A guide to the most anticipated art exhibitions to see in London in 2026
In 2026, London’s art scene will be defined by a series of compelling exhibitions celebrating pioneering female artists and influential creative voices. The Tate will lead with a programme featuring landmark shows, including a major survey of Tracey Emin, tracing four decades of her raw, confessional work, and a deep dive into the life and legacy of Frida Kahlo, exploring her identity, politics, and global influence. Tate Britain will turn its focus to the cultural transformation of the 1990s, while the Barbican and the National Portrait Gallery will host significant retrospectives of Beatriz González and Lucian Freud. Here is our guide to the exhibitions you should watch out for in 2026.
This list will be updated as museums and galleries confirm their full 2026 exhibition programmes.
Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin My Bed 1998 Tate Lent by The Duerckheim Collection 2015, On long term loan. © Tracey Emin. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage
#FLODown: Tate Modern will open the year with a landmark exhibition tracing 40 years of Dame Tracey Emin’s groundbreaking practice, showcasing iconic works alongside never-before-seen pieces across painting, video, textiles, neons, writing, sculpture, and installation. Renowned for using the female body to explore passion, pain, and healing, Emin is remembered for rising to prominence in the 1990s with provocative works like My Bed, which challenged traditional ideas of art and sparked widespread debate. The exhibition will celebrate her raw, confessional style as it explores profound themes of love, trauma, and autobiography, while also highlighting her lifelong commitment to painting, presenting recent works as the culmination of her unapologetic artistic journey.
Date: 26 February – 31 August 2026. Location:Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Discover more
The 90s
Juergen Teller, Young Pink Kate, London 1998 © Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
#FLODown: In October 2026, Tate Britain will open an exhibition exploring a decade defined by bold creativity and rebellious spirit. Curated by Edward Enninful OBE, the exhibition titled The 90s will examine how the 1990s sparked a cultural revolution in Britain, blending art, fashion, music, and design into a dynamic force that reshaped British identity. The show features iconic photography by Juergen Teller, Nick Knight, David Sims, and Corinne Day, alongside works by artists such as Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing, and Yinka Shonibare, as well as fashion from groundbreaking designers including Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and Hussein Chalayan. It celebrates a period of optimism and freedom that dismantled traditional hierarchies and continues to influence contemporary culture.
Date: 1 October 2026 – 14 February 2027 Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. tate.org.uk.
Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector
Vasily Kandinsky, Dominant Curve, 1936. Oil on canvas, 129.2 x 194.3 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection.
#FLODown: Before she became an icon of the international art world, Peggy Guggenheim made her mark in London with her first gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, which operated from 1938 to 1939. This exhibition revisits the bold and pioneering exhibitions held there, which introduced British audiences to surrealism and abstraction. It reunites key works and documents the gallery’s influence on the London art scene. Featured artists include Salvador Dalí, Barbara Hepworth, Vasily Kandinsky, Henry Moore, and many others. Organised in collaboration with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the exhibition will present a fascinating glimpse into the formation of one of the world’s great collectors.
Date: 21 November 2026 – 14 March 2027. Location: The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Discover more
Frida: The Making of an Icon
Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), Untitled [Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird], 1940. Oil on canvas mounted to board. Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art, 66.6. Harry Ransom Center.
#FLODown: Tate Modern will celebrate the extraordinary life and legacy of Frida Kahlo with an exhibition opening in summer 2026. Titled Frida: The Making of an Icon, the show will feature over 130 works, including some of Kahlo’s most famous paintings, alongside documents, photographs, and memorabilia from her archives. It will explore her many roles, as a devoted wife, intellectual, modern artist, and political activist, and include works by her contemporaries and artists she inspired. The exhibition will offer unique insights into Kahlo’s revolutionary impact, the role of women artists in the 20th century, and the diverse communities who continue to embrace her as a cultural and global icon.
