We don’t often visit art galleries.
They always tell us off for taking pictures.
Nevertheless, London is awash with art – and so we’ve put together a running list of all the major (and quite a few independent) art galleries in London, complete with opening hours and the run-down on the exhibitions to see now:
JUMP TO: CENTRAL | NORTH | SOUTH | EAST | WEST
CENTRAL LONDON ART GALLERIES
180 Studios | Strand
Set in the concrete subterranean labyrinth of an iconic Brutalist building, 180 Studios is building a name for itself as the home for innovative, large-scale, tech-infused audio-visual art installations.
WHAT’S ON
Gabriel Moses – Selah (from 28th March – 27th July) – A high-fashion, Nigerian-leaning exhibition of works from London-born photographer Gabriel Moses. This exhibition will take over two floors 180 Studios, bringing together photographs and short films from across Moses’ career, including films and music videos.
Address: 180 Studios, 180 Strand, WC2R 1EA | Opening Hours: Daily, 10am-7pm | Entry: Exhibitions ticketed individually, from £10-25
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The Courtauld Gallery | Strand
Back open after the biggest refurbishment in its history, the Courtauld has an incredible collection of art particularly known for its trove of Impressionist paintings including Manet’s A Bar at the Folies Bergère and Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. The permanent collection could keep you occupied for hours, but the gallery often plays host to visiting exhibitions, too.
WHAT’S ON
Goya to Impressionism (14th February until 26th May, £14/16 with donation) – A rare chance to pore over (Post) Impressionist gems by the likes of Cezanne and Van Gogh from a private Swiss collection, including Goya’s Still Life with Three Salmon Steaks (described in the exhibition blurb as ‘highly charged’. Time to find out why).
Henri Michaux: The Mescaline Drawings (until 2nd June, free) – A series of drawings by the Franco-Belgian poet and visual artist, Henri Michaux, fuelled by the psychedelic drug mescaline. The artist took the hallucinogenic as an experiment to investigate the effects on creativity and the resulting drawings are a portal into the inner workings of the mind.
Address: Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 0RN | Opening Hours: Daily 10am-6pm (last entry 5.15pm) | Entry: Permanent collection £10-14, exhibitions £4+. Free entry for 18 and under.
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Hayward Gallery | South Bank
A Brutalist and, quite frankly, brutal concrete metropolis is home to the Hayward Gallery; an exhibition space designed to receive touring work and host major modern collections. Sat within the cultural playground that is the Southbank Centre, it normally holds three to four temporary exhibitions a year and due to the sheer size of the space, they’re often huge installations that allow for lots of audience interaction. Retrospectives are also popular, with German photographer Andreas Gursky and our very own Bridget Riley showing off their illustrious careers here.
WHAT’S ON
Mickalene Thomas: All About Love (until 5th May, £19) – Resplendent and celebratory Black portraiture from the US-based artist, who’s also transforming the gallery itself into a homely setting inspired by her 1970s childhood.
Linder: Danger Came Smiling (until 5th May, £19) – The pioneering feminist artist gets her first London retrospective, with over 50 years’ worth of work exploring female bodies and how they are shaped by, represented in, and fit into society.
Address: Southbank Centre, 337-338 Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX | Opening Hours: Tues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-8pm, Sundays 10am-6pm | Entry: £18+
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ICA | St James
The errant, wayward child of the RA, the ICA was established as a space for artists and scientists to discuss ideas freely and without limitation. An avid promoter of the avant-garde, it’s been an epicentre of experimental work ever since. With galleries, a theatre, and two cinemas you’re bound to find something, in some medium, that suits your fancy.
WHAT’S ON
New Contemporaries (until 23rd March) – It’s the 75th year of the annual open-call competition, this year featuring work by 35 up-and-coming artists working across all kinds of media and addressing the world’s most urgent concerns.
Check out upcoming screenings, talks and more on the ICA’s events page
Address: The Mall, St James’s, SW1Y 5AH | Opening Hours: Tue-Thurs 4-9pm, Fri-Sun 12pm-9pm | Entry: £6
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National Gallery | Trafalgar Square
Pride of place in London’s art scene, presiding over the four lions of Trafalgar Square, is the National Gallery. Amongst the most visited art museums in the world, the National Gallery has a premier league roll call of great works amongst the 2,300 paintings in its possession. Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire and Da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks all adorn its walls. Most major Western artists are represented in some way or another here, making it an absolute mecca for Art History bingo.
