London Art Exhibitions 2026 An Artlyst Month by Month Guide

Artlyst has published a comprehensive month-by-month guide to art exhibitions opening in London throughout 2026. Highlights include solo shows by Lucian Freud, David Hockney, and Anish Kapoor; surveys of women artists such as Tracey Emin, Frida Kahlo, Rose Wylie, Cecily Brown, and Chiharu Shiota; and historical exhibitions featuring Stubbs, Whistler, and Renoir. The guide also covers the opening of the new V&A East, a major samurai exhibition at the British Museum, a Freud drawing show at the National Portrait Gallery, an Aardman animation exhibition at Young V&A, a Lynda Benglis and Giacometti encounter at the Barbican Centre, and a Seurat seascape exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery.

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Shanghai Art Week 2025 is underway, anchored by two major concurrent art fairs: Art021 Shanghai and West Bund Art and Design, running from November 13 to 16. West Bund has relocated to a new venue, the West Bund Convention Center designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, featuring over 200 participants including 106 galleries in its main sector. Art021 returns to the Shanghai Exhibition Center with 139 galleries from 22 countries, including 33 first-time participants. The Shanghai Biennale opened early at the Power Station of Art, curated by Kitty Scott under the title "Does the Flower Hear the Bee?" featuring 67 artists and collectives. Meanwhile, alternative events like "Artist's Treat," launched by Xu Zhen in collaboration with Hol Platform and ShanghArt Gallery, are drawing attention in repurposed local spaces.

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Multimedia artist Doug Aitken will present his first exhibition in India, titled “Under the Sun,” opening December 6 at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai. The site-specific show, commissioned by NMACC and curated by Roya Sachs and Mafalda Kahane of TRIADIC, spans three floors exploring past, present, and future through hand-carved wooden sculptures, embroidered textiles, a light installation, and Aitken’s film NEW ERA (2018), created in collaboration with over a dozen Indian artisans.

A New Exhibition at the British Museum Dismantles the Popular Understanding of Samurai

The British Museum has opened a major exhibition titled 'Samurai,' which challenges the widespread, simplified portrayal of samurai as solely honor-bound, hyper-violent warriors. The show, curated by Rosina Buckland, presents them as a complex social class who were also bureaucrats, administrators, and cultural figures, emphasizing their roles during periods of peace and governance.

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The British Museum has announced a major 2026 exhibition titled "Samurai" that will trace the 1,000-year history of Japan's warrior class. Spanning armor, woodblock prints, paintings, clothing, ceramics, and contemporary media, the show brings together 280 objects from the museum's own collection and international lenders. Highlights include a 17th-century suit of armor recently acquired by the museum, a portrait of envoy Mancio Itō by Domenico Tintoretto, and works by Katsushika Hokusai. The exhibition also examines the modern myth of the samurai as shaped by film, manga, and video games such as Akira Kurosawa's movies and Assassin's Creed: Shadows.

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The British Museum has opened a major exhibition titled "Samurai" that challenges popular perceptions of the warrior class. It reveals that after 1615, half of all samurai were women, though they did not engage in combat, and explores the evolution of samurai from medieval fighters to Edo-period bureaucrats and cultural figures. The show features over 280 objects, from armor and weapons to everyday items like a woman's dressing set, and examines the contrast between historical reality and modern pop culture portrayals.

Outdoor chandeliers and a thought chamber: Must-see satellite exhibitions beyond the Venice Biennale

The 61st Venice Biennale is accompanied by a wide array of satellite exhibitions across the city, from noble palazzi to canals. Highlights include a showcase of Pichwai textile art at Palazzo Barbaro, curated by Pooja Singhal; a return of Dale Chihuly with outdoor glass chandeliers along the Grand Canal; and Nalini Malani's "Of Woman Born" at Magazzini del Sale, a multimedia installation exploring myth and conflict.

‘This is how art history is built’: unprecedented Mumbai exhibition unites works of Indian and Arab Modernism

A new exhibition titled 'Resonant Histories' has opened at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) museum, running until 16 February 2026. It is the first show to focus on the relationship between Indian and Arab Modernism, featuring over 40 works lent by the Sharjah-based Barjeel Art Foundation alongside pieces from Mumbai's Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF). The exhibition highlights visual and thematic resonances between artists from both regions, such as Syrian painter Marwan Kassab-Bachi and Indian master Francis Newton Souza, and addresses shared post-colonial struggles through works by artists like Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, Krishen Khanna, Abdul Qader Al Rais, and Naim Ismail. It also explores direct cultural exchanges, for example Egyptian artist Nazek Hamdi's adaptation of Bengali folk-art.

The Third Line presents Anuar Khalifi's Remember the Future solo show

The Third Line gallery in Dubai is presenting 'Remember the Future', the third solo exhibition by Spanish-Moroccan artist Anuar Khalifi, running from January 17 to March 1. The show features large-scale paintings and works on paper that blend reality and imagination, drawing on magical realism, art history, and poetry. Khalifi’s works incorporate recurring symbols like chairs, vessels, and flora, and explore themes such as identity, diaspora, orientalism, and consumerism, often with ironic and humorous undertones.