Date: 25 June 2026 – 3 January 2027. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Discover more
Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey
Joy Gregory, Autoportrait, 1989 - 1990, Silver Gelatin Lith Print © Joy Gregory/ Courtesy the artist & DACS
#FLODown: Catching Flies with Honey will be the first major survey of British artist Joy Gregory, opening at Whitechapel Gallery and showcasing over 250 works from a career spanning more than four decades. Winner of the eighth annual Freelands Award, Gregory is recognised as one of the UK’s most innovative artists working with photography. Her practice, which also includes film, installation and textiles, engages with themes of identity, race, gender and cultural memory through both historic techniques like cyanotypes and kallitypes and contemporary digital media.
Date: 8 October - 1 March 2026. Location: Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX. Disover more
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Seurat and the Sea
Georges Seurat, 1859-1891, Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy, 1888, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
#FLODown: In early 2026, The Courtauld will host Seurat and the Sea, the first exhibition dedicated to Georges Seurat’s seascapes. This landmark showcase is also the first UK exhibition focused on Seurat in nearly 30 years. Showcasing around 25 works, including paintings, oil sketches, and drawings, the exhibition explores how Seurat developed his pioneering Neo-Impressionist technique during five summers on the northern coast of France (1885–1890). Best known for using tiny dots of pure colour to depict light and form, Seurat died young at 31, leaving behind a small but significant body of work.
Date: 13 February – 17 May 2026. Location: Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries, Floor 3, The Courtauld Gallery, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN. Discover more
Zurbarán
Francisco de Zurbarán, ‘Agnus Dei', 1635–40. Oil on canvas, 37.3 cm x 62 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. © Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado
#FLODown: The National Gallery will presents the UK’s first major exhibition devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the leading figures of 17th-century Spanish painting. Revered for his emotionally charged depictions of saints, monastic life, and still lifes, Zurbarán’s work combines striking realism with a profound sense of spiritual intensity. The exhibition will bring together nearly 50 paintings, uniting masterpieces from the National Gallery’s collection with exceptional international loans from the Musée du Louvre, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Prado, and other major institutions. It also includes rarely seen works by his son, Juan de Zurbarán, whose short-lived but remarkable output adds a poignant dimension to the show.
Date: 2 May – 23 August 2026. Location: Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Discover more
Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting
NPG 7195 Bella in her Pluto T-Shirt (etching), 1995 © The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved [2025] / Bridgeman Images. Collection: National Portrait Gallery
#FLODown: The National Portrait Gallery will open a major exhibition in 2026 titled Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting, the UK’s first museum show dedicated to Freud’s works on paper. This exhibition will explore the artist’s lifelong focus on the human face and figure, highlighting his mastery across drawing mediums such as pencil, ink, charcoal, and etching. It will also feature key paintings that reveal the dynamic relationship between his drawings and finished canvases. Ahead of the exhibition, the Gallery has acquired 12 new works from Freud’s estate, including 8 etchings — the first of their kind to join the Gallery’s collection. These newly acquired pieces, including an etching of Freud’s daughter Bella, are now on display as part of a free archive exhibition showcasing Freud’s creative process, etching plates, and trial proofs. This reconfigured display reveals how Freud developed his portraits and provides fresh insight into his working methods.
Date: 12 February - 3 May 2026, with tickets available from autumn 2025. Location: National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE.Discover more
Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography
Long Chin-San Riverside Spring 1942, The Royal Photographic Society Collection at the V&A, acquired with the generous assistance of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund © Courtesy the Estate of the Artist
#FLODown: Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography explores the development of pictorialism, the first international art photography movement, from the 1880s to the 1960s. The exhibition will feature works by over 50 artists from across the globe, including Seoul, Sydney, New York, Cape Town, Brazil and Singapore. Featuring never-before-seen pieces alongside works from Tate’s Collection, it will present a fresh and inclusive perspective on the history and artistic possibilities of photography as a medium.