WHAT’S ON
Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350 (8th March – 22nd June, £20+) – Dives into the rich artistic world of the Italian city as artisans began to collaborate and painters broke away from traditional techniques to introduce emotion and movement to their work. Sounds obvious, but it was genuinely revolutionary at the time.
Address: Trafalgar Square, WC2N 5DN | Opening Hours: Daily, 10am-6pm (9pm Fridays) | Entry: Free / Exhibitions from £20
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National Portrait Gallery | Trafalgar Square
David Parry
The National Portrait Gallery is back and better than ever, which isn’t too surprising considering the refurb cost £35 million and includes a new wing, a café and a late night cocktail bar. Of course in saying all that, the main attraction is still the portraits; showcasing famous Brits in painting, photo and sculpture form.
WHAT’S ON
The Face Magazine: Culture Shift (until 18th May, £23+) – A rave-scale exhibition showing the pioneering style mag which launched careers, encouraged photographic experimentation, and helped to establish some of the biggest cultural idols of the late 20th century.
Edvard Munch Portraits (opens 13th March) – Munch’s portraits are often overlooked. This show proves why they shouldn’t be; not only are they full of character and energy, they’re also lasting examples of the human condition.
Details: St Martin’s Place, Charing Cross, WC2H 0HE | Opening hours: Daily 10.30am-6pm (open until 9pm Friday & Saturday) | Entry: Main collection free, exhibitions £21+ or £5 for U25s, Fri-Sun
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The Photographers’ Gallery | Soho
Christian Thompson
After snapping up a tea bar in Covent Garden, founder and director Sue Davies quickly developed the space into the UK’s first dedicated space for photography and photographers. The gallery’s now moved into an old textiles factory in Soho, but continues to act as a centre of excellence for, and research into the 20th century’s iconic medium, with plenty of wonderful camera work to admire over its six floors. Check out the Soho Photography Quarter outside, an old alleyway that’s been revamped as a kind of al fresco gallery space.
WHAT’S ON
Planetary Portals: I am in your dreams, but you are not in mine (from 7th March until 15th June) a show blending archival photos with AI scripting.
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025 (from 7th March until 15th June) the annual exhibition of works by four short-listed finalists.
Peter Mitchell: Nothing Lasts Forever (7th March until 15th June) work by one of Britain’s great photographers, described as ‘a narrator of who we were, a chaser of a disappearing world’.
Address: 16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW | Opening Hours: Mon-Wed 10am-6pm, Thurs-Fri 10am-8pm, Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 11am-6pm | Entry: £10/8.50 online (entry to all exhibitions), free Fridays from 5pm
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The King’s Gallery | St James
Once an exclusively royal affair but these days awash with the unwashed, the King’s Gallery is the dictionary definition of a fine art gallery – “a place that houses work created primarily for aesthetic and intellectual purposes”. The collection is, unsurprisingly, fit for a king and contains a revolving exhibit of works owned by the royals to ensure their protection for, and presumably from, the Great British public.
WHAT’S COMING UP
The Edwardians: Age of Elegance (open from 11th April – 24th November, £19) – The Edwardians knew how to do glamour. The period between the Victorian Era and the First World War was defined by opulence and this exhibition will show case works by contemporary artists of the time, including Carl Fabergé, Frederic Leighton, Edward Burne-Jones, Laurits Tuxen, John Singer Sargent and William Morris.
Address: Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace Road, SW1A 1AA | Opening Hours: Daily 9.30am-5.30pm | Entry: £19
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Royal Academy | Piccadilly
Perhaps in a moment of his famed “madness”, King George III dipped into his own pocket to establish the RA in order to raise the professional status of artists and foster a national school of art. Off his rocker or not, it proved a big success (alumni include Turner, Kauffman, Constable et al.), and the RA lives on to this day as a privately funded institution training, and promoting, artists and art appreciation. The gallery has moved with the ebbs and flows of artistic taste, and its annual open-call summer exhibition showcases the best new art on the scene.
WHAT’S ON
Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism (until 21st April, £23.50) – It’s a carnival of colour showing over 130 works by Brazilian artists who shaped the modernist movement in the early 20th century.
Address: Burlington House, Piccadilly, Mayfair, W1J 0BD | Opening Hours: Tues-Sun, 10am-6pm (9pm Fri) | Entry: Free / Exhibitions from ~£20
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Somerset House | Strand
Kevin Meredith
Originally the Tudor crib to end all cribs, this imposing residence on the river Thames became a Stuart royal palace, a brief home of the Royal Academy, and now holds the offices of over a hundred creative organisations and artists, alongside numerous exhibition spaces for a range of different media. The Duke of Somerset, despite being executed before it was completed, would no doubt lose his head over how brilliant it’s become.
