Don’t miss out on the best exhibitions in London. From the latest blockbuster art shows to up and coming artists, find the best exhibitions in London here.
There are some incredible exhibitions in London at the moment. Current highlights include Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi at Somerset House, a major exhibition exploring the non-stop nature of our modern lives; Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Pharaoh at the Saatchi Gallery, the last time these artefacts will tour the world; and the major Steve McQueen retrospective at the Tate Modern.
BAFTA is hosting a major Behind The Screens exhibition where you can take a look at costumes, models, scripts and more from some of your fave TV shows and films, including that pink Molly Goddard dress worn by Villanelle in Killing Eve, hair and make-up design for The Favourite and research and prep that Chiwetel Ejiofor undertook for 12 Years A Slave. The Natural History Museum is home to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year show, with awarded images selected from almost 50,000 entries and it showcases the beauty and diversity of the natural world, with everything from Canadian racoons to Japanese long-tailed tits to African cheetahs depicted in the photographs.
The annual orchid festival is back at Kew and for the first time the theme is Indonesia. As an archipelago of more than 17,504 islands, Indonesia is incredibly biodiverse, with tropical rainforests, active volcanoes and over 4,000 species of orchid and you can get a little taste of this inside the Princess of Wales Conservatory.
And if you’ve not gone on one of the Hidden London tours of abandoned tube stations, you can now experience it above ground at the Hidden London exhibition at the London Transport Museum. The exhibition will feature the largest number of archive photos, film posters, objects, tiles and diagrams from disused stations in one location, and there’ll also be immersive elements like a recreation of Churchill’s dining room at Down Street station and the ticket office from Aldwych station, complete with original 1930s ticket booth and tiles.
From a battlefield to a coal yard to a rave hotspot, King’s Cross has had a rich and varied history and you’ll be able to see it all in the immersive Revolution to Rebellion exhibition at the King’s Cross Visitors Centre. The show will trace the history of the area, from a place where battles where fought to the industrial heyday of what is now Coal Drops Yard in the 1850s to the iconic nightclubs that sprang up in the nineties.
Somerset House is going mushroom mad with an exhibition dedicated to fungi. Works from over 40 artists, including Cy Twombly, Beatrix Potter, John Cage, Perks and Mini, Haroon Mirza, Hannah Collins and more, will be on display, with the show exploring the cultural legacy of mushrooms, the psychedelic feelings they inspire and the groundbreaking ways they can be used in textiles and architecture.
This is one exhibition where you’re actively encouraged to touch everything. Meet Vincent Van Gogh is an experience that immerses you in his life and art so you can really understand his influences and his techniques – there are large projections of his works; a recreation of the Yellow House where you can sit in his bedroom and climb haystacks; a Potato Eaters table where you can sit and take an art lesson and more.
French artist Emmanuelle Moureaux is presenting one of her large-scale installations in the UK for the very first time at NOW Gallery. Inspired by the Japanese concept of shikari (‘dividing space with colour’) and by the gallery’s Greenwich location near to the Meridian, Moureaux has created Slices of Time, cut-out coloured paper numbers, hung to express the flow of time.
The largest collection of King Tutankhamun’s treasures to leave Egypt is going on display at the Saatchi Gallery. The ‘Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh’ exhibition is coming to town as part of the commemorations marking the centenary of the discovery of the tomb. Over 150 original artefacts from the tomb, including 60 that have never been outside Egypt before, will be on display with the exhibition focusing on the significance of Tutankhamun’s burial items and how they helped the king on his journey to everlasting life. This exhibition will be the last chance to see these artefacts before they go on permanent display at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, so you won’t wanna miss it.
Get a glimpse behind the scenes of some of your fave TV shows and films with this exhibition of costumes, models, scripts and more at BAFTA. Behind The Screens will feature that pink Molly Goddard dress worn by Villanelle in Killing Eve, hair and make-up design for The Favourite and research and prep that Chiwetel Ejiofor undertook for 12 Years A Slave, as well as celebration of The Clangers to coincide with the show’s 50th anniversary. The exhibition will be running for two years and will be regularly updated with new pieces.
If you’ve not gone on one of the Hidden London tours of abandoned tube stations, you can now experience it above ground at the Hidden London exhibition at the London Transport Museum. The exhibition will feature the largest number of archive photos, film posters, objects, tiles and diagrams from disused stations in one location, and there’ll also be immersive elements like a recreation of Churchill’s dining room at Down Street station and the ticket office from Aldwych station, complete with original 1930s ticket booth and tiles.
