Art news to be on your radar this week: 9 - 15 February 2026
This week brings fresh details from some of the UK’s most anticipated exhibitions and events, from Tate Modern’s Ana Mendieta retrospective and David Hockney’s presentation at Serpentine North to the British Museum’s acquisition of a Tudor pendant. Also announced are dates for Somerset House Studios’ three-day Assembly festival. Below is our guide to the top art stories to watch.
Tate Modern has announced a major UK exhibition dedicated to artist Ana Mendieta (1948–1985)
Tate Modern has announced a major UK exhibition dedicated to the pioneering artist Ana Mendieta (1948–1985), opening this summer. The show, the first of its scale in over a decade, will present more than 150 works spanning her career, including her iconic Silueta Series (1973–80), newly remastered films, rarely seen paintings and drawings, late sculptures, and restaged installations. The exhibition will explore Mendieta’s engagement with nature, displacement, and identity, highlighting her earth-body works, experimental films, and sculptural practice, while reflecting her connections across social, political, and artistic communities.
Date: 15 July 2026 – 17 January 2027. Location: Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. tate.org.uk
©The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, 2026 / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London.
British Museum successfully raises £3.5m to save Tudor Heart pendant for the nation
The British Museum has successfully raised £3.5 million to acquire the Tudor Heart pendant, a unique 24-carat-gold artefact linked to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, ensuring it remains in public ownership. Over 45,000 members of the public contributed more than £380,000, while major grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (£1.75m), the Julia Rousing Trust (£500,000), Art Fund (£400,000), and American Friends of the British Museum (£300,000) secured the remainder. Discovered in Warwickshire in 2019, the pendant, which features Tudor and pomegranate symbols, offers rare insight into Henry and Katherine’s relationship and early Tudor court life. The Museum plans a national tour and will formally add the Heart to its collection later this year, with further public engagement through publications and exhibitions.
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Tudor Heart Open - © The Trustees of the British Museum
Serpentine reveal more details on their upcoming David Hockney exhibition
Serpentine North has revealed new details for David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting, which is opening in March 2026. The exhibition will present new works by the celebrated British artist alongside his monumental frieze A Year in Normandie (2020–2021), on view in London for the first time, and will include a large-scale, site-specific mural in the garden depicting a treehouse scene from the frieze. The show features five new still lifes and five portraits of Hockney’s family and carers, unified by frontal compositions and a recurring gingham tablecloth motif, while the frieze, created digitally on iPad, charts the changing seasons at his Normandy studio. Free to the public, the exhibition invites visitors to slow down and appreciate everyday cycles and is accompanied by a catalogue containing essays and a conversation between Hockney and Serpentine’s Artistic Director, Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Date: 12 March – 23 August 2026. Location: Serpentine North, West Carriage Drive, London, W2 2AR.serpentinegalleries.org
David Hockney, London, 2023 © David Hockney Photo Credit: Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima
Somerset House Studios reveal 2026 dates for their three-day festival, Assembly
Somerset House Studios returns with Assembly 2026, a three-day festival of experimental sound, music, and performance from 26–28 March. The event features UK premieres, live experiments, and immersive installations by artists including Jasleen Kaur, Laurel Halo & Hanne Lippard, felicita, Onyeka Igwe, Ellen Arkbro, Hannan Jones & Samir Kennedy, and DeForrest Brown, Jr. Highlights include Arkbro’s crumhorn composition, Halo and Lippard’s sound installation Sour Loop, and ensemble works exploring cultural memory, improvisation, and the intersections of sound and performance. With performances, talks, and free exhibitions, Assembly 2026 will be a unique experience for London’s music and art enthusiasts.
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felicita (Dominik Dvořák), czysta forma
Isaac Julien’s site-specific moving-image installation will open at The Cosmic House
Isaac Julien’s site-specific moving-image installation will open at The Cosmic House from 22 April 2026, exploring transformation as a fundamental condition of existence. Created in collaboration with Mark Nash, the film traces ecological, temporal, and cultural change across diverse environments, including The Cosmic House itself, California’s redwoods, and the frescoed interiors of Palazzo Te. This single-screen version reimagines Julien’s original ten-screen installation, emphasising cyclical time and relationality, and drawing on feminist science fiction and critical theory, including Donna Haraway. Integrating cosmology, architecture, and ecological awareness, the installation presents transformation as a shared, relational experience, turning The Cosmic House into a symbolic space where history, imagination, and continuity intersect.
Date: 22 April – 18 December 2026. Location: 19 Lansdowne Walk, London W11 3AH. thecosmichouse.org
Isaac Julien, Telepathy, The Cosmic House (All That Changes You. Metamorphosis), 2025. Inkjet print on Ilford Gold Fibre Gloss mounted on aluminium, 110 x 147 cm ; 43 1/4 x 57 7/8 in. © Isaac Julien. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro.
An exhibition by Martha Armitage to open at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery next month
Marthe Armitage: Pattern Maker at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery celebrates the remarkable career of the 95-year-old visual artist, showcasing over 40 hand-drawn and hand-cut designs, prints, sketches, and archival materials. From her early linocut patterns inspired by botanical observations in Chiswick and craft techniques witnessed during time in India, to complex wallpapers created on her customised lithographic press, Armitage’s work merges nature and architecture in intricate, motif-rich designs. The exhibition includes seminal pieces such as Angelica and Chestnut, as well as final lino blocks, working drawings, and sketches that reveal her creative process, alongside a recreated studio space and a “Marthe makeover” of the Manor’s bedroom. This retrospective highlights her lifelong dedication to craftsmanship, showing how her designs continue to inspire and remain in demand, offering visitors an intimate encounter with the decorative worlds she has quietly created.
Date: 19 March - 19 July 2026. Location: Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, London, W5 5EQ.
Tschabalala Self Will Unveil Her Sculpture Lady in Blue on London’s Fourth Plinth in September 2026
In September 2026, New York-based artist Tschabalala Self will unveil her sculpture Lady in Blue on London’s Fourth Plinth, following Teresa Margolles’ current work. The bronze sculpture, patinated in lapis lazuli blue, celebrates a contemporary young metropolitan woman of colour, reflecting the diversity and spirit of modern London. Self’s figure is not a historical or iconic subject but an ‘everywoman’ striding confidently into the future, embodying ambition and purpose. Selected by the Fourth Plinth Commissioning Group in 2024, the work continues the site’s tradition of presenting bold, internationally significant contemporary sculpture in Trafalgar Square, engaging the public and celebrating the city’s cultural life.