WHAT’S ON
SOIL (until 13th April, £18.50) – A quite literally ground-breaking exhibition that examines the earth beneath our feet, combining art, science and history to explore a more harmonious future with our planet.
Salt Cosmologies (until 27th April) – An impressive, multi-discipline project that explores the British government’s control over salt production in India during the colonial era.
Address: Strand, WC2R 1LA | Opening Hours: Sun-Thurs 10am-6pm, Fri & Sat 12-9pm | Entry: Free/£15+ for exhibitions
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Tate Britain | Pimlico
The epicurean, slightly dotty uncle of the Tate Modern is concerned with one thing only – old Blighty (and the artists who come from within it). A national treasure full of national treasures, expect to see all the big names from 1500 to the present day –Turner, Constable, Bacon, Blake, and Emin – and there’s even a series of exhibitions titled Art Now that shines a light on our stars of tomorrow.
WHAT’S ON
The 80s: Photographing Britain (until 5th May 2025, £20) – A dive into how photography was used to capture protest, resistance and socio-political activism in the 80s – unfortunately it’s been pretty poorly reviewed in the press.
Address: Millbank, SW1P 4RG | Opening Hours: Daily, 10am-6pm | Entry: Free / Exhibitions from £16
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Tate Modern | Bankside
Some people think modern art is just a load of Pollocks. And they’d be right. But he’s not the only artist you’ll find in this behemoth of modern and contemporary works. Tate Modern holds the British collection of pieces from 1900 to the present day, and is one of the largest modern art museums in the world. Housed within the old Bankside power station, it has become an iconic landmark on the Thames’ riverscape. Pieces from Picasso, Dali and Matisse lead the permanent line-up, while the old turbine hall dwarfs its visitors and holds specially commissioned, larger-than-life exhibits.
WHAT’S ON
Anthony McCall
Anthony McCall: Solid Light (until 27th April 2025, £14) – A quartet of installations from the 1970s, in which the artist plays with sculpting light using projectors and misty air. Unfortunately, given how much this concept’s been developed over recent years, the show feels a little underpowered and overpriced.
Electric Dreams (until 1st June 2025, £22) – Pioneering pieces from artists around the world who were experimenting with technology in the optimistic age before the internet.
Address: Bankside, SE1 9TG | Opening Hours: Daily 10am-6pm | Entry: Free / Exhibitions from £22
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Wallace Collection | Marylebone
A collecting hobby that got a little out of hand is now a major collection of 18th and 19th century works collected by subsequent Marquesses of Hertford, and bequeathed to the public. Housed within an imposing regency townhouse, the Wallace is famed for its triumphant collection of French decorative arts; the grandest one outside of Gaul. It’s a fancy family’s fancy private collection, so expect gilded frames, suits of armour, and offensive levels of wealth to dominate your surroundings on your sojourn through the wings.
WHAT’S ON
Currently main collection only.
Address: Hertford House, Manchester Square, W1U 3BN | Opening Hours: Daily, 10am-5pm | Entry: Free / £14 for exhibitions
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NORTH LONDON ART GALLERIES
Camden Art Centre | Hampstead
What began as a local Arts scheme providing the Hampstead community with classes in everything from painting to pottery, has grown, over the past 50 years, into an internationally acclaimed centre for the arts. Housed on the leafier side of Finchley this enclave of ever rotating, multi disciplinary artistry favours edgy, young contemporary artists and has a bookshop, cafe, and garden to boot.
WHAT’S ON
There: A Feeling – Gregg Bordowitz (until 23rd March, free) – The first solo UK show for the American artist, who explores ‘daily survival’ through video, installation, performance, poetry, and prints.
Address: Arkwright Road, London NW3 6DG | Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 11am-6pm, late opening Thursday until 9pm | Entry: Free
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Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art | Islington
The frontage exudes the class and posture of Georgian England, but step inside and you’ll tumble down into the kaleidoscopic world of Italian Futurist Art. Futurism was one of Italy’s most significant contributions to the 20th century and this museum is Britain’s only one dedicated to the movement. Expect sculptures, paintings, landscapes, and the downright bizarre – all from a young nation looking to find la dolce vita.
WHAT’S ON
Breaking Lines (until 11th May) – Italy’s Futurist movement properly took hold in the art world, but it all started with poetry – and this exhibition explores how experimental poetry evolved, with manifestos, newspaper articles and early concrete poetry by Dom Sylvester Houédard (a Benedictine monk and philosopher who collaborated with the likes of Yoko Ono).
