TempleGet Up, Stand Up Now, this summer’s major exhibition at Somerset House, is a celebration of Black creativity in Britain and beyond over the past half century, from Horace Ové and the Windrush generation to young Black talent today. Around 100 artists, including Lubaina Himid, Gaika, Steve McQueen, Althea McNish, Dennis Bovell, Jenn Nkiru and more, will have their work presented together for the first time.
12th June - 15th September 2019
Blackfriars 
BlackfriarsHe’s brought the sun and the ice to the Tate Modern and now Olafur Eliasson is back at the gallery with a major exhibition. Over 30 works will be on display, covering a key theme or topic Eliasson has explored through his career, including perception, movement, architecture and the environment. As well as the installations on show inside the gallery, there’ll be a work displayed outside on the terrace, and the Studio Olafur Eliasson team will also create a special menu for the Terrace Bar based on the organic, vegetarian and locally sourced food they eat in the Berlin studio.
11th July 2019 - 5th January 2020
Waterloo WaterlooKiss My Genders at the Hayward Galley brings together over 30 international artists and over 100 artworks that explore gender identity, including trans, non-binary and intersex identities, and gender expression through performance and drag. A range of mediums will be on show, including new and site-specific pieces from Chitra Ganesh, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings and Jenkin van Zyl.
12th June - 8th September 2019
Surrey QuaysNot only is all the art in the Dog Show exhibition dog-related but the pooches who live with the various artists involved, including Martin Creed, Adam Chodzko, Heather Phillipson, Lucian Freud, Babak Ganjei, David Shrigley, Jim Moir and Oona Grimes, helped to pick out the pieces. It’s art about dogs, for dogs (and for people too).
18th July - 8th September 2019
Aldgate EastThe Whitechapel Gallery is hosting the debut survey of renowned Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz, to coincide with the display of his Lamassu sculpture for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. The exhibition features his most important works, including ‘The invisible enemy should not exist’, life-size recreations, made using packaging, of reliefs formerly located at the Northwest Palace of Nimrud and destroyed by ISIS in 2015, which is part of his ongoing attempt to recreate every cultural artefact destroyed during the Iraq War.
4th June - 25th August 2019
London Bridge London BridgeThe Science Gallery is exploring the building blocks of the universe with this exhibition based on dark matter, which makes up 95% of the universe. The display features artworks that question the unseen and tackle the fundamental principles of physics, including an animation installation that reflects on physics in cartoons, a perpetually changing liquid crystal painting that is shaped by algorithms reading Twitter feeds of protest movements, and an installation that translates dark matter simulations into sound patterns.
6th June - 26th August 2019
Bond StreetManolo Blahnik is teaming up with the Wallace Collection to present a personally selected edit of his designs, shown amongst the masterpieces at the Wallace Collection. Blahnik has often used the Wallace Collection as source of inspiration so this exhibition is a great chance to see some of his greatest shoes and designs, including ones he did for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, next to pieces of different disciplines that he has used as references.
10th June - 1st September 2019
South KensingtonFOOD: Bigger than the Plate at the V&A explores how food goes from farm to table, how we experience and enjoy it, and how we can help create a more sustainable food future. The exhibition features over 70 projects, split into four sections – Compost, Farming, Trading and Eating – with exhibits including an urban mushroom farm using coffee grounds from the museum cafe to grow mushrooms, which’ll then be served on the menu; cheese made from human bacteria; and a new range of sausage designs to make eating protein more sustainable. As well as brand new installations, the show will also feature historic prints, ceramics and illustrations from the museum’s collection.
18th May - 20th October 2019
Blackfriars BlackfriarsThe Tate Modern is hosting the first ever retrospective of Natalia Goncharova ever held in the UK, exploring her diverse range of inspirations and works, with most of the pieces on show never having been seen here before. Goncharova was a leader of the Russian avant-garde, producing everything from futurist body art to huge religious paintings as well as designed costumes for the Ballet Russes in Paris.
6th June - 8th September 2019
Kensington OlympiaThe Design Museum is hosting Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition, which has been touring the world and it’s jam-packed with archive pieces, original props and costumes, rare photographs, and some objects that have never been on display in the UK before. You can relive iconic scenes from the likes of A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut, and the exhibition also explores Kubrick’s fascination with design and his relationship with England as a filming location – the Vietnam battlefields for Full Metal Jacket, the orbiting space station for 2001: A Space Odyssey and the War Room in Dr Strangelove were all created here.
