London art exhibitions to see in May

The last month of spring is upon us and London is finally in full bloom. Now that the dust has settled after the creative bustle of Milan Design Week (if you missed out this year, see our Milan Design Week highlights here), there is time to enjoy the warmer and longer evenings, a perfect combination to peruse London’s art scene. From group shows to major career retrospectives, plan your next visit with our handy, frequently updated guide to the city's art exhibitions happening in May.

Heading across the pond? Here are the best New York art exhibitions to see this month.

London art exhibitions: what to see in May 2025

Ed Atkins

Tate Britain until 25 August 2025

In Ed Atkins’ new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones. ‘It’s big, oppressive and slightly uncomfortable,’ Atkins says of the show, which surveys 15 years. Alongside the large-screen videos are drawings and text pieces, as well as a pair of eerie, undulating beds. One blood-red drawing features the artist’s head attached to a spider’s body.

Read the full review here

Writer Emily Steer

Amoako Boafo's ‘I Do Not Come to You by Chance’

Gagosian until May 24 2025

‘I Do Not Come to You by Chance’ in London, is Boafo's first in the city and the exhibition promises to showcase not only new paintings but also to celebrate the artists’ home city of Accra, Ghana and the artistic community that supported his rise. The exhibition takes its name from the novel of the same name by the Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani. The exhibition sees Boafo explore his family history and the creative life and community. This show sees the private artist sharing more of his life and story than he ever has in a gesture that celebrates his friends such as artists Aplerh-Doku Borlabi, Kwesi Botchway, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, and Eric Adjei Tawiah, his life and his history.

Writer Amah-Rose Abrams

Read the full review here

Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Somerset House until 5 May 2025

At Somerset House, see the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards. There are many projects and categories showcasing the wide variety of narratives and different perspectives all captured through the lens. Discover a variety of architecture and design, including Canadian photographer Ulana Switucha who captured The Tokyo Toilet Project - the Japanese capital's scheme that spans its Shibuya ward and started as an initiative launched by the city and the Japan Foundation. Other images include Bolivian cholas who golf to cosplayers in their family homes, the pugnacious side of hummingbirds, Indian skate girls and the meaning of what it means to be a modern cowboy.

www.somersethouse.org.uk

Giuseppe Penone: Thoughts in the Roots

Serpentine South Gallery
Until 7 September 2025

Italian artist Giuseppe Penone’s latest exhibition is a retrospective looking at the expansive body of work he has created from 1969 to the present. ‘Thoughts in the Roots’ looks at his lifelong exploration of the relationship between humans and nature. The artist is known for his use of wood, iron, wax and terracotta which helps to create a synergy between artistic and natural process. Through a series of sculptures and installations, visitors can explore the way Penone uncovers nature’s intricate structures.

serpentinegalleries.org

Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha

The Barbican from 8 May to 10 August 2025

Pakistani-American artist Huma Bhabha is known for her inventive sculptures, drawings, and photographs that reinvent the figure and its expressive possibilities. At The Barbican, her exhibition titled ‘Nothing is Behind Us’, is Bhabha’s first at a London public institution. The exhibition includes four sculptures on show in Europe for the first time. Bhabha’s works are shown alongside iconic pieces by Giacometti such as Walking Woman I (1932) and Walking Man I (1960). This marks the first in a year-long partnership, titled Encounters: Giacometti, between the Barbican and Fondation Giacometti in Paris, which pairs works by Giacometti with those of contemporary sculptors.

www.barbican.org.uk

Anne von Freyburg 'Filthy Cute'

Saatchi Gallery
Until 11 May

You may have seen the work of Dutch artist Anne von Freyburg at Saatchi Gallery’s FLOWERS exhibition, and she now has her own solo show at the gallery. 'Filthy Cute' features large-scale pieces showcasing her use of textiles. Her approach looks at using this medium as if it were paint. Her works also include a mixture of acrylic ink, fabric, sequins, and tassel fringes to create these ‘textile paintings’ on canvas. The narrative behind each piece is a reflection on the clichés of heterosexual romances which are usually seen in Hollywood and popular culture.

www.saatchigallery.com

Tunga

Lisson Gallery
Until 17 May 2025

The work of the late multidisciplinary Brazilian artist Tunga is on show at Lisson Gallery. The exhibition will offer a look into his practice which includes ten sculptures from 2004 to 2014. The artist was known for his use of unconventional materials including hair and teeth, while also using copper and rubber which referenced Brazil’s industrial and colonial histories.

lissongallery.com

Soft Armour, Heavy Bones

Edel Assanti until 13 May 2025

Artist Si On marks her second exhibition in the UK. The Seoul-born, Krakow-based artist explores the relationship between innocence and darkness, and beauty and decay within the human spirit and the intricate nature of resilience. Through vivid paintings and sculptures she paints a world informed on, in her own words, 'life experiences shape our identities, as we carry memories, hopes, scars, and traumas that accumulate over time, revealing the complex aspects of our humanity’.