Address: 39A Canonbury Square, N1 2AN | Opening Hours: Wed-Sat 11am-6pm (8pm Thurs), Sun 12pm-5pm | Entry: £7.50/£5.50 (concession)
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Victoria Miro | Islington
Representing 40 established and emerging artists, Victoria Miro is one of the largest commercial art galleries in London – and a great place to wile away the afternoon pretending you can afford to buy even one item. The Wharf Road gallery is a converted furniture factory and now houses Grayson Perry’s 15m Walthamstow Tapestry amongst numerous other works including the garden itself, landscaped specifically for the gallery.
WHAT’S ON
Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts (from 14th March – 17th April) – Paul’s work is deeply personal and has an intense quality – a result of the almost hypnotic state she finds herself when she’s embedded in a piece. This is her eighth solo show with Victoria Miro and it coincides with the launch of book, published by MACK in March 2025, spanning the artist’s 50-year career.
Address: 16 Wharf Road, N1 7RW | Opening Hours: Tue-Sat 10am-6pm | Entry: Free
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William Morris Gallery | Walthamstow
The original hipster, Morris eschewed Victorian trends in favour of more “retro” Medieval vibes – before going on to propagate the socialist movement in Britain and then sow the seeds of fantasy literature by translating Icelandic epic poetry. His life was as intricate and interconnected as his infamous wallpaper designs, and this delightful museum celebrates every facet of his fascinating existence. Plus, there are haggis toasties in the café.
WHAT’S ON
Morris Mania (from 5th April until 21st September, suggested £5 donation) – Today, we see William Morris prints everywhere. His recognisable botanicals are on shower curtains, phone cases, on film and TV, and in all corners of our homes, dentist waiting rooms and shopping centres. This show will take a look at the impact of Britain’s most iconic designer in our increasingly cluttered and commodified world.
Address: Lloyd Park, Forest Road, E17 4PP | Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm (8pm Thursdays) | Entry: Free
SOUTH LONDON ART GALLERIES
Dulwich Picture Gallery | Dulwich
Do the names Rembrandt and Rubens get your blood racing? Does stroking your chin over classic art make you feel peckish? Then you’re probably gonna like what’s on offer at England’s oldest public gallery. Expect Dutch paintings of cows on bridges, splendid nudity in reenactments of Greco Roman mythology, and a handful of Italian masters. There’s also a variety of more modern-ish temporary exhibitions, if you’ve seen enough classical buttocks for one day. As for the food part: check out the alfresco cafe doing all-day brunch.
WHAT’S ON
Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious (19th Nov – 26th May 2025, £20) – Tirzah Garwood steps out from the shadow of her famous artist husband Eric Ravilious in the DPG’s upcoming show, which brings together pieces in various media from throughout her productive career.
Address: Gallery Road, SE21 7AD | Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-5pm | Entry: £20 (inc. main collection & exhibitions); 50% off for 18-30s
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Fashion & Textile Museum | Bermondsey
A Bermondsey Street treasure specialising in contemporary fashion design, founded by the legendary Dame Zandra Rhodes. Rather than housing a permanent collection, they stage exhibitions on particular designers, printmakers, or fashion periods and trends, gathering items from around the globe.
WHAT’S ON
Textiles: The Art of Mankind | Fashion and Textile Museum (from 28th March until 7th September, £12.65) – While we might sometimes take our clothes for granted – who has time to keep up with the latest trends? And deliberate over what’s ‘in’ or ‘out’? – this exhibition shows there is so much more to textiles than the threads we put on our backs. Told through themes spanning materials, identity, collaboration, and sustainability, Textiles: The Art Mankind explores how craft and creativity connects society.
Address: 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF | Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 11am-6pm | Entry: £12.65
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NOW Gallery | Greenwich
NOW Gallery is, unsurprisingly, all about cutting-edge, contemporary art; but it’s also art that’s accessible and unpretentious, often taking the form of large-scale, walk-through installations. Commissioned artists are often up-and-coming and from a blend of creative backgrounds – art, fashion and design – with the kinds of ideas that not only spark conversation but plenty of social media opps too.
WHAT’S ON
Socks: The Art of Care and Repair (until 30th March 2025, free) – Well, this looks darn good. It’s an exhibition dedicated to the reemerging movement to ‘make do and mend’, making fashion more sustainable and creating unique pieces in the process. At its centre is a vast installation of 488 socks mended by Southwark school children, who learnt their skills from textile artist Celia Pym.
