There are 8 exhibitions on in London worth the trip. I checked the dates, the venues and the opening hours one by one, on the museums’ own pages.
Last checked: 28 July 2026
2 May to 23 August 2026
The first UK monographic show on Francisco de Zurbarán, almost fifty canvases by the Sevillian painter of convents: saints wrapped in fabric that looks carved, still lifes that feel almost mineral. Less known than Velázquez, it reveals a more austere Spanish Baroque.
12 June to 6 September 2026
The first show devoted to Barbara Hepworth's use of colour, an aspect most visitors don't know since her reputation rests on abstract forms in stone and pale wood. Around twenty painted sculptures, some brought together for the first time, shown with thirty drawings.
4 June to 6 September 2026
The National Portrait Gallery marks the centenary of Marilyn Monroe's birth, in 1926, with a show that separates the person from the image built by Hollywood. It skips the filmography and traces how the same face was retouched and reinvented for decades.
16 April to 20 September 2026
Around a hundred and twenty Flemish and Dutch drawings from the 15th and 16th centuries, from Rogier van der Weyden to Bruegel the Elder: fragile material rarely on display since paper degrades under light. Free entry, not a given in London for a show at this level.
16 June to 18 October 2026
The Hayward Gallery has handed Anish Kapoor the whole building: not a selection but a full takeover. There are the light-swallowing concave pigment pieces, plus new works never shown. Worth it for the contrast with the Brutalist building, but budget time.
28 March to 8 November 2026
The first UK exhibition devoted to Elsa Schiaparelli, with over two hundred pieces spanning the 1920s to the house today under Daniel Roseberry. Worth it less for the clothes than for how it treats fashion as a Surrealist project, jewellery displayed as sculpture.
25 June 2026 to 3 January 2027
Not a psychological portrait: the show traces how Frida Kahlo became a global icon. Her thirty paintings sit alongside over two hundred works by predecessors and artists she influenced. A curatorial angle more than a biographical one.
8 June 2026 to 3 May 2027
Seven decades of kinetic work: light sculptures, mirrored surfaces, rooms that only activate once you step inside. Le Parc, co-founder of the GRAV group in 1960, wanted art to be a collective experience. He died in 2026, making this also his last major retrospective.
Dates and prices change, and this page may not reflect the latest updates: before you travel, always check the museum’s own page, linked under each exhibition, which is the most reliable source.