This month is busier than ever with a plethora of new London art exhibitions across the city. Tracey Emin arrives at Tate Modern for a highly anticipated show that includes unseen and well-known pieces and spans painting, video, textiles, neons, writing, sculpture and installation. At Raven Row, Christine Kozlov’s work is examined in the context of the radical new direction that became known as Conceptual Art; and at Studio Voltaire, Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto presents her first solo show in the UK. 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 February 2026
Shifting Boundaries
Hauser & Wirth from 5 February until 30 April 2026
Ōsaka-born artist Takesada Matsutani will showcase his first exhibition in London in over a decade. The exhibition deep dives into his signature style: working with vinyl glue and graphite. It ranges from his previous sculptural pieces to new works that show his experimentation with the unusual medium.
A Bug’s Life
Chisenhale Gallery 18 January through to March 2026
‘A Bug’s Life’ marks Berlin-based artist Arash Nassiri’s first institutional solo exhibition. The artist explores moving image and sculptural installation to create an immersive site of layered storytelling and a dreamlike world. He looks at an opulent Beverly Hills mansion that fuses Iranian and American aesthetics, built in the 1980s-90s before the city of Los Angeles banned the style.
From Bessemer to the Cosmos
Edel Assanti until 14 March 2026
Coinciding with the ten year anniversary of American artist Thornton Dial's passing, Edel Assanti is opening ‘From Bessemer to the Cosmos’, marking the artist's first UK solo show. The exhibition brings together largely unseen works from a pivotal decade of his career from 1988-98. Dial drew on decades of manual labour and Southern traditions like 'yard shows' and quilting to create a bold, distinctive style that defied conventional art-world labels.
Lynda Benglis and Giacometti: Back at ya
Barbican until 12 Feb 2026 until 31 May 2026
Barbican presents ‘Back at ya’ by Lynda Benglis and Giacometti. Benglis is known for her vibrant forms she creates which balance playful energy with visceral abstract touches. Here, she will present almost 30 unseen works (which have until now hung on the walls of her studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico). Made from handmade paper stretched over chicken wire and embellished with “cast sparkle”, they will be shown alongside iconic pieces by Giacometti.
Echo by Klára Hosnedlová
White Cube from 11 February until 29 March 2026
Klára Hosnedlová’s solo exhibition Echo marks her debut with the gallery. Her distinctive multidisciplinary style spans from spanning sculpture, performance, architecture, and intricate embroidery. She is known for creating immersive installations that draw on historical narratives, and Central-Eastern European architectural forms, evoking futuristic archaeological worlds.
Tracey Emin: A Second Life
Tate Modern from 26 February until 31 August
A much-anticipated landmark exhibition will open this month, tracing 40 years of Tracey Emin’s work, including painting, video, textiles, neons, writing, sculpture, and installation – and spanning unseen pieces as well as some of her most renowned works, such as the radical My Bed from 1998. The exhibition will explore her raw confessional work, which sparked widespread debate when she rose to prominence in the 1990s. Here, she explores themes of love, trauma, passion, pain and healing.
Conceptual Art and Christine Kozlov
Raven Row 19 February to 26 April 2026
At Raven Row, the work of Christine Kozlov (1945-2005) is examined in terms of her part in art’s radical new direction that would became known as Conceptual Art. The exhibition traces the American artist’s practice, first in New York, then through her move to the UK (in 1977) and her responses to global political events. Focusing on her objects, ideas and collaborative practices, the exhibition unveils the scope of Kozlov’s artistic activity from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s.
Aki Sasamoto: Grilled Diagrams
Studio Voltaire from 4 February until 19 April 2026
Studio Voltaire presents ‘Grilled Diagrams’, Japanese artist Aki Sasamoto’s first solo show in the UK. Here, visitors will find a major site-specific installation which acts as both a sculptural environment and performance set. In the middle of the installation is a large, oversized griddle inspired by television cooking shows and street food carts. In the opening and closing weeks of the exhibition, Sassamoto inserts herself into the installation, whereby her performances unfold as live acts of drawing or choreography focusing on the manipulation of ingredients.
Isaac Julien: All That Changes You. Metamorphosis
Victoria Miro from 13 February until 21 March 2026
Isaac Julien presents ‘All That Changes You. Metamorphosis’, the five-screen film installation, coupled with new photographic works. The film is a visual poem about change, how to transform and how to adapt. The project was commissioned to celebrate 500 years of Palazzo Te, Mantua, Italy (where it is currently on view) and exhibited at Victoria Miro for the first time as a five-screen installation. The artist’s world dances between science fiction, philosophy and art looking at new forms of life and identity before the human.
Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting
The National Portrait Gallery from 12 February until 4 May 2026
Drawing into Painting marks the UK’s first museum exhibition dedicated to Lucian Freud’s works on paper, and his lifelong exploration of the human face and form. The National Portrait Gallery presents his works in pencil, ink, charcoal and etching.
Rose Wylie: The Picture Comes First
Royal Academy from 28 February until 19 April 2026
With her work nodding to fIlms and with echoes of the Second World War, Rose Wylie’s paintings are alive with references to cinema, celebrities, literature, and ancient civilisation. Focusing mostly on iconic women, think Nicole Kidman, Marilyn Monroe, Serena Williams, and Snow White, she creates paintings that intertwine with her own lived experiences such as living through the Blitz as a young girl. Wylie found success in her career as a painter, which she started later in life in her fifties.
Beatriz González
Barbican 25 February until 10 May 2026
Colombian artist Beatriz González (who recently passed away earlier this year) is known for her bold work which explores the power and impact of the images we encounter everyday.
The exhibition , which features over 150 of her works, varies from large scale paintings to repurposed furniture, wallpaper and installations. The images that inspire her questions power structures to looking at violence, and offering her personal reflection on grief and community.
Luigi Ghirri: Felicità
Thomas Dane Gallery until 9 May 2026
‘Luigi Ghirri: Felicità’ at Thomas Dane Gallery proposes happiness not as a condition to be attained, but as a way of inhabiting the world through images. Curated by Alessio Bolzoni and Luca Guadagnino, and unfolding across both of Thomas Dane’s Duke Street spaces, the exhibition makes a persuasive case for Ghirri as one of the most lucid thinkers of photography’s perceptual limits – and one of its most generous practitioners.
Writer: Finn Blythe
Sam Lipp
Soft Opening until 4 March 2026
Sam Lipp rethinks traditional portraiture in 'Base', a new show at Soft Opening. Whether showing himself, live models, or figures from found images, Lipp’s paintings all reflect his inner world to some degree. 'When I decided to drag a piece for the first time, it was based on my emotional state,' he tells me. 'I continue to have a desire to destroy what I create, projecting my emotions and personality onto the image. Shame, guilt, joy, passion... The dragging and rusting have a wildness and uncontrollability to them, but I’m learning how to manipulate them.'
Writer: Emily Steer
Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey
Whitechapel Gallery until 1 March 2026
Joy Gregory’s first major survey show at the Whitechapel Gallery takes its title from a proverb said by her mother. In every room, her words – ‘you catch more flies with honey than vinegar’ – ring true. Gregory’s honeyed photographs hold a pertinent political message that sticks. Using nineteenth-century photographic processes to explore issues such as race, gender and colonialism, Gregory’s works pack a punch, rendering them all the sweeter for it.
Writer: Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou
Zofia Rydet: Sociological Record
The Photographers’ Gallery until 22 February 2026
In 1978, Zofia Rydet embarked on a colossal task: photographing the inside of every household in Poland. What became Sociological Record would ultimately take Rydet into the 1990s, culminating in more than 20,000 images, only a fraction of which were ever printed (by the series’ end her efforts were solely focused on making sure there was a record, as opposed to sharing it). Rydet travelled by bus or relied on friends for lifts, turning up and knocking on doors unannounced. ‘The actual photographing was quite quick,’ says Clare Grafik, Head of Exhibitions at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, ‘it was the conversations she would subsequently have with the homeowners that profoundly affected the way she thought about life and work.’
Writer: Zoe Whitfield
thephotographersgallery.org.uk
Monument to the Unimportant
Pace, London until 14 February 2026
In a group exhibition, ‘Monument to the Unimportant’, artists give the seemingly insignificant – from discarded clothes to weeds in cracks – a longer look. These items and more are celebrated as things of beauty in their own right, spotlighting the joy in mundanity. Artists including Henni Alftan, Genesis Belanger, Elmgreen & Dragset, Urs Fischer, Sylvie Fleury, David Hockney and Rachel Whiteread recontextualise the quotidian to create something wholly new.
Wes Anderson: The Archives
Design Museum until 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.
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.
‘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.
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.
‘I Remember: Chantal Joffe’
Victoria Miro until 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.’
‘Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World’
National Portrait Gallery until 11 January 2026
Audrey Hepburn in costume for My Fair Lady, 1963 Cecil Beaton Archive
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.
Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s
Design Museum until 29 March 2026
Spandau Ballet’s debut photo shoot at the Warren Street squat, 1980
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.
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
Lee Miller
Tate Britain until 15 February 2026
Lee Miller, Model with lightbulb, Vogue Studio, London, England c.1943© Lee Miller Archives, England 2024
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
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
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.
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.