face with a wooden structure under the skylight. Unlike most sculptures in museum spaces, there’s no ‘don’t touch’ sign to be seen – in fact visitors are encouraged to kick off their shoes and climb round the winding stairs to discover the darkened recess inside the aptly named ‘Child’s Tower’, by sculptor Anthony Caro.

Frameless, Immersive Art Experience, Marble Arch ★★★★★

How does it feel to get inside one of your favourite paintings? Frameless is a new multidimensional art experience that opened in London in October. It consists of projecting animated paintings -- often very well-known ones -- from floor to ceiling in four gigantic rooms.

The experience is highly Instagrammable and can be utterly absorbing. Imagine being surrounded by giant versions of Salvador Dali's melting clocks, or walking the leafy path up to Cézanne's Chateau Noir. It will certainly seduce a young digital-savvy audience and might even convince hard-core art lovers, too. A pity that, at £25+, entrance is so pricey.

Hallyu! The Korean Wave, V&A review ★★★★★

K-pop, politics and Parasite are all part of a sensational blockbuster exhibition of Korean culture at V&A