A list of free exhibitions in London open now, and opening in London soon.
Displayed by how soon they close.
Exhibitions open now
This exhibition showcases a series of powerful and poetic watercolours made on an expedition to discover the ruins of ancient Ionia (modern Turkey) in 1764.
Open from Wed 19th May to Sat 4th Sep
Ends this month
The exhibition includes both gallery artists and guest artists and takes as its starting point an engraving by the great nineteenth century illustrator, Gustave Doré.
Open from Wed 21st Jul to Sat 4th Sep
Ends this month
White Cube presents ‘Nudità’, an exhibition of new works by Liu Wei.
Open from Fri 9th Jul to Sat 4th Sep
Ends this month
This touring exhibition unites contemporary indigenous artists and educators in the USA with museums and historic collections in Britain.
Open from Fri 23rd Jul to Sun 5th Sep
Ends this month
A display celebrating dub reggae and its influence on the capital.
Open from Wed 19th May to Sun 5th Sep
Ends this month
A series of tonal paintings produced by contraptions that have been assembled by hand from industrial materials.
Open from Fri 13th Aug to Sun 5th Sep
Ends this month
Outdoor art exhibition by Malwawi-born artist Samson Kambalu, who has been creating flags throughout lockdown that explore ideas of national and individual sovereignty and links to emancipatory movements such as Pan-Africanism.
Open from Mon 17th May to Sun 5th Sep
Ends this month
Copies of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic torches will be on display in London during the summer.
Open from Tue 13th Jul to Mon 6th Sep
Ends this month
This display showcases some of the miniature books submitted by children during the Covid lockdown.
Open from Sat 7th Aug to Sun 12th Sep
Ends this month
A collection of work exploring artists’ responses to the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
Open from Mon 17th May to Sun 12th Sep
Ends this month
Featuring works by children from 30 different primary schools, the exhibition showcases the richness of children's creative responses – from armoured beasts and shining shields to plumed helmets and printed flowers.
Open from Thu 17th Jun to Sun 12th Sep
Ends this month
The Royal Society of Sculptors annual Summer Exhibition returns, featuring a curated selection of works from members and fellows.
Open from Wed 25th Aug to Sat 18th Sep
Ends this month
A new photographic art display exploring contemporary relationships with spiritualism, reality and surrealism, through a Black British lens.
Open from Mon 17th May to Sun 19th Sep
Ends this month
An exhibition exploring the phenomena of skateboarding and the impact of its culture and communities on the UK over the past 45 years.
Open from Mon 19th Jul to Sun 19th Sep
Ends this month
This exhibition looks at the Cold War and its effect on cultural practices in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa region, which generated one of the most fertile periods in the history of Arab culture and publishing.
Open from Fri 25th Jun to Sun 26th Sep
Ends this month
The exhibition showcases the people and places in Harrow who have contributed to preserving Harrow’s natural spaces.
Open from Tue 20th Jul to Sun 26th Sep
Ends this month
An exhibition on perhaps the Isokon’s most renowned resident: Agatha Christie.
Open from Sat 22nd May to Sun 26th Sep
Ends this month
Discover the story of Ai-Da, the world’s first convincing humanoid robot capable of creating artworks.
Open from Tue 18th May to Wed 29th Sep
Ends this month
An exhibition exploring the concept of Eden through Art & Islamic Garden Design
Open from Thu 29th Apr to Thu 30th Sep
Ends this month
This large scale timeline and exhibition in the gallery tells you some of the extraordinary story within the wider context of the changing East End.
Open from Tue 8th Jun to Thu 30th Sep
Ends this month
An analogue journey through unseen footage, unpublished articles and original synthesizers with one of electronic music's pioneering groups.
Open from Mon 19th Jul to Thu 30th Sep
Ends this month
A series of X-ray photographs and poetic texts highlighting extinction and the alarming decline in bird species around the world.
Open from Mon 17th May to Sun 10th Oct
This exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the history of medicine and the growth of the medical and scientific professions.
Open from Mon 19th Jul to Fri 15th Oct
Starting over 50 years ago, this great photographer has been documenting life in the west London communities of Ladbroke Grove and Notting Hill.
Open from Fri 23rd Jul to Sun 17th Oct
Celebrating south London’s music scene, Music Curator Adem Holness highlights the relationship between Black British music and physical space.
Open from Fri 23rd Jul to Sun 24th Oct
An exhibition to celebrate the release of A Field Guide to Larking by Lara Maiklem, author of the bestselling Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames
Open from Thu 1st Jan 1970 to Sat 30th Oct
Five monumental views reunited for the first time in more than 250 years.
Open from Thu 22nd Jul to Sun 31st Oct
A display of Asante treasures from Ghana, shedding light on 19th-century collecting and the British Empire.
Open from Wed 19th May to Sun 31st Oct
Discover the shared military heritage between the UK and the Caribbean in this special exhibition exploring the role of West Indian soldiers in the British Army.
Open from Wed 19th May to Sun 31st Oct
This exhibition explores the pioneering design strategy and lasting legacy of the historic Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games.
Open from Thu 5th Aug to Sun 7th Nov
This group exhibition and artist led research project unearths and interrogates our connection with our habitats and ecosystems, both global and local.
Open from Tue 18th May to Sun 14th Nov
In response to the climate emergency, artists Ackroyd & Harvey have installed Beuys’ Acorns, a group of 100 oak trees, on Tate Modern’s South Terrace
Open from Tue 4th May to Sun 14th Nov
This display reflects on the role of humour in debates around identity, empire and power over the past two hundred years.