Address: The Gateway Pavilions, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0SQ | Opening Hours: Tues-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-4pm | Entry: Free
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South London Gallery | Peckham
Camberwell’s contemporary art gallery has always been at the forefront of the South London art scene. Originally the gallery of a local working men’s college, it has always sought to celebrate current artists. That trend continued and, in 1995, it was the first venue to showcase Emin’s infamous “tent”. Now spread across two listed buildings, the SLG houses a number of permanent exhibits with revolving temporary installations.
WHAT’S ON
Christina Kimeze: Between Wood and Wheel (until 11th May, free) – For her first solo show in the UK, Christina is presenting a new series of dreamlike paintings, exploring themes of freedom and escape.
See SLG’s event page for upcoming talks, workshops and screenings.
Address: 65-67 Peckham Road, SE5 8UH | Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 11am-6pm (9pm Weds) | Entry: Free
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White Cube Bermondsey & Mason’s Yard | Bermondsey & St James
Al Held
Europe’s biggest commercial gallery has come under its fair share of criticism. Owned and run by an old Etonian and known for displaying works in a cold and clinical manner, it’s easy to see why. But representing the likes of Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, you can guarantee that the stars of British contemporary art will shine bright on any visit. The whitewashed walls, and strip lighting, can make it feel like a bit like a trip to the hospital, but this institution of the ever-fractious art scene is well worth a wander.
WHAT’S ON
Mason’s Yard | Alia Ahmed – Fields / ميادين (from 28th February until 5th April, free) – A debut of new works by the Saudi-Arabian artist, that traces the elemental beauty and fluid interdependencies of climate, landscape and human presence.
Bermondsey | Theaster Gates – 1965: Malcolm in Winter: A Translation Exercise (until 6th April, free) – A major solo exhibition for the influential Chicago-born artist, who works with sculpture and installation to create art as a form of activism.
Address: 144-152 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3TQ | 25-26 Mason’s Yard, SW1Y 6BU | Opening Hours: Tues-Sat 10am-6pm, Bermondsey also open Sun 12-6pm | Entry: Free
EAST / THE CITY GALLERIES
The Barbican | Barbican
One of the city’s Brutalist icons, the Barbican isn’t just home to theatre, cinemas, concert halls (and an unexpected urban jungle, the Barbican Conservatory). It also boasts a two-storey gallery space that has hosted exhibitions on everything from AI to Japanese architecture, and a retrospective of the pioneering street artist Basquiat.
WHAT’S ON
Noah Davis (until 11th May, £18) – The LA-based artist died a decade ago aged just 32 but during his career, he was always motivated represent the people around him. This retrospective of figurative paintings shows the multitudes often found in the everyday.
Cistra Sasmita: Into The World (until 21st April, free) – The first solo UK exhibition from the Indonesian artist will feature paintings, installations, embroideries and even scents to connect with ancestral traditions.
Address: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS | Opening Hours: Sat-Wed 10am-6pm, Thurs-Fri 10am-8pm | Entry: Free/Exhibitions from £17 – pay what you can on Mondays 10-11.45am & Thursdays, 5-7pm
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Guildhall Art Gallery | The City
Established in 1886 as ‘a collection of art treasures worthy of the capital city’, the Guildhall Gallery is exactly that – a sumptuous assembly of art that you’d expect the captains of industry from centuries past to have amassed. Big sexy frames, portraits of gentlemen with enormous wigs, and an impressive number of Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces are the mainstay of their throng which seeks to show off in telling the story of London town.
WHAT’S ON
Currently permanent collection only.
Address: Guildhall Yard, EC2V 5AE | Opening Hours: Daily 10am-5pm | Entry: Free/exhibitions from £10
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Whitechapel Gallery | Whitechapel
Founded in 1901, this gallery set out to give great art to the masses. Since then it’s had some pretty impressive mates round for tea: Picasso’s Guernica popped by; Pollock, Hockney, and Lucian Freud all logged stays. It hasn’t lost any of its mojo from following expansion in 2009 where it doubled in size; Theaster Gates and Mark Dion are just a few of the famous to have dropped by in recent years.
WHAT’S ON
Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker (until 4th May, £15) – A deep dive into the impressive breadth of Rodney’s surviving works from 1982 to 1997. See large-scale oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic and animatronic sculptures as well as his sketchbooks and rare archival materials.