This Is Where Max Mara Will Hold Its Resort 2027 Show in Shanghai

Max Mara has chosen the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai as the venue for its Resort 2027 runway show on June 16. The event will coincide with the opening of an exhibition titled “The Max!”, curated by Olivier Saillard, celebrating the brand’s 75th anniversary. The Long Museum is a private art museum founded by collectors Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei, with three locations across China. This marks Max Mara’s second show in Shanghai, following a 2016 presentation at the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

‘A static collection is a dead collection’: how the British Museum is acquiring for a global public

The British Museum has received a record-breaking donation of Chinese ceramics valued at nearly £1 billion from the Sir Percival David Foundation, including the famous David vases from 1351 and a 1,000-year-old Ru ware bowl stand. The acquisition, approved by the Charity Commission, expands the museum's Chinese ceramics collection to 10,000 pieces and fulfills the donor's intent to inform and inspire the public. The article details the museum's acquisition process, which prioritizes objects that tell stories about everyday life and ephemeral culture, while adhering to strict ethical and practical considerations due to the British Museum Act 1963's stringent deaccession rules.

Teen Artists Challenge Traditional Boundaries at Fort Worth Gallery Show

The Pool Near Southside Arts Space in Fort Worth hosted the NAMNAL Exhibition, the city's first art and AI exhibition featuring twenty-two emerging youth artists. The show, which closed May 12, was the culmination of a STEAM-based initiative called NAMNAL (New Age Media – New Age Learning), founded by Sri Lankan American artist and AP art teacher Dhananjaya “DJ” Perera. The exhibition displayed 25 core works reimagined across mediums—from sketches to 3D prints, projection mapping, and embroidery—developed in collaboration with TCU’s College of Fine Arts and UT Dallas’ Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology.

Exhibition | Dai Chenlian, 'Waxing and Waning of the Augustness III' at ShanghART, M50, Shanghai, China

ShanghART Gallery presents Dai Chenlian's solo exhibition 'Waxing and Waning of the Augustness III' at its M50 space in Shanghai from April 10 to May 29, 2026. The show is the final chapter of the artist's 'Mother Trilogy,' centering on his mother's life from 1954 to 2025. Through a reconstructed old house made from loom parts, along with painting, installation, performance, sound narration, and shadow puppetry, the exhibition explores themes of memory, migration, and female resilience, drawing on a line by Tang dynasty poet Li Shangyin.

He Who Permeates Exhibition at Tao Art Gallery Explores Myth, Identity and Visual Culture

The exhibition 'He Who Permeates' is currently on view at Tao Art Gallery in Mumbai, curated by Mihir Thakkar. It features contemporary artists Jayesh Sachdev and NFN Kalyan, exploring how imagery and symbols are reinterpreted across cultural contexts in a hyper-visual age. The show runs daily from 11 am to 6:30 pm until May 28, 2026, and marks NFN Kalyan's first presentation in India.

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An art exhibition at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre titled “Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machine of Authoritarian Solidarity” was censored after repeated visits by Chinese embassy representatives. The show, featuring exiled artists from China, Russia, Iran, and Burma, had black paint applied over artists' names and descriptions of homelands such as Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang. Works by Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron were particularly affected, with television screens showing her films switched off and Tibetan and Uyghur flags removed. Burmese artist Sai told BBC News that since the censorship, he and his wife fled to the UK to seek asylum.

Landor partners with Museum of Contemporary Art Australia on landmark AI exhibition

Landor Australia partnered with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA Australia) to create "Data Dreams: Art and AI," a landmark exhibition featuring ten international artists exploring art and artificial intelligence. Landor developed "Data Dreamscape," a generative identity system and interactive experience where visitors typed in dream memories, which AI transformed into unique artworks. The identity was applied across marketing, merchandise, and in-gallery applications, with approximately 3,000 visitors engaging with the tool during the exhibition's run.

Tom Vattakuzhy’s Mumbai exhibition follows the feeling a story leaves behind

Tom Vattakuzhy's new exhibition "Where Words End" opens in Mumbai from May 3–17, 2026, at ICIA Gallery in Kalaghoda. The show presents a series of "story paintings" that explore the emotional residue left behind after reading a narrative, focusing on moods and sensations rather than plot or illustration. Vattakuzhy, who began his career as an illustrator, shifts here toward open-ended scenes where figures appear mid-gesture and rooms feel charged with unspoken meaning, drawing from literary sources as points of departure rather than literal subjects.

Dive into the works of artist Badri Narayan and the Vitrum Studio at this art exhibition in Mumbai

Curator Puja Vaish discovered ceramic works by artist Vijoo Sadwelkar