London art exhibitions opening in March 2026

As March brings the first signs of spring to London, a number of exciting art exhibitions are opening across the city. Tate Britain will host the first major solo exhibition of British artist Hurvin Anderson, Dulwich Picture Gallery presents the first UK show of Estonian modernist Konrad Mägi, and the much-anticipated exhibition dedicated to influential Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Other highlights include David Hockney’s digital frieze and recent works at Serpentine North, the first UK presentation of 17th-century artist Michaelina Wautier, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026 at The Photographers’ Gallery. Here is our guide to art exhibitions opening in London in March 2026 that you won’t want to miss.

Hurvin Anderson

Hurvin Anderson, Hawksbill Bay, 2020. Tate: Lent by Tate Americas Foundation, courtesy of Mala Gaonkar 2023. © Hurvin Anderson. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery and VeneKlasen

#FLODown: The first major solo exhibition of British artist Hurvin Anderson brings together over 80 of his paintings, spanning his entire career from student works to previously unseen new pieces. Anderson’s colour-drenched landscapes and interiors explore experiences of belonging and diaspora, reflecting his journey between the UK and the Caribbean. Many works feature family members, childhood memories, and culturally significant spaces such as barbershops, while layering locations and memories to examine the tension between personal and cultural heritage. Combining a profound sense of atmosphere with influences from British landscape painting, the exhibition highlights Anderson’s distinctive approach to identity, memory, and place.

Date: 26 March – 23 August 2026. Location: Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. Price: from £18. Concessions available. Book now

Konrad Mägi

Konrad Mägi, Norwegian Landscape, 1909. Courtesy of the Art Museum of Estonia.

#FLODown: Dulwich Picture Gallery will present the first major UK exhibition of Estonian modernist painter Konrad Mägi, in partnership with the Art Museum of Estonia. The show brings together over 60 works, including his iconic landscapes and lesser-seen portraits, highlighting Mägi’s bold experimentation with colour, brushwork, and perspective, as well as his engagement with European movements like Pointillism, Neo-Impressionism, Cubism, and Expressionism. Visitors will trace Mägi’s artistic journey from his early Norwegian landscapes and Baltic island works to his late-life depictions of Southern Estonia, revealing his fascination with nature, the mystical, and the sublime. The exhibition also features a new site-specific installation by contemporary Estonian artist Kristina Õllek, reflecting on Baltic Sea ecology through materials such as sea salt, cyanobacteria, and limestone, creating a dialogue with Mägi’s landscapes. Curated by Kathleen Soriano, the exhibition offers a unique opportunity to explore Mägi’s impact on European and Estonian art.

Date: 24 March – 12 July 2026. Location: Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, Dulwich, London SE21 7AD. Price: from £15. Concessions available. Book now

Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art

Ankle-length coat of black silk jersey with facial profiles forming a rose-filled vase, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jean Cocteau and Lesage, London, 1937 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

#FLODown: The Victoria and Albert Museum will open an exhibition dedicated to the Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art will focus on the development of the House of Schiaparelli from the 1920s to its current direction under Daniel Roseberry, showcasing over 200 objects including garments, artworks, photographs, perfume, and jewellery. Highlights include the V&A’s iconic ‘Skeleton’ and ‘Tears’ dresses, as well as pieces that challenged fashion norms through collaborations with artists such as Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. The exhibition also examines Schiaparelli’s London studio and her role as a pioneering businesswoman, reflecting on her influence and the relevance of her ideas in contemporary design.

Date: 21 March – 1 November 2026. Location: Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL. Price: from £28 weekdays/ £30 weekends. vam.ac.uk

Gordon Parks: We Shall Not Be Moved

Gordon Park. Malcolm X Holding Up Black Muslim Newspaper, Chicago, Illinois, 1963. © The Gordon Parks Foundation. Courtesy The Gordon Parks Foundation, New York and Alison Jacques

#FLODown: An exhibition celebrating the pioneering American photographer Gordon Parks will go on show at Alison Jacques in partnership with The Gordon Parks Foundation. The exhibition marks the Foundation’s 20th anniversary and is curated by Bryan Stevenson, highlighting Parks’ use of the camera as a “weapon” against racism, poverty, and injustice. Spanning works from 1942 to 1967, it focuses on Parks’ humanitarian vision and commitment to social justice, presenting images that reveal the struggles, resilience, and dignity of Black Americans. Referencing the protest anthem “We Shall Not Be Moved,” the exhibition connects Parks’ photography to contemporary challenges to civil rights, emphasising the relevance of his work as a form of resistance against oppression.