Date: 8 October 2026 - 14 February 2027. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Discover more
Beatriz González
Beatriz González, Los papagayos (The Parrots), 1987 © Beatriz González. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.
#FLODown: This landmark retrospective explores the work of Colombian artist Beatriz González, whose six-decade practice examines the political and emotional resonance of everyday images. Drawing from newspaper clippings, religious iconography, and fragments of Western art, González transforms familiar visuals into powerful commentaries on violence, displacement, and power structures. Her playful yet poignant style spans painting, sculpture, print, and installation, challenging cultural hierarchies. With over 150 works, many never before seen in the UK, this exhibition will prompt a look into how images shape memory and meaning.
Date: 25 February – 10 May 2026. Location: Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Discover more
Rose Wylie
Rose Wylie, Snowwhite (3) with Duster, 2018. Oil on canvas in two parts, 183.5 x 320 cm. Photo: Jo Moon Price. © Rose Wylie. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner
#FLODown: One of Britain’s most distinctive and celebrated artists, Rose Wylie OBE RA, will take over the Main Galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts with her largest UK survey to date. Known for her bold figurative paintings and character driven narratives, Wylie draws on everything from art history and classical literature to celebrity culture and current affairs. Her work captures the spirit of modern life with energy and wit, offering visual reflections on events both grand and everyday, from the Blitz to football matches and gallery openings. This exhibition will feature some of her most iconic works alongside previously unseen and newly created pieces.
Date: 28 February – 19 April 2026. Location: The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Discover more
Ana Mendieta
Ana Mendieta Imágen de Yágul, Mexico 1973 © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by DACS
#FLODown: Later in the year, the Tate Modern will open a major exhibition dedicated to the influential Cuban-born American artist Ana Mendieta. The show will feature many of her iconic works alongside newly remastered films, early paintings and late sculptures, many of which have never been seen in the UK before. It will highlight Mendieta’s connection to the natural world and her best-known Silueta Series, which uses natural materials like fire, water and flowers to explore the presence and absence of the human body. Throughout her career, Mendieta posed questions about displacement and identity that remain highly relevant today. This will be the first in-depth UK exhibition of her work in over a decade.
Date: 9 July 2026 - 10 January 2027. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Discover more
Julia Phillips
Julia Phillips, Mediator (detail), 2020, Collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. © Julia Phillips, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery
#FLODown: At the Barbican, multidisciplinary artist Julia Phillips will present an introspective body of work that translates internal states and social dynamics into sculptural form. Her newly commissioned exhibition will take the human body as both subject and material, combining glazed ceramics shaped directly from her own body with metal structures that evoke tools, restraints or machines. Informed by Black feminist and psychoanalytic theory, Phillips’s haunting and poetic sculptures will explore the tensions between vulnerability, control and agency. The installation will respond directly to the curved architecture of the gallery.
Date: 30 January – 19 April 2026. Location: The Curve, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Discover more
Michaelina Wautier: A Rediscovered Visionary
Michaelina Wautier, Bacchanal, before 1659. Oil on canvas, 271.5 x 355.5. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Picture Gallery. Photo: © KHM-Museumsverband.
#FLODown: In a landmark exhibition, the RA will present the first UK show dedicated to the 17th-century Brussels artist Michaelina Wautier. Overlooked for centuries, Wautier is now recognised as a significant figure of her time, producing ambitious history paintings, nuanced portraits, and striking allegories. This exhibition will highlight her range and skill, bringing together masterpieces such as the monumental Bacchanal and the recently rediscovered Five Senses. Organised in collaboration with the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, it promises to reintroduce Wautier to a contemporary audience with the recognition her work has long deserved.