Open from Mon 17th May to Thu 25th Nov
This display of artworks and manuscripts explores the life and interests of Joseph Banks (1743-1820) through some of his extraordinary collections.
Open from Mon 17th May to Thu 25th Nov
This exhibition will display works from throughout the artist’s career and explore how her admiration for William Hogarth has inspired elements of her work.
Open from Tue 20th Jul to Fri 26th Nov
This exhibition examines the pivotal role of women as both artists and as behind-the-scenes organisers within the Surrealist movement in Britain in the 1930s.
Open from Wed 19th May to Sun 12th Dec
An exhibition that reflects on the Building Centre's key activities from 1931 to the present day
Open from Mon 7th Jun to Fri 17th Dec
An exhibition exploring 400 years of emigration from Britain from the Mayflower to the present day through personal narratives, contemporary art and a range of media.
Open from Wed 19th May to Sun 19th Dec
An installation exploring two important social questions: who are our buildings and shared spaces for and how do they affect us?
Open from Mon 17th May to Thu 23rd Dec
The exhibition brings together rarely-seen original artwork and costumes, photographs, documents, audio and video to tell the story of Noël Coward's life.
Open from Mon 14th Jun to Thu 23rd Dec
An exhibition about a dentist and Freemason noted for his philanthropy.
Open from Mon 17th May to Sat 25th Dec
Heather Phillipson engulfs Tate Britain’s grand central galleries with colour, sound and motion
Open from Sun 20th Jun to Wed 29th Dec
An outdoor exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the seat of Poland’s diplomatic post in London at 47 Portland Place.
Open from Sun 2nd May to Fri 31st Dec
This exhibition offers new commissions that take a deeper look at feelings of peace and balance.
Open from Thu 15th Jul to Sun 9th Jan 2022
The exhibition invites audiences to consider one of ancient Korea’s most significant, but enigmatic, archaeological sites.
Open from Fri 20th Aug to Sat 22nd Jan 2022
An exhibition that offers a first look at the technologies being developed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.
Open from Wed 19th May to Thu 10th Feb 2022
Explore the diversity of euphoric experiences and the effect of positive emotion on the body.
Open from Thu 15th Jul to Wed 23rd Feb 2022
Explore the 100-year history of the prestigious Royal Academy of Dance.
Open from Sun 20th Jun to Wed 16th Mar 2022
A display exploring the central role food plays in Black enterprise and identity in South East London.
Open from Fri 16th Jul to Sat 9th Apr 2022
Exhibitions opening soon
This mudlarking exhibition provides an opportunity to meet London’s mudlarks and see their fascinating collections
Open from Fri 3rd Sep to Sun 5th Sep
Ends this month
This exhibition is an intense investigation of a place half-remembered and half-remade by fantasy - both the artist's own and those protruding, live and dead, from the past.
Open from Thu 9th Sep to Sat 2nd Oct
An exhibition examining the industry’s innovative nature, presenting the unique depth of rush weaving’s aesthetics and its historical value to Taiwan.
Open from Sat 2nd Oct to Sat 9th Oct
Bentleys, the vintage luggage specialist, hosts a week-long residency with arguably Britain’s finest traditional leather craftspeople: Tetbury’s Neil MacGregor and Valerie Michael.
Open from Mon 4th Oct to Sat 9th Oct
Five leading contemporary craft galleries on display in the historic, 19th-century official residence of the Argentine ambassador.
Open from Mon 4th Oct to Sun 10th Oct
Visitors can see the entire process of creating handwoven textiles, from setting up the warp, weaving both tapestries and rugs, and finally taking the finished piece off the loom.
Open from Mon 4th Oct to Sun 10th Oct
The annual international open exhibition of the UK Coloured Pencil Society is this year celebrating 20 years of promoting fine art in coloured pencil.
Open from Thu 14th Oct to Sun 24th Oct
A display of photographs of London from eight different perspectives, rejecting a single, monolithic view in favour of a fragmentary, multifarious mosaic.
Open from Fri 17th Sep to Thu 4th Nov
An exhibition of rarely seen paintings on paper from the final years of Mark Rothko’s life.
Open from Fri 8th Oct to Fri 12th Nov
The Southbank presents the most extensive exhibition of Gerhard Richter’s drawings ever shown in the UK.
Open from Thu 9th Sep to Sun 12th Dec
This exhibition follows the lives of soldiers in Germany over the past 75 years.
Open from Sun 12th Sep to Fri 31st Dec
This exhibition presents large scale photographs taken less than two months after the attacks, as the gravity of the 9/11 terror attacks left a new world in their wake.
Open from Fri 10th Sep to Sun 9th Jan 2022
An exhibition about the award-winning illustrator of children’s books
Open from Sat 4th Sep to Sun 9th Jan 2022
Kehinde Wiley is an American artist best known for his portraits that render people of colour in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings.
Open from Fri 10th Dec to Mon 18th Apr 2022
This exhibition will trace more than 200 years of extraordinary experiences and intense activity on a river that has always been essential to the city’s survival.
Open from Fri 22nd Oct to Sun 8th May 2022
A once-in-a-century opportunity to see this iconic painting in the UK.
Open from Tue 25th Jan 2022 to Sun 15th May 2022
Step back through millennia and discover how this ancient civilization questioned, contemplated, and debated the natural world.
Open from Wed 17th Nov to Sun 5th Jun 2022
An immersive exhibition exploring the latest cancer research taking place at the Crick - Europe’s largest biomedical research institute under one roof.
Open from Fri 10th Sep to Thu 30th Jun 2022