Date: 5 March – 11 April 2026. Location: Alison Jacques, 22 Cork Street, London W1S 3NG. Price: Free. alisonjacques.com

David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting

David Hockney working on iPad. David Hockney, Normandy, 2021 © David Hockney. Image Credit Jonathan Wilkinson.

#FLODown: Serpentine will open David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting in their North Gallery, featuring the British artist’s recent work. The exhibition presents Hockney’s digital frieze A Year in Normandie (2020–2021) in London for the first time, alongside a new large-scale garden mural. Five still lifes and five portraits of his family and carers are also on display, linked by frontal compositions and a gingham tablecloth motif. Created on iPad, the frieze captures the changing seasons at his Normandy studio, encouraging viewers to pause and reflect. The show is free and accompanied by a catalogue with 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. Price: Free. serpentinegalleries.org

Michaelina Wautier

Michaelina Wautier. Saint John the Evangelist, c. 1656–59. Oil on canvas. 69 x 60.5 cm. Private collection

#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 is a timely opportunity to reintroduce Wautier to a contemporary audience, giving her work the recognition it has long deserved.

Date: 27 March – 21 June 2026. Location: Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD. Price: from £15. Concessions available. Book now

Cecily Brown: Picture Making

Cecily Brown, The Serpentine Picture (detail), 2024, Oil on linen, 119.38 x 185.42 cm (47 x 73 in.), © Cecily Brown, 2025.

#FLODown: Also opening at the Serpentine will be a major solo exhibition by Cecily Brown at their South Gallery. Marking her first UK show since 2005, the exhibition will feature new paintings inspired by Kensington Gardens, alongside monotypes and drawings that explore the English landscape and narrative traditions. It will be accompanied by a catalogue designed by Irma Boom, including interviews and insights into her practice.

Date: 27 March – 6 September 2026. Location: Serpentine South, Kensington Gardens, London. Price: Free. serpentine galleries.org

The Coming of Age

Por um fio (By a Thread), from Fotopoemação (Photopoemaction) series, 1976/2017, Anna Maria Maiolino, Photographed by Regina Vater. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. © Anna Maria Maiolino.

#FLODown: The Coming of Age at Wellcome Collection explores what it means to grow older in an era of unprecedented longevity. Examining ageing from adolescence through middle age to later life, the exhibition considers how society understands age and the persistent desire to resist or reverse it. Transhistorical and cross-disciplinary in scope, it brings together contemporary art, folklore and new population health research, alongside documentary films and longevity products associated with tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson. Works on display range from sculpture and photography to 20th-century advertisements and 17th-century etchings, with highlights by artists including Paula Rego, Robert Mapplethorpe, Serena Korder and John Coplans.

Date: 26 March – 29 November 2026. Location: Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. Price: Free. wellcomecollection.org

Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse

George Stubbs, 'Scrub, a bay horse belonging to the Marquess of Rockingham', about 1762. Private Collection © Private Collection. Photo The National Gallery, London

#FLODown: Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse celebrates the pioneering work of the British painter George Stubbs, renowned for his masterful depictions of horses. Centred on his 1762 portrait, Scrub, which presents a rearing racehorse without a rider, the exhibition explores Stubbs’s groundbreaking anatomical studies undertaken in Lincolnshire during the 1750s, and the extraordinary accuracy and vitality that define his equine paintings. The display also references Whistlejacket, his other celebrated life-size horse portrait, highlighting how these works transformed the tradition of equine art in Britain.

Date: 12 March – 31 May 2026. Location: National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Price: Free. Book now

The Arab Hall: Past and Present

The Arab Hall at Leighton House ©RBKC. Image Siobhan Doran

#FLODown: Leighton House will present The Arab Hall: Past and Present, a major programme re-examining its iconic 19th-century Arab Hall. The project introduces the first series of site-specific contemporary art commissions created for the space, featuring installations by Ramzi Mallat, Kamilah Ahmed and Soraya Syed, alongside a specially commissioned short film by Soudade Kaadan. These contemporary responses are complemented by an exhibition and a fully illustrated publication, The Arab Hall, Frederic Leighton: Traveller and Collector by Dr Melanie Gibson, which explores the Hall’s history, craftsmanship and Frederic Leighton’s travels across Europe and the Middle East. Together, the programme offers visitors a unique opportunity to engage with the Hall’s layered histories, artistic influences and continued relevance today.

Opening: 21 March 2026. Location: Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London, W14 8LZ. rbkc.gov.uk