Best exhibitions in London this spring/summer 2025

Ed Atkins

Tate Britain, April 2 - August 25 

Ed Atkins' exhibition at Tate Britain is a profound exploration of grief, filtered through the lens of digital technology. The exhibition opens with Nurses Come and Go, But None For Me, a two-hour film in which Toby Jones reads from Atkins’ father’s 'Sick Notes' — a diary kept during the months before his death from cancer in 2009. The work’s raw vulnerability and minimalism confront grief head-on, leaving little room for emotional detachment.

Atkins' digital works, like Hisser, take a more indirect approach. The three-screen video installation features a computer-generated avatar of Atkins, whose life unravels after a Florida sinkhole swallows his house. This emotional numbness, amplified by technology, mirrors the artist's own struggle to confront personal loss. His avatars — emotionally vacant and mechanical — are unsettling reflections of his grief, substituting raw expression with artificial detachment.

The Worm, another video piece, amplifies this tension by portraying a robotic avatar mimicking human interaction, devoid of empathy. Atkins likens high-definition digital videos to “corpses,” offering a chilling look at the loss of agency in the face of technology’s rise.

However, not all of Atkins' work dwells in digital detachment. A series of playful drawings, made during lockdown for his daughter, offers a contrast — vibrant and spontaneous, they mark a release from the emotional constraints of his earlier pieces.

Through these works, Atkins creates a subtle yet poignant dialogue between grief and technology. The exhibition, while deeply personal, speaks to a universal experience: the struggle to reconcile loss with the artificiality of a world increasingly shaped by digital spaces.

Leigh Bowery!

Tate Modern, February 27 - August 31 

In the carefully constructed mythology of London's creative history, few figures cast as long a shadow as Leigh Bowery. His brief but consequential existence defied categorisation—moving with deliberate fluidity between performer, designer, model, and cultural provocateur.

Bowery's reinvention of clothing and cosmetics as a sculptural medium remains his most enduring legacy. He transformed his body into a canvas for challenging conventional notions of aesthetics and identity, creating a visual language that continues to influence contemporary expression from McQueen to Gibson. 

The Tate Modern's exhibition offers a measured contemplation of Bowery's "Looks" alongside his collaborations with artists who recognized his singular vision. Visitors move through carefully arranged vignettes revealing his migration from London's nocturnal underground to the rarefied space of the gallery—an elevation that never compromised his essential provocation. 

Beyond mere retrospective, the exhibition serves as a quiet manifesto for creative autonomy. The included works with Lucian Freud and Nick Knight provide particular insight into how Bowery's presence altered the creative trajectory of those in his orbit. 

For those who understand that true cultural significance often emerges from the margins, this exhibition offers a moment to consider how creative transgression becomes, in time, canonical. A reminder that the most considered rebellion leaves the most enduring mark.

Gustaf Broms

Ceremony Festival, April 2

Gustaf Broms has always lived on the edge of the conventional. His home, tucked in the woods near the Swedish village of Vendel, is a world away from the noise of city life. Yet, for Broms, this remote existence feels far from isolating. After years spent in the remote Kumaon region of northern India, where he sought a new approach to art, his move back to Sweden is a return to something more accessible, even if still deeply personal.

Broms' work is a constant search for authenticity, and it’s been a journey that began with photography and led him into performance. In the 1990s, after burning his past work in a symbolic act of reinvention, he moved to India, where he began collecting natural materials — bones, dried flowers — and creating intricate arrangements. His art then shifted toward performance, a form of expression where the experience itself, rather than the object, took centre stage.

He describes his work as an attempt to transcend the limitations of language. By working with materials from the natural world, Broms challenges traditional representations of reality, seeking instead to evoke something pure, something unspoken. “Language can only tell us so much,” he notes, and in his performances, such as The Sitting, where he spent an entire year sitting cross-legged in central Stockholm, he invites the audience into an experience that transcends conventional understanding.

Now, as Broms prepares for his performance at the Ceremony festival in London, he continues his journey, one that pushes the boundaries of language, art, and self. His work is a reminder that the most powerful expressions often lie in the unspoken, in the space between what is seen and what is felt.

Turner 250

Various locations, throughout 2025

Joseph Mallord William Turner, born 250 years ago, captured the very soul of Britain, an island where land and sea meet in perpetual flux. His 1803 painting Calais Pier marks his first encounter with the sea’s formidable power. Waves threaten to swallow a jetty as passengers disembark, encapsulating his fascination with water’s merciless force. Turner’s works, from The Fighting Temeraire to Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, reflect his relationship with the natural world — both a source of awe and a mirror for human frailty.

While Turner is often regarded as Britain’s greatest artist, his imagination reached far beyond the island’s shores. His travels to Venice, Rome, and the Alps infused his work with the grandeur of European landscapes and classical myth. Yet, his most compelling subject was Britain itself, often teetering between the past and an uncertain future. In The Fighting Temeraire, a once-proud warship is towed to its final resting place, a metaphor for the passing of an era.

Turner’s engagement with the world was not limited to the landscape. He grappled with the human condition, from the triumph of light to the tragedy of slavery, as seen in Slavers Throwing Overboard. His legacy is not just that of a painter of landscapes, but as an artist who sought to evoke emotion, challenge perceptions, and capture the shifting currents of time.