edelassanti.com

Secret 7”

NOW Gallery
Until 1 June 2025

Secret 7”, the charitable initiative which invites creatives both established and up-and-coming to submit artwork for the sleeves of 700 vinyl records, is back for its ninth edition. The event is presented by War Child, the charity that will be the recipient of the proceeds, which provides protection, education and mental health support to children in conflict zones. The initiative selects seven tracks from global musicians, pressing each onto 100 limited-edition 7” vinyl records. Secret 7” then asks creatives to design a one-of-a-kind sleeve for each record, interpreting the track in any style or medium they want. The distinct records that blur the boundaries between music and collectible art, will be showcased at Greenwich Peninsula’s NOW Gallery.

Writer: Anna Solomon
Read the full story here

1880 THAT: Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader

Wellcome Collection
Until 16 November 2025

At the Wellcome Collection creative duo Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader have collaborated on their latest exhibition ‘1880 THAT’ which includes film, installation and drawings to explore the communication between signed and spoken languages, and challenge a medical perspective of deafness as something to be cured. The brick motif is a recurring theme in the exhibition symbolising the building blocks of language, as well as the act of throwing bricks as a gesture of protest. The exhibition is a mix of witty design, humour and word play to uncover the complexities of meaning and (mis)understanding.

wellcomecollection.org

The Face Magazine: Culture Shift

National Portrait Gallery
Until 18 May 2025

Portrait photography from The Face Magazine is at the heart of this playful retrospective. In this exhibition over 80 photographers, and over 200 photographs are on display, with many of these images taken away from the magazine for the first time. Expect to see a variety of musicians to models who featured on the magazine’s cover, including a young Kate Moss.

www.npg.org.uk

Barbara Hepworth: Strings

Piano Nobile
Until 2 May 2025

A new exhibition at London gallery Piano Nobile will feature works by English artist and sculptor Barbara Hepworth that have, up until now, only been viewed as part of private collections. Barbara Hepworth: Strings coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death.

The presentation will focus on Hepworth’s use of string. Even if you haven’t heard of the artist, you may have seen her ‘string’ work in the form of the sculpture mounted on the side of John Lewis in Oxford Street: featuring huge aluminium rods, Winged Figure has been displayed in London since 1963.

Writer Anna Solomon
Read full review here

Noah Davis at the Barbican

Barbican
Until 11 May 2025

A decade after Noah Davis’ untimely death, the Barbican has staged the first institutional retrospective of his work. Davis's staggering talent as a painter is offset by his eye for the uncanny, a forensic knowledge of the history of painting and the ability to fuse these elements to create truly beautiful art.

Writer Amah-Rose Abrams
Read the full review here

'Linder: Danger Came Smiling'

Hayward Gallery, London,
Until 5 May 2025

'Linder: Danger Came Smiling' gathers fifty years of the artist's work at the Hayward Gallery. Her first retrospective traces her beginnings on the punk music scene, via her photomontages and eclectic embrace of references, from pornography to fashion, ballet, fetish, weightlifting and art history, culminating with her newest pieces, deepfake images of herself.

Writer Hannah Silver
Read the full interview here

Leigh Bowery!

Tate Modern
Until 31 August 2025

Tate Modern celebrates the life and career of artist Leigh Bowery. Never limited to convention, Bowery adapted to many roles from artist to performer, model to fashion designer. He saw himself as the canvas and reimagined clothes and makeup as tools for sculpture, using his body as a shapeshifting tool to challenge sexuality and gender. The exhibition is a chance to see his different 'looks', and many collaborations.

tate.org.uk

The 80s: Photographing Britain

Tate Britain
Until 5 May

Set against a backdrop of race riots, strikes, mass unemployment and gentrification, a new show at Tate Britain explores one of the UK’s most colourful eras through the medium of photography. Bringing together nearly 350 images and archive materials, ‘The 80s: Photographing Britain’ explores how the medium became a tool for social representation, cultural celebration and artistic expression throughout this period.

Writer Anne Soward

tate.org.uk

'Electric Dreams'

Tate Modern
Until 1 June 2025

Encompassing the period from the 1950s to the beginning of the internet era, and uniting over 70 artists, ‘Electric Dreams’ celebrates vintage tech art in all its mind-bending glory. From US artist Rebecca Allen’s experiments in motion capture and 3D modelling for a Krafwerk music video, to Eduardo Kac’s text poems created with Minitel machines, the exhibition delves into movements including kineticism, cybernetics and abstraction as they began to take shape.

Writer Hannah Silver

tate.org.uk