Sheida Soleimani, Delara, 2015
© Sheida Soleimani. Courtesy of Edel Assanti
Spring has finally, gloriously, sprung, and as usual, London is absolutely packed with things to do – whether that’s exhibitions, events, theatre or music.
But of course, it can all get a bit pricey. So if you want to have a great weekend seeing some of London’s best culture, but also want to save a few quid, look no further than this guide to the best art shows to see in the city, which are all absolutely free.
In this moving commission, Turner Prize-winning British artist Chris Ofili has created a giant art work across Tate Britain’s Northern Staircase to pay tribute to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. The dream-like, brightly-coloured mural gives a special nod to fellow artist Khadija Saye who was killed in the 2017 tragedy.
Eleven rooms of the Tate are dedicated to this visual exploration of the varied materials that artists have used over the decades. Expect to see works such as Doris Salcedos famous metal structures, Marcel Duchamp’s toilet seat and Sarah Sze’s installations.
Michèle Lamy & Loree Rodkin x Rick Owens
Portrait of Michele Lamy
Photography by Tim Verhallen, courtesy of the artist
French designer Michèle Lamy is a fixture of Paris’s fashion and art crowd. Not only is she the life partner of fashion designer Rick Owens, but over her six-decade career she has worked as a cabaret dancer, lawyer, producer, entrepreneur, artist and model. She also makes jewellery with celebrated designer Loree Rodkin, whose earrings, ring and bracelets were worn by Michelle Obama to Barack’s inaugural ball. At Carpenter’s Workshop their rings are on show alongside some of Owen’s own design pieces.
Shuvinai Ashoona: When I Draw
Installation view, photo by Stephen James
Courtesy of the artist and The Perimeter
Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona started drawing in the Nineties to earn money for food and cigarettes – “smoke money,” as she calls it. Now, her works have been exhibited internationally and were recently celebrated at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Combining everyday scenes of life, land and community in the Canadian Arctic with imagery associated with Inuit animism and shamanism, the pieces are illuminating, sometimes funny, and often dreamlike.
Alison Jacques, London, and Alexander Gray Associates, New York © The Betty Parsons Foundation; photo: Michael Brzezinski
By day, Betty Parsons was a visionary New York gallerist. By night, she was an abstract painter and sculptor. Here is a selection of her playful and colourful works: “I would give up my gallery in a second if the world would accept me as an artist,” she once said.
Wendell Castle: Suspended Disbelief
Suspended Disbelief, exhibition view, photography by Benjamin Baccarani
Courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery
The works of sculptor Wendell Castle (1932-2018), one of the founding fathers of the American Art Furniture Movement, could be best described as ink splashes rendered in 3D. Here a range of the astonishing sculptural design pieces, created over his celebrated career, are on display.
Zheng Bo: Bamboo as Method
Hong Kong based artist Zheng Bo uses film, dance and installation in their work to explore the connections between nature, biology and queer sexuality. In this large-scale commission, they have transformed Somerset House’s courtyard into a bamboo garden, creating an elegant sanctuary for contemplation and restoration.
Atta Kwami, Dzidzɔ kple amenuveve (Joy and Grace) 2021-22: Maria Lassnig Prize Mural
The Serpentine’s public art mural is a bright delight. One of Ghanaian painter, printmaker, historian and curator Atta Kwami’s (1956 – 2021) last ever works, the prize-winning painted construction, which is titled Joy and Grace in the West African language Ewe, is just that.
Tim Stoner, Marbella Club, 2021/2023
© The artists, courtesy of Lisson Gallery
This group exhibition, presented across both of Lisson Gallery’s London spaces, showcases the work of eight artists who have all cultivated their practices in London over the past three decades, as the city has gone through a number of radical socio-political shifts.
Raqs Media Collective: Come Undone
Raqs Media Collective, Twisted Time, 2024
Courtesy of the artists and Frith Street Gallery
New Delhi-based Raqs Media Collective, which is made up of artist-curator-researchers Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, presents a series of work centred around the shape of the knot. Expect glass knots, carpets, videos, a curated soundtrack, sculptures and engravings.
Courtesy of the artist and Annely Juda Fine Art
French painter and sculptor François Morellet (1926-2016), a pioneer of geometrical abstract art, explored perception, hierarchies and pre-established systems in his celebrated works. Here, a number of his signature light installations are on display.
Aria Dean: Abattoir
Courtesy of the artist and ICA
In her first UK exhibition, American artist and writer Aria Dean explores modernity and death through the instantly recognisable and provocative architecture of an abattoir. The large animated film installation is accompanied by an immersive score (so described because it incorporates algorithmically generated sounds, field recordings and instrumentals) by Evan Zierk.
Farley Aguilar: The Age of Effluence
Farley Aguilar: The Age of Effluence, installation view, Edel Assanti, London, 2024
Photo: Tom Carter
Nicaraguan, Miami-based, artist Farley Aguilar’s unsettling, brightly-coloured paintings depict people – in groups, walking with friends – and ask questions about the social facades of and within communities.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: A Scot in St Ives
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Trailblazing British artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004), a key member of the St Ives group of artists whose cohort included Barbara Hepworth and Patrick Heron, is best remembered for her illuminating abstract paintings. Here 12 of her lesser-known, brilliant works on paper are displayed.
Richard Serra: Six Large Drawings
Richard Serra, Periodic Table, 1991, Paintstick on two sheets of paper
Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ (DACS), London, Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner
It’s been less than a fortnight since the death of Richard Serra, who was recently described as “the greatest sculptor of his generation and one of the greatest in the history of American art”. Known for creating monumental steel architectural installations that would loom over visitors below, Serra’s works were unforgiving and severe – and beautiful. Here are six of his large drawings.
Shizuko Yoshikawa: Possible Progressions
Shizuko Yoshikawa, one of the leading female figures of the 20th century Constructivist and Concrete art movement, has spent her career creating sculptures, paintings and drawings. Here, see four-decades of the Japan-born, Switzerland-based artist’s thought-provoking works.
Secundino Hernández: Problematic Corners
Secundino Hernández, Spithere Crab, 2024
© Secundino Hernández Studio. Courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro
In his fifth solo exhibition with this east London gallery, Spanish artist Secundino Hernández presents colourful works on giant ovals (the mystical shapes reoccur throughout religious iconography, and are “deeply ingrained in the Spanish imagination”). They continue his exploration of art history and aesthetic movements.
Shaqúelle Whyte: Yute, you’re gonna be fine
Shaqúelle Whyte, It’s inferred, 2024
Photo: Eva Herzog
Shaqúelle Whyte’s enigmatic paintings, which often depict figures caught off-guard, ask questions about the human condition, and explore how everyday moments come to form a life.
Anwyn Howarth, Earthly Bodies
Courtesy of the artist and Sarah Myerscough Gallery
Featuring the work of Ken Eastman, Luke Fuller, Yoshimi Futamura, Tomonari Hashimoto and Jonathan Keep, this group exhibition is a love letter to ceramics in a series of exquisite pots and sculptures.
Mark Corfield-Moore: We Speak Chicken
Mark Corfield-Moore, Cathedral, 2021
© the artist, courtesy of Cob Gallery
In this thought-provoking and humorous exhibition, multidisciplinary artist Mark Corfield-Moore (b. 1988, Bangkok) looks into the history of textile craftsmanship, adopting traditional techniques he learnt in northern Thailand and utilising the methods in his own playful textile works.
Acts of Resistance: Photography, Feminisms and The Art of Protest
Sheida Soleimani, Delara, 2015
© Sheida Soleimani. Courtesy of Edel Assanti
Anti-rape demonstrations in Bangladesh, Iranian unrest after Mahsa Amini’s death, reactions to the US Supreme Court overturning of Roe vs Wade – these are just a few of the global events depicted in Acts of Resistance. The group photography exhibition, which has been organised in collaboration with the V&A, explores documentation as a tool of protest.
Soane office and Antonio Van Assen, Lothbury Court, Bank of England, c.1797-1801
© Sir John Soane’s Museum, London
Drawing largely on pieces in the Lincoln’s Inn museum’s fantastic collection, Fanciful Figures shines a light on the small human and animal figures that would populate large-scale Georgian architectural drawings, used by artists to add intrigue and create a sense of size.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, to June 9; soane.org
Judith Bernstein: Truth And Chaos
Courtesy the artist , Emalin, London and Karma International, Zurich. Photo by Stephen James
An outspoken feminist and anti-war activist, New Jersey-born Judith Bernstein has spent her career making provocative large-scale drawings of genitalia. Her first exhibition in London in over a decade is a retrospective of 30 years of her startling, confrontational works.
Jean Arp Untitled, 1927
Courtesy Waddington Custot
This illuminating group exhibition, presents Surrealist works from pioneers of the genre, such as Giorgio De Chirico, Max Ernst and Joan Miró, alongside lesser-known artists who also made important contributions to the art movement. Asking questions about reality, the unconscious and perception, the exhibition marks 100 years since the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto.
Georg Baselitz: A Confession of My Sins
Georg Baselitz, Oh, ach, dazwischen, 2023
Photo © White Cube (Theo Christelis)
86-year-old German painter and sculptor Georg Baselitz returns to White Cube Bermondsey for the first time in eight years, presenting a body of new work in which he reflects on a variety of moments from his extraordinary life, and reflects on his art practice to date.
Zeinab Saleh, Early morning, 2024
Courtesy of the artist and Tate Britain
Art Now is Tate Britain’s long-running exhibition series spotlighting rising stars in the art scene; this time, it’s Kenyan-born and London-based artist Zeinab Saleh’s turn to shine. Drawing on everyday experiences and memories, Saleh uses patterns and silhouettes in soft colours to create a feeling of otherworldliness and intimacy.
Andrew Omoding: Animals To Remember Uganda
Andrew Omoding, Teddy, 2016
Image courtesy of the Artist and ActionSpace
Ugandan-born, London-based artist Andrew Omoding presents a brand new site specific series of abstract installations that incorporate music, video and sculpture, which have been made from repurposed objects and metal. The autobiographical pieces, a continuation of his 2019 presentation at the gallery, reflect on childhood and migration.
Leo Robinson: DREAM-BRIDGE-OMNIGLYPH
Leo Robinson: DREAM–BRIDGE–OMNIGLYPH, installation view, 2023
Photo: Marcus Leith
Bloomberg’s City of London basement is full of surprises. It not only consists of an art gallery, but it is home to parts of an ancient Roman temple and showcases a number of Roman artefacts too. Its next art commission is DREAM-BRIDGE-OMNIGLYPH, a collection of multimedia works from British artist Leo Robinson that explores ancient myths, personal identity, history, tradition and colonialism.
Soufiane Ababri: Their mouths were full of bumblebees but it was me who was pollinated
Soufiane Ababri. Photo: Rebecca Fanuele
Moroccan artist Soufiane Ababri’s first major solo UK exhibition is a tender investigation of queerness, desire and diasporic life through drawings and set design: “This atmospheric installation won’t give up all its secrets to everyone, but it’s evocative nonetheless,” said the Standard.
The Conservatory x Ranjani Shettar
Installation view of Ranjani Shettar: Cloud songs on the horizon
Courtesy Barbican Centre, KNMA, Ranjani Shettar © Max Colson, Barbican Art Gallery
Not that anyone really needs an excuse to visit the Barbican’s gorgeous conservatory, but the space now features five large-scale works from Indian sculptor Ranjani Shettar. The delightful sculptures, which have been inspired by nature, have been crafted by hand using materials – including wood, stainless steel, muslin – and techniques that are used in traditional Indian craftwork.
Adriano Costa: ax-d. us. t
Adriano Costa, FRANGO ASSADO (You Will Always Be My Baby I Won’t Tell Anyone), 2024
Courtesy of the artist and Emalin, London. Photo by Stephen James
Brazilian artist Adriano Costa uses everyday materials to create his sculpture, installation and painting works. His minimalist and modernist work is here presented in – and draws from – the historical Clerk’s House in Shoreditch High Street.
The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula by Caravaggio, 1610
Archivio Patrimonio Artistico Intesa Sanpaolo / Luciano Pedicini, Napoli
Violent, cinematic, eternally provocative, Caravaggio’s kinetic paintings continue to inspire. Which is why a one-room show of just two of the Italian master’s paintings – The National Gallery’s Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (1609-10) and The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610), seen in London for the first time in 20 years – is one of the most buzzy openings of the year.
Ibrahim Mahama: Purple Hibiscus
Ibrahim Mahama’s Purple Hibiscus during installation at the Barbican, 2024
Courtesy Ibrahim Mahama, Red Clay Tamale, Barbican Centre, London and White Cube. © Pete Cadman, Barbican Centre
Ibrahim Mahama has collaborated with hundreds of craftspeople from Ghana to create this delicate, uplifting installation, which sees the Barbican wrapped in 2,000 square metres of purple cloth. 100 ‘batakaris’ – royal Ghanian robes – have been hand sewn to the brightly-coloured piece that adds a shock of colour to the famous grey tones of the Brutalist space.
Yinka Shonibare: Suspended States
Yinka Shonibare CBE, Decolonised Structures, 2022-23.
Yinka Shonibare, Serpentine South Gallery
Described as “beautiful, alluring and disquieting” and “classic Yinka”, Suspended States, Yinka Shonibare’s first London solo exhibition in more than two decades is a series of illuminating installations made since 2017. Expect statues of Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill wrapped head to toe in bright fabrics; models of buildings that have housed the vulnerable; and his harrowing war library.
Beyond The Matrix: A Sculptural Exhibition by Jodie Carey
Beyond The Matrix: A Sculptural Exhibition by Jodie Carey
AWITA x Brookfield Properties, Beyond the Matrix
British artist Jodie Carey’s large-scale installations extend across the giant glass foyer of this east London office, inviting viewers to contemplate the anthropocene, material memory, and the relationship between objects and their environment.
Art Without Heroes: Mingei
From the collections of the Crafts Study Centre, University for the Creative Arts
Mingei, meaning ‘the art of the people’, is an early 20th century Japanese folk-craft style which encompassed ceramics, woodwork, paper, toys, textiles, photography and film. In this wide-ranging, illuminating show, unseen pieces, museum loans and archival footage tell the story of the influential movement.
Frederic, Lord Leighton PRA, Flaming June, c. 1895.
Museo de Arte de Ponce. Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Frederic Leighton’s most famous painting, the exquisite Flaming June, was originally part of the British artist’s submission to the RA’s Summer Exhibition in 1895. Now, 128 years later, it’s on show at the institution again (on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico), being shown alongside work from both Leighton and his contemporaries.