As the Turner 250 festival celebrates his legacy, we are reminded of how his art continues to resonate, much like the profound beauty and terror of the landscapes he depicted.

Goya to Impressionism

Courtauld Gallery, February 14 - May 26

For the first time outside Switzerland, The Courtauld Gallery unveils the Oskar Reinhart Collection, showcasing an extraordinary assembly of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces. Works by Goya, Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Cézanne sit alongside pieces by Courbet and Géricault, offering a rare opportunity to engage with some of the finest art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The exhibition opens with evocative pre-Impressionist works, such as Goya’s Still Life with Three Salmon Steaks and Courbet’s The Hammock. At its heart are iconic paintings, including Manet’s Au Café and Toulouse-Lautrec’s vibrant The Clown Cha-U-Kao. Van Gogh’s intimate A Ward in the Hospital at Arles and The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles are poignant highlights, offering a glimpse into the artist’s personal struggles.

Assembled by Oskar Reinhart in the early 20th century, the collection represents a confluence of artistic vision and historical significance, aligning with the spirit of The Courtauld’s own renowned holdings. This exhibition is a rare, thoughtful dialogue between two great private collections, now made public.

Linder: Danger Came Smiling

Hayward Gallery, April 13 – July 27

The Hayward Gallery presents a major retrospective of Linder, one of the most iconic and provocative British artists of the last five decades. Danger Came Smiling traces her journey from the rebellious punk era of 1970s Manchester to her current, internationally renowned practice. Known for her bold photomontages, Linder critiques the sexual commodification of the female body and explores the intersections of fashion, food, sex, and social media.

Linder’s sharp, playful irreverence first gained attention with her work for the band Ludus and the infamous Orgasm Addict cover for Buzzcocks. The exhibition spans her multifaceted career, with never-before-seen works that offer a deeper look at her feminist and experimental impulses.

Her artistic language, marked by biting humour and powerful imagery, dissects gender norms and sexual identities, using the violent act of cutting to reshape commercial representations. In SheShe (1981), Linder’s satirical takes on feminine personae challenge the performative dimensions of identity.

A master of blending glamour with critique, Linder's work is both a visual and intellectual protest — an ongoing investigation into the evolving landscape of power, identity, and desire.

The Face Magazine: Culture Shift

National Portrait Gallery, February 20 - June 1

The Face was more than a magazine — it was a cultural phenomenon that defined British style for two decades. Culture Shift, a new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, brings together over 200 photographs from 80 photographers, capturing the boldness and innovation of the magazine that once made stars out of Kate Moss, David Beckham, and a rebellious generation.

From its early days, The Face was a playground for creativity, infusing the world of fashion with punk, grunge, and unexpected moments of originality. A standout moment in the exhibition highlights an unorthodox shoot by Norbert Schoerner, where the sharp-dressed model, Rufus Jordan, sports a Tesco bag over his head — a commentary on British society, according to stylist Greg Fay.

The exhibition traces the magazine’s influence on the evolution of fashion photography, particularly its move from location shoots to experimental studio settings. It also showcases the explosive collaborations between photographers and stylists that changed the way we saw fashion.

The Face was loud, unapologetically British, and, at its core, a celebration of raw, unfiltered creativity. This exhibition, set against a soundtrack of ’90s anthems, is an exhilarating trip through the magazine’s cultural legacy.

Yoshitomo Nara

Hayward Gallery | Until May 4, 2025

This summer, Hayward Gallery presents a landmark retrospective of Yoshitomo Nara, one of Japan’s most influential contemporary artists. Spanning over 40 years, the exhibition features more than 150 works, inviting viewers into Nara’s world of rebellious, childlike figures.

Known for his wide-eyed, mischievous characters, Nara explores themes of individuality and global issues, with a particular focus on peace and environmentalism. His work reflects the cultural turbulence of his upbringing during the Vietnam War and the influence of his brothers' activism. Music, from blues to punk, has also been a driving force in Nara’s visual language, adding depth and resonance to his paintings and sculptures.

Nara’s exploration of childhood as a time of self-formation informs his work, offering a childlike freedom of expression while navigating a complex world. This exhibition presents an opportunity to reflect on his evolution and the ongoing relevance of his art, as it speaks to both personal experience and universal themes of defiance and introspection.

The King's Tour Artists

Buckingham Palace, April 22 – August 25

​A unique exhibition at Buckingham Palace, The King’s Tour Artists brings together 70 works by 42 artists who have captured the essence of royal tours over the past four decades. The role, initially created by the then Prince of Wales in the 1980s, has since taken artists to 95 countries, each tasked with documenting their surroundings during official tours.

Among the highlights is Susannah Fiennes’s poignant watercolour of two royal yachtsmen aboard Britannia, marking the end of the yacht’s service during the Hong Kong handover. In contrast, Mary Anne Aytoun Ellis’s work from a 2000 tour to the Caribbean captures the striking pace of royal visits, with Ellis arriving ahead of the royal party to immortalise the fleeting moment at the Kaieteur Falls in Guyana.

For summer visitors to the State Rooms, this exhibition offers an unparalleled view into the intersection of art and history, with many pieces on display for the first time. Through their eyes, the royal tours are seen not just as state visits, but as profound cultural experiences.