Address: 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX | Opening Hours: Tue-Sun 11am-6pm, 9pm Thursdays | Entry: Free/ Exhibitions from £9.50
WEST LONDON ART GALLERIES
Design Museum | Kensington
The Design Museum is, as you’d expect, very well put together. In the bustling cultural quarter of Kensington, its three floors and two basements serve up permanent exhibitions, learning centres, glass-walled design studios and temporary gallery spaces. The permanent gallery is the only one in the UK to be dedicated completely to contemporary design.
WHAT’S ON
The World of Tim Burton (until 26th May 2025, £22+) – A fascinating peek into the mind of the legendary gothic film-maker, finally landing here in London at the end of an acclaimed decade-long world tour.
Address: 224-238 Kensington High Street, W8 6AG | Opening Hours: Mon-Thurs 10am-5pm, Fri-Sun 10am-6pm | Entry: Free, £16+ for temporary exhibitions
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Graffik Gallery | Ladbroke Grove
Street art off the street is the focus of this gritty and urban gallery. Derived from the Italian to scratch, the ancient form of expression that is graffiti has taken on a new lease of life in our modern times. This collection gives you a vast overview of the city’s strongest pieces – without ever making you step outside. Unless, of course, you want to try your hand at one of their graffiti workshops.
WHAT’S ON: Main collection only.
Address: 284 Portobello Road, W10 5TE | Opening Hours: Daily 11am-6pm | Entry: Free
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Leighton House Museum and Art Gallery | Holland Park
©Leighton-House/RBKC. Image courtesy of Will Pryce
When a noted painter and lord of the realm commissions you to design his house, you’d better bring your A-game. Well, George Aitchison did just that and his creation is now a Grade II listed building, widely revered for its Orientalist and aesthetic interiors – and the home of the Leighton House Museum. The permanent gallery, predictably, contains numerous works from Lord Leighton himself; so expect to cast your eye over lavish oil panoramas of Greek myths, lords and ladies, and ecclesiastical scenes.
WHAT’S ON
Leighton and Landscape (until 27th April 2025, free with house admission) – In the last 40 years of his life, Lord Leighton travelled extensively and moved away from his trademark Biblical and mythological scenes, instead crafting dozens of landscape paintings for his own enjoyment which were barely ever exhibited in public… until now.
Address: 12 Holland Park Road, W14 8LZ | Opening Hours: Wed-Mon 10am-5:30pm | Entry: £14
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Saatchi Gallery | Chelsea
A controversial centre headed by a controversial curator, the Saatchi Gallery has always sought to challenge. Its guiding principle has always been to operate as the quirkier B-side to places like the Tate Modern – so expect to find new and unknown works from artists all hoping to be the Hockney of tomorrow.
WHAT’S ON
Flowers – Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture (until 5th May, £12+) – Set across two floors of gallery spaces with over 500 works on show, this is set to be a sprawling survey of how nature’s most beautiful product has inspired artists on both a purely visual and a more symbolic level.
Address: Duke of York’s HQ, Kings Road, SW3 4RY | Opening Hours: Daily 10am-6pm | Entry: Free/Exhibitions from £10
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Serpentine Galleries | Kensington
A gallery double-act tucked away in Kensington Gardens, mainly dabbling in the modern, avant-garde side of art. Come here for the daring contemporary stuff and to marvel at the temporary outdoor pavilion, designed by a different world-renowned artist each summer.
WHAT’S ON
Arpita Singh: Remembering (from 20th March until 27th July, free) – This exhibition is the artist’s first solo outside India. It tracks her impressive career over six decades, showcasing her large-scale oil paintings as well as her more intimate watercolours and ink drawings.
Address: Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA | Opening Hours: Tues-Sun 10am-6pm | Entry: Free
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V&A | South Kensington
Like the Queen whose name it bears, the Victoria & Albert is imposing, vast, and spans decades. With 145 galleries and over 5,000 years of art in its free permanent collection, it really is an encyclopaedia of design. Since its inception in 1852, the museum has always adopted a policy of “wide art”; attempting to inspire, dazzle, and entertain with its eclectic collection. Today is no different and you can travel the world and back without ever leaving the building (except to look at the courtyard).
WHAT’S ON
The Great Mughals (until 5th May 2025, £22) – An exquisite peek into the richly cultured court of the South Asian empire during its Golden Age (1560-1660), featuring immensely detailed prints, jewellery and more.
Address: Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL | Opening Hours: Daily 10am-5.45pm (10pm Fridays) | Entry: Free / Exhibitions from £12
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