London art exhibitions to see in November

This month immerse yourself in a plethora of London art exhibitions to see across the city right now. Dive into the quirky world of Wes Anderson at the Design Museum, while at the Saatchi Gallery discover the photography of 34 Ukrainian artists capturing a generation living through war. Ibrahim Mahama’s ‘Parliament of Ghosts’ inaugurates the permanent home of Ibraaz museum, and, at Victoria Miro, Chantal Joffe presents her fourteenth solo exhibition with the gallery. Here, she paints the truth of memory, motherhood and family dynamics. From group shows to career retrospectives, plan your next visit with our frequently updated guide to the month’s best offerings.

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

London art exhibitions: what to see in November 2025

Shaqúelle Whyte: 'Winter Remembers April'

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery until 8 November 2025

'References to Rubens, to George Stubbs, to Tintoretto, all appear in these works, and these 'traditional' artists are naturally touchstones for me,' says Shaqúelle Whyte on the works in his current exhibition at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery. With an exhibition title taken from Wynton Marsalis’ interpretation of jazz standard, I’ll Remember April, there is a musicality which runs throughout Whyte's exquisitely detailed oil paintings.

For Whyte, who recently received the CAS Collections Fund at Frieze, the exhibition is a chance to reassess a contemporary interpretation of Black culture. 'This may sound quite simplistic, but because I'm Black, I also wanted to make paintings with people that look like me,' Whyte adds. 'Within the canon of painting, there isn't enough work that's just ok with being, as opposed to carrying the weight of history. That's not to say that my work is ignorant of history, but rather by leaving it open to interpretation, I try not to be prescriptive, to apply any single thought or specific feeling to my paintings.'

Wes Anderson: The Archives

Design Museum from 21 November 2025 to 26 July 2026

The pastel-tinted world of Wes Anderson is celebrated in a retrospective coming to London’s Design Museum. This is the first exhibition dedicated to the director that looks at the evolution of his films. It will showcase over 600 models, props and costumes from Anderson’s films, from his first experiments in the 1990s right up to his most recent Oscar-winning The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Accompanying this, the exhibition will also feature his first drafts and work-in-progress material, including small-scale models such as the 3m wide model of The Grand Budapest Hotel.

designmuseum.org

Futurespective

Saatchi Gallery until 16 November 2025

The exhibition highlights works by 34 artists who work across genres spanning documentary, fine art photography, still life, landscape and collage. It focuses on the imagery created by Ukrainian photographers who explore themes of adolescence, life and hope during times of war. Collectively Futurespective is a visual insight into a generation who dive into the meaning of life especially through times of conflict.

saatchigallery.com

Parliament of ghosts

Ibraaz until 15 February 2026

Ibrahim Mahama’s ‘Parliament of Ghosts’ inaugurates the permanent home of Ibraaz at 93 Mortimer Street. The museum is dedicated to presenting a living archive which charts histories of empire, migration and more. Stretching over six floors in central London it offers a place to gather and be inspired. The new exhibition is focused on the social histories of Ghana. For his presentation Mahama transported timber reclaimed from the colonial railway, which provides a literal and symbolic ground for new ways of gathering.

ibraaz.org

‘Peter Doig: House of Music’

Serpentine South until 8 February 2026

Peter Doig explores the role of music, and film in his new exhibition ‘House of Music’. Diving into the idea of communal gathering and creative exchange, the gallery is transformed into a listening space, bringing together his recent paintings, coupled with sound. The music is selected by the artist ( from his personal collection of vinyl records and tapes). The showcase is inspired by a blend of personal memories from photographs, to imaged scenes, which are drawn from Doig’s years spent in Trinidad.

serpentinegalleries.org

Unveiled Desires: Fetish & The Erotic in Surrealism, 1880

Richard Saltoun Gallery until 28 February 2026

Curated by Maudji Mendel of RAW (Rediscovering Art by Women) the two-part exhibition looks at the work of overlooked women artists of the 20th century. The exhibition is focused on Surrealism, with the Erotic playing a central role, with works focused on liberation, subversion and desire. ‘Unveiled Desires: Fetish & The Erotic in Surrealism, 1880’ dives into these artistic engagements by female and queer artists across painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture.

richardsaltoun.com

‘Sound & Vision: Running Up that Hill’

Iconic Images Gallery from 4 to 8 November 2025

War Child, the charity that provides support to children caught in war zones around the world, is back with another auction of original artworks. This year, the charity has invited 52 artists to create artwork inspired by Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ in honour of the 40th anniversary of the 1985 Hounds of Love album. The particular lyric inspiring the art – ‘If I only could, I’d make a deal with God’ – was chosen by Bush herself. Artists taking part include Maggi Hambling CBE, known for her works in the National Portrait Gallery, Tate, and National Gallery; painter Peter Doig , Charlie Calder-Potts, Britain’s youngest female war artist; Unskilled Worker aka Helen Dowdie; Corbin Shaw; Susie Hamilton; and Ayobola Kekere-Ekun.