26th April - 15th September 2019
Aldgate EastBetween 2006 and 2016 over half of London’s LGBTQ+ venues closed and this exhibition looks at how redevelopement is changing the queer scene in London. Featuring archival material as well as original works from the likes of Tom Burr, Prem Sahib, Ralph Dunn, Evan Ifekoya and Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, the show looks over the history of London’s queer spaces, explore what makes a queer space and how these places relate to the LGBTQ+ community.
2nd April - 25th August 2019
Charing Cross Charing CrossThe National Portrait Gallery is hosting major retrospective on US photographer Cindy Sherman. The exhibition covers Sherman’s work from the mid-1970s up to the present day, looking at the way she explores appearance and identity. Over 150 pieces will be on display, including the Untitled Film Stills, 1977-80, which has not been on display in the UK before.
27th June – 15th September 2019
TempleRunning for the duration of the major Get Up, Stand Up Now exhibition at Somerset House, Hennessy: For The Culture explores the grime and hip-hop scenes and its place in mainstream culture, looking at why Hennessy has become so synonymous with these genres of music. Lloyd Bradley, Olivia Rose and Hattie Collins have worked on the installation, which takes you through London’s black music scenes from the 160s to now and features contributions from Skepta, Jammer, Julie Adenuga, Dizzee Rascal, Stormzy, Giggs, Wiley, Kano, Ms Banks, Twin A & Twin B, Novelist and Lady Leshurr.
12th June - 15th September 2019
Holborn Russell SquareThe British Museum is hosting the largest exhibition on manga ever held outside of Japan. This mega show explores the origins and history of manga through to its global appeal, showcasing the breadth of the themes that the art form covers. It’s all brought to life with immersive elements like a cosplay section, where you can dress up and browse around a recreation of an old Tokyo manga bookshop, and a photo booth where you can have your portrait “manga-fied”.
23rd May - 26th August 2019
BarbicanThis exhibition at the Barbican, the first major one on her in Europe for more than 50 years, celebrates the life and work of Lee Krasner. She was an important abstract expressionist artist in her own right, a fact that has often been overshadowed by her marriage to Jackson Pollock, and this show of almost 100 pieces, many of which are being seen in the UK for the first time, highlights her energy and invention.
30th May - 1st September 2019
BarbicanThe Barbican is hosting a major ‘festival-style’ exhibition on AI, exploring the developments in AI, both creative and scientific, as well as our relationship with the technology. As you’d expect it’s interactive, so you can get hands-on with pieces and installations from the likes of MIT, Massive Attack, Es Devlin, teamLab and more. London’s first-ever robotic bartender will also be in residence. Created by Makr Shakr, Toni, with its two mechanical arms, can prepare and serve a drink in seconds, by shaking, stirring and muddling with dancer-like movements. You can select a pre-made recipe or have Toni mix you up a custom bev.
16th May - 26th August 2019
Forest Hill Forest HillA coral reef, an ancient Egyptian pyramid, the International Space Station an two Horniman icons are just some of the 50 models created entirely out of half a million LEGO at the Brick Wonders exhibition at the Horniman Museum.
Until 27th October 2019
South KensingtonChristian Dior: Designer of Dreams, based on the major Paris exhibition of the same name, will be the largest exhibition on Dior ever held in the UK. The exhibition will cover 1947 to the present day, with over 500 objects going on display. As well as 200 rare haute couture pieces, including the Dior dress that Princess Margaret wore on her 21st birthday, there’ll be photos, make-up, perfume, magazines and Dior’s personal possessions to peek at, and the exhibition will trace the evolution of the house through the artistic directors that have followed Dior, from Yves Saint Laurent to John Galliano to Maria Grazia Chiuri.
2nd February - 1st September 2019
South KensingtonLuke Jerram’s touring artwork Museum of the Moon, a six-metre model featuring incredibly detailed NASA imagery of the moon with ambient moonlight and soundscape, is residing in the Natural History Museum to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum/ Dare & Hier Media
17th May - 1st January 2020
South KensingtonIt’s a celebration of the sixties at the V&A as the museum hosts a major retrospective of revolutionary fashion designer Mary Quant. Credited with popularising the mini skirt, Mary Quant changed the face of the British high street. Over 200 garments and accessories, including unseen pieces from her personal archive as well as original items loaned from the public will be on display.
6th April 2019 - 16th February 2020
Piccadilly CircusThe famous Body Worlds exhibition, created by Dr Gunther von Hagens and featuring real body parts preserved with plastination, is on display in Piccadilly. The 200 exhibits cover the reproductive, nervous, cardiovascular, respiratory, locomotive and metabolic systems in an insane amount of detail, so if you want to get a true insight into what happens inside the human body, this is place to come.