Date: 27 March – 21 June 2026. Location: The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Discover more
Julio Le Parc
Julio Le Parc, Blue Sphere 2013. Tate. Lent by the Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee 2023. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2025. Photo © Museum of Art Pudong
#FLODown: Tate Modern will celebrate the joyful and visionary work of Argentinian-born artist Julio Le Parc with an immersive exhibition in June 2026. Spanning his extraordinary career from the 1950s to the 2010s, the show will feature his iconic interactive kinetic sculptures, large-scale Op Art paintings, and works that use light, movement and mirrored surfaces to engage viewers playfully. Beyond his pioneering visual effects, the exhibition will reveal Le Parc as a politically engaged artist and accomplished painter with a deep passion for colour. After moving to France in 1958, he became part of the radical and creative Parisian art scene of the 1960s while maintaining strong ties to Latin America, offering a fascinating insight into his evolving artistic practice.
Date: 11 June 2026 – 3 May 2027. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Discover more
Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam
Richard Dadd, The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, 1855-64. Oil on canvas, 54 x 39.4 cm. Tate. Presented by Siegfried Sassoon in memory of his friend and fellow officer Julian Dadd, a great-nephew of the artist, and of his two brothers who gave their lives in the First World War 1963. Photo: Tate.
#FLODown: The Royal Academy of Arts will bring to light the life and work of Richard Dadd (1817–1886) in an exhibition dedicated to the Victorian artist, whose career was marked by both brilliance and personal tragedy. After a promising start, Dadd experienced severe mental illness and spent the final 42 years of his life in psychiatric institutions. Despite his circumstances, he produced fantastical, intricate works that reveal a deeply imaginative world. Featuring around 60 pieces, this will be the first major retrospective of Dadd’s art in over 50 years and will include the iconic The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke, which has inspired generations of artists, writers and musicians.
Date: 25 July – 25 October 2026. Location: The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Discover more
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica
Chris Ofili, Union Black, 2003 © Chris Ofili. Courtesy the artist, David Zwirner and Victoria Miro
#FLODown: The Barbican will open an exhibition that explores the visual and cultural legacy of Pan-Africanism, tracing over a century of creative expression shaped by anti-colonial struggle and global Black solidarity. Featuring more than 300 works, including paintings, films, posters, and archival materials, the show brings together artists from Africa and its diasporas to examine how Pan-African ideas have fostered resistance, imagination, and connection across continents. Rather than treating Pan-Africanism as a fixed geography, the exhibition proposes “Panafrica” as a conceptual space of empowerment, rupture, and renewal.
Date: 11 June – 6 September 2026. Location: Barbican Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Discover more
Painting the French Riviera
Raoul Dufy, Golfe Juan, 1927. Oil on canvas, mounted on board. Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Bequest of Marion Koogler McNay, 1950.38.
#FLODown: The Mediterranean coast of France has long captivated artists in search of light, colour, and inspiration. This major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts will explore the allure of the French Riviera through the eyes of Monet, Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso, Renoir, and others. Featuring over 120 works, it traces how the region influenced the rise of modern art from the 1870s to the early 20th century. Alongside paintings and sculpture, the exhibition will include travel posters and film, offering a vivid journey through artistic innovation set against a backdrop of natural beauty.
Date: 2 October 2026 – 31 January 2027. Location: The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD. Discover more
Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant
Duncan Grant Self-Portrait 1920. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, purchased 1980 © estate of Duncan Grant. All rights reserved, DACS 2025
#FLODown: An exhibition dedicated to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant will open at Tate Britain, exploring the vivid world of this famous artistic duo from the Bloomsbury Group. The show will trace their extraordinary creative partnership spanning more than 50 years, highlighting their influence on British art, literature, and society through a commitment to freedom and radical experimentation. Featuring over 250 works, including portraits, still lifes, landscapes, decorative furniture, ceramics and textiles, the exhibition will also present a rare reconstruction of Duncan Grant’s studio, relocated from their Sussex home, Charleston. It will celebrate both their shared endeavours and individual artistic paths, showcasing their lasting impact on twentieth-century British art.
Date: 12 November 2026 - 11 April 2027. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Discover more