iconicimagesgallery.com

‘I Remember: Chantal Joffe’

Victoria Miro from 14 November 2025 to 17 January 2026

Chantal Joffe presents her fourteenth solo exhibition with the gallery. Here, she paints the truth of memory, motherhood and family dynamics. The exhibition takes its title from Joe Brainard’s iconic memoir. ‘Joe Brainard’s book always makes me list for myself the things I remember and the atmosphere and time that they conjure,’ says Joffe. ‘These paintings are a sort of memoir of my childhood and of my family, an attempt at a kind of time travel. When I am making them, it’s almost as if I am existing in that past.’

victoria-miro.com

‘Tai Shani: Cardinal’

Gathering until 8 November 2025

British artist Tai Shani creates mystical other worlds through sculpture, performance and film in the artist's second solo exhibition with Gathering. Spanning across both of the gallery floors, the showcase is a crimson-hued multi-layered installation. Upstairs, expect a regal throne room with deep tones and a full length red carpet floor. Downstairs, the viewer is then enveloped in a moody darkness.

gathering.london

‘Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World’

National Portrait Gallery until 11 January 2026

Oscar-winning costume designer and fashion illustrator Cecil Beaton was known for his creative scenes in 20th-century British and American media. In the first exhibition dedicated entirely to his fashion and portrait photography, explore images which capture beauty and glamour in the interwar and early post-war eras. With over 200 items from letters and sketches to fashion illustration and costume, the exhibition also features portraits from Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando; Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. His work has been recently faced with critique due to Beaton crossing personal boundaries and, through his lens, you see a more narrow minded view of beauty.

www.npg.org.uk

Marina Abramović

Saatchi Yates until 9 November 2025

Inspired by Picasso’s Blue Period and Matisse’s Red Period, conceptual artist Marina Abramović looks back on her performance videos - ‘Blue Period’ and ‘Red Period’ - by transforming them from video works into a series of 1,200 individual photographic stills. Abramovic wants the viewer to be immersed in human emotion and physical endurance, captured through the power of colour.

saatchiyates.com

Søgelys

Thaddaeus Ropac until 20 December 2025

'Søgelys' is Eva Helene Pade’s first solo exhibition in the UK. The Danish-born, Paris-based artist explores the tension between bodies and space with a violent yet evocative energy. ’With my figurative painting, I create blurred lines or gaps that become the language for the things we can’t put into words,’ says the artist. ‘That’s what I envy so much about abstraction, it’s already working in a realm for which language does not exist.’

ropac.net

Wolfgang Tillmans: Build From Here

Maureen Paley until 20 December 2025

Marking the eleventh exhibition with the gallery, artist Wolfgang Tillmans has created a showcase to inaugurate the new gallery in 4 Herald St, a space which used to be the artist’s studio. Expect to see new photographic work and two recent videos, all of which look at the process of making and observation as an act of transformation.

maureenpaley.com

Dana Schutz: One Big Animal

Thomas Dane Gallery until 20 December 2025

Dana Schutz’s new paintings and sculptures is inspired by the idea of one large group acting as one entity. The viewer is invited to interpret this as an organism working in unison or formation. The protagonists of her works are usually staged in unusual and obscure settings. There are hints of mythology, with political and social issues threaded within the pictorial narrative.

thomasdanegallery.com

Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s

Design Museum until 29 March 2026

The Blitz club, which launched the careers of acts such as Spandau Ballet, Visage, and Boy George, transformed London style in the 1980s. The Design Museum welcomes visitors to explore the club’s history and atmosphere through music, fashion, film and graphic design.

designmuseum.org

Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion

The Barbican until 25 January 2026

The Barbican brings dirt and decay to the forefront in its latest exhibition on decay in fashion. The exhibition features faux-stained jeans to mud-splattered dresses, and asks the question: 'Why did fashion get dirty?' Featuring pieces from Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen to Vivienne Westwood, and Maison Margiela, explore how this has impacted beauty standards, and why there has been a resurgence of dirt in young designer’s work, and the potential sustainable future of fashion.

www.barbican.org.uk

Read our full review of 'Dirty Looks'

Marie Antoinette Style

V&A South Kensington until 22 March 2026

V&A South Kensington presents a landmark exhibition on the most mythologised queen in European history: ‘Marie Antoinette Style’. Across 250 objects, this exhibition, sponsored by Manolo Blahnik, traces the 18th-century monarch’s origins as a fashion icon, concluding in the present day with pieces from contemporary designers exemplifying her enduring legacy.

