Whether you’re seeking refuge from the heat, a temporary escape from the churn of current affairs, or simply an excuse to spend an afternoon looking closely, London’s galleries are offering plenty of reasons to step inside.
By Sophie Heatley | 29 Jun 2026
Moving between landscape and memory, illusion and perception, spectral histories and bursts of unapologetic colour, this season’s exhibitions range from Georgia Beaumont‘s floral explorations of land as a living archive to the final exhibition conceived in collaboration with David Hockney before his death.
Recently Opened
While It Holds
Wilder Gallery, London
Bringing together works by Rise Art artist Georgia Beaumont alongside Bobbye Fermie, Beatrice Hassell-McCosh, Rosie Harbottle, Selby Hurst Inglefield, Anna Kesäniemi, Katy Papineau and Sophie Smorczewski, While It Holds considers landscape as a living archive. Across painting, sculpture and installation, the artists consider land as a repository of memory, emotion and inherited knowledge, tracing stories of belonging, cultural memory and place across time.
Until 24 July 2026
Wilder Gallery, 77 College Road, London, NW10 5ES
Mind-bending: M.C. Escher
Somerset House, London
Praised by The Guardian as a “gripping journey into [Escher’s] metaverse”, this ambitious survey brings together more than 150 original works by the Dutch graphic artist. Revealing the rigorous experimentation behind his impossible worlds, the exhibition moves from tessellating patterns and shifting perspectives to metamorphic landscapes that seem to dissolve the boundaries between reality and illusion. A rewarding encounter for anyone drawn to visual paradoxes and perceptual play, or fans of Kit Boyd’s mysterious pastoral idylls.
Until 6 September 2026
Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
Ongoing
Eileen Agar
Alison Jacques, London
Known as the “Angel of Anarchy”, Eileen Agar spent her career resisting categorisation. Whether collecting found objects along the Cornish coast or engaging with the leading figures of European modernism, she cultivated a visual language rooted in curiosity, transformation and surprise. This focused retrospective highlights her ability to forge unexpected relationships between objects, forms and symbols, revealing a practice animated by perpetual discovery. As Agar herself wrote: “One must have a hunger for new colour, new shapes, and new possibilities of discovery.”
Until 25 July 2026
22 Cork Street, W1S 3NG
Steven Shearer: My Moody Muse
David Zwirner, London
In My Moody Muse, Steven Shearer turns his attention to the enduring figure of the muse, examining its cultural and psychological resonance through a series of enigmatic portraits. Pallid figures emerge from richly saturated grounds, their luminous eyes, fragmented bodies and spectral attributes hovering between beauty and unease. Characteristically ambiguous, Shearer’s paintings occupy a space between attraction and decay, offering a compelling, at times disturbing, look at desire, mortality and image-making.
Until 31 July 2026
24 Grafton Street, W1S 4EZ
Closing Soon
Ravelle Pillay: Revisitations
Goodman Gallery, London
For Revisitations, Ravelle Pillay returns to archival imagery as a means of navigating grief, absence and inherited histories. Drawing on the dual meanings of “revisitation” and “visitation”, the exhibition engages with ideas of haunting and spectral presence, informed by texts such as Avery F. Gordon’s Ghostly Matters. Through painting, Pillay excavates complex entanglements between her South African Indian heritage and British aristocratic ancestry, revealing histories of displacement, erasure and colonial power that continue to reverberate in the present.
Until 4 July 2026
26 Cork Street, W1S 3ND
Yinka Ilori: Joy Through Resistance. He Who Laughs Last, Laughs Best
Cristea Roberts Gallery, London
Colour operates as both material and message in Yinka Ilori’s latest exhibition. Bathing everyday objects in his characteristically vibrant palette, the artist explores joy as a form of resilience and cultural expression. Throughout the exhibition, symbols including the Nigerian yellow trumpet and the British daffodil are layered with decorative lace motifs, creating a visual language that speaks to migration, identity and collective memory. The result is an exuberant and generous celebration of community, creativity and perseverance.
Until 11 July 2026
43 Pall Mall, St. James’s, SW1Y 5JG
Iconic and Unmissable
Tracey Emin: A Second Life
Tate Modern, London
Approaching its final months, A Second Life offers a major survey of Tracey Emin‘s career. Spanning early installations, intimate paintings, works on paper and recent bronze sculptures, the exhibition traces an artistic practice shaped by vulnerability, survival and relentless self-examination. Rather than simply revisiting familiar narratives, the exhibition foregrounds renewal, charting Emin’s return to painting and her continued exploration of love, trauma and the complexities of being alive.
Until 31 August 2026
Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG
David Hockney: A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts about Painting
Serpentine North Gallery, London
Conceived in collaboration with David Hockney before his death earlier this month, this major exhibition feels especially poignant. Anchored by the artist’s monumental A Year in Normandie, the presentation reflects a lifelong commitment to attentive looking and the pleasures of everyday experience. In conversation with the surrounding landscape of Kensington Gardens, this exhibition celebrates Hockney’s enduring belief that one must simply “look with both eyes” to find beauty. A fitting tribute to one of Britain’s most beloved artists.
Until 23 August 2026
Serpentine North Gallery, West Carriage Drive, London, W2 2AR