Writer: India Birgitta Jarvis

Read the full review of Marie Antoinette Style

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, The Delusion

Serpentine North until 18 January 2026

Berlin-based British artist and game designer Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is keen to challenge the more solitary nature of gallery viewing, with her immersive new exhibition at The Serpentine encouraging visitors to interact – with each other.

The exhibition is a video game, offering a multiplayer experience, inviting viewers to virtually enter digital portals. Inside each one there are conversation starters, reflecting on both the digital world and its often vitriolic and dangerous real-life consequences. Players follow prompts, and are encouraged to engage in honest conversations with themselves and each other.

Read the full review of Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s The Delusion

Lee Miller

Tate Britain until 15 February 2026

The exhibition is a retrospective on Lee Miller’s career which spanned from her participation in French surrealism to her fashion and war photography. Miller began working with cameras when she was in front of it, being one of the most sought-after models in the late 1920s. She then decided to work behind the lens capturing scenes across New York, Paris, London and Cairo. Visitors can be captivated by 250 vintage and modern prints, including those never previously displayed.

Read the full review of Lee Miller

www.tate.org.uk

'Cosima von Bonin: Upstairs Downstairs'

Raven Row until 14 December 2025

Since she came to prominence in Cologne in the 1990s, Cosima von Bonin has become a producer of objects that balance humour and melancholy. ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ is an exhibition featuring the artist’s early works, including a variety of objects and characters that nod to an imaginative childhood. This marks her first exhibition in London.

ravenrow.org

'Val Lee: The Presence of Solitude'

The Hayward Gallery until 11 January 2026

Taiwanese artist Val Lee marks her first solo show in the UK. The exhibition unites film, photography and costume, each reflecting the idea of isolation and solitude. Her work features disjointed and ambiguous narratives, while protagonists are unidentifiable. The result echoes a feeling of alienation, while the viewer is submerged in collective memories shaped by political systems.

southbankcentre.co.uk

‘The Defiance of Summer’ by Jonathan Schofield

Vivienne Roberts Projects until 21 November 2025

‘The Defiance of Summer’ by Jonathan Schofield marks the former creative director at Stella McCartney’s return to painting. After graduating from London’s Royal College of Art (RCA) in the late 1990s under the tutelage of the likes of Peter Doig and Helen Chadwick, the London-based painter found that the type of work he wanted to create was out of step with the trends of the art world. He picked up his brushes again seriously during Covid. ‘I wasn’t meant to have a second turn of the wheel, and so I feel very liberated. As a young artist, you’re so hyper-conscious of your place in the world of private views and artistic trends that you can feel trapped. But since I came back to it, I feel liberated just to paint the things I want to paint.’

Writer Joseph Helm
Read the full review of 'The Defiance of Summer by Jonathan Schofield'

'Umbilical' by Conrad Shawcross

Here East until 2 November 2025

Conrad Shawcross unveils his most ambitious rope machine yet, in London. Working at the intersection of physics, philosophy and art Shawcross creates mechanical sculptures that are monumental in their scale. At 10m high, his new work ‘The Nervous System (Umbilical)’, is his most ambitious yet. Composed of 40 interlocking arms that weave umbilical-like rope in sequences that are never repeated, it is synonymous with the movements of our solar system, tracing the planets orbiting the sun in a spinning galaxy, itself flattening and expanding.

Writer Hannah Silver
Read the full review of 'Umbilical' by Conrad Shawcross

The David Bowie Centre

V&A East Storehouse, permanent

Fashion, memorabilia and personal ephemera from David Bowie, now on view at the V&A East Storehouse in London, are as wondrous in their range as their creator. The pioneering musician's 90,000-item personal archive are equally accessible, and – like the artist at the heart of it – equally wondrous in their range. Bowie was an inveterate curator – you might say hoarder – of his own life, keeping every quicksilver fashion statement, every scrap of paper, every piece of memorabilia, amassing a deeply personal life-map that accompanies the Centre’s 70,000 photographs, negatives and colour transparencies. So, alongside the rejection letters are fan correspondence that he kept with equal assiduousness.

Writer Craig McLean
Read the full review of The David Bowie Centre

'Very High Frequency' by Hilary Lloyd

Studio Voltaire until 11 January 2026

English artist Hilary Lloyd’s film works defy easy classification. Lloyd likes to channel a mix of mediums and eclectic arrays of inspiration into a new way of seeing, often scattering monitors and screens around a space, forcing the viewer to move through an exhibition differently. At Studio Voltaire, she considers the life and works of playwright, television dramatist and writer Dennis Potter (b 1935–d 1994). Through a series of short films featuring the collaborators, producers and actors who were close to Potter, including Gina Bellman, Alison Steadman, Richard E Grant and Kenith Trodd, Lloyd constructs a theatrical biography of Potter’s life and enduring influence - ultimately begging the question, why Potter?

Writer Hannah Silver
Read the full review of 'Very High Frequency by Hilary Lloyd'

‘Postures: Jean Rhys in the Modern World’

Michael Werner Gallery until 22 November 2025

Celebrated as a pioneer of feminist and postcolonial literature, the Dominican-born Jean Rhys’s vision continues to inspire a new generation of Caribbean voices today, including Jamaica Kincaid and Caryl Phillips. Perhaps more surprising, though, is her affinity with the visual arts: now her work finds new life at Michael Werner Gallery’s ‘Postures: Jean Rhys in the Modern World’, an exhibition curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and critic Hilton Als. Drawn from archival research at Yale, the show brings together drawings, paintings, books, and archival material alongside works by artists such as Kara Walker, Celia Paul, Hurvin Anderson, and Francis Picabia, creating, ambitiously, a ‘collective portrait’ of Rhys’s life.

Writer Hannah Silver
Read the full review of Postures: Jean Rhys in the Modern World'

'Hugh Hayden: Hughmanity'

Lisson Gallery until 1 November 2025

The Texan-born artist is known for his artistic investigation of the theme of passage, more specifically looking into symbolism recognised within community and belief. In ‘Hughmanity’, works include a dining table up in flames, a child’s dress made from tree bark, cigarettes poking out of the United States flag, among others. The artist plays with the dichotomy of joy and sadness, refuge and danger, while a spiritual undertone is weaved throughout

lissongallery.com

Christopher Wool

Gagosian until 19 December 2025

American artist Christopher Wool presents over fifty works on paper, sculptures, and prints, all rooted in abstraction. Each piece explores expansive artistic techniques varying from working on silkscreen to expressive mark making and overpainting. Wool achieves this by dragging turpentine-soaked rags over the painted surface to efface his images in a haze of gray mist.

gagosian.com

Pascale Marthine Tayou

Robilant+Voena until 21 November

Coinciding with Frieze Week Robilant+Voena will present Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou first UK solo gallery show, organised in collaboration with Galleria Continua. The gallery will present twelve works, a selection which reflects the artist’s work across mixed media. He carefully and visually investigates consumerism and colonialism, alongside the environment, identity and childhood. What is interesting is the use of himself as a starting point for his works. The showcase merges Tayou’s Central African heritage with his experiences living, travelling and working across Europe.

robilantvoena.com

'Noémie Goudal And yet it still moves'

Edel Assanti until 19 December 2025

French visual artist Noémie Goudal looks at ecology and Earth sciences in her latest exhibition at Edel Assanti. Across three rooms of the gallery, her works explore geological time with an artistic twist; interpreted through film, sculpture, photography and performance. The exhibition is timely and poignant, given climate crises happening globally.

edelassanti.com

Nigerian Modernism

Tate Modern until 10 May 2026

‘Nigerian Modernism’ explores modern art in Nigeria in the mid-20th century and the artists who pioneered the movement. Visitors journey through a story of artistic works which spanned across Zaria, Ibadan, Lagos and Enugu, as well as London, Munich and Paris. The exhibition looks at multidimensional works which unites Nigerian, African and European techniques by artists working before and after the decade of national independence from British colonial rule in 1960.

tate.org.uk

"Bury Your Masters”

Pilar Corrias until 1 November 2025

Manuel Mathieu showcases his paintings, and sculptural works at his second solo exhibition at Pilar Corrias. Here he looks at politics and spirituality, and how they are inherited. Through abstraction Mathieu’s installation works between two and three dimensions, which confronts home truths.

pilarcorrias.com

Birth of a Nation and The Enemy of All Mankind

Victoria Miro until 1 November 2025

Canadian video artist and photographer, Stan Douglas, makes his European debut at Victoria Miro with a video installation (Birth of a Nation) and new works from his recent photographic series, The Enemy of All Mankind: Nine Scenes from John Gay’s Polly. Both media pieces explore themes of race, class and gender .

victoria-miro.com

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami: Incantations

Victoria Miro until 1 November 2025

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s series of paintings explore spirituality, and expressions of contemporary Black and Queer identities. The exhibition also features the artist’s Atom paintings which were inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself and its line ‘For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you’.

.victoria-miro.com

Pictograms: Iconic Japanese Designs

Japan House until 9 November

Delve into the world of pictograms, at Japan House in London. The gallery, located on Kensington High Street, is specifically dedicated to Japanese art, design, and innovation. its latest exhibition ‘Pictograms: Iconic Japanese Designs’ explores Japan’s significant role in the development of this symbolic visual language. The exhibition looks at the origin of pictograms, from ancient Egyptian tomb carvings through to its use in present day Japan, and worldwide. Not only deep diving into its history, the exhibition also looks forward, exploring the future use of these universal signs.

Read the full review of 'Pictograms: Iconic Japanese Designs'

1880 THAT: Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader

Wellcome Collection until 6 April 2026

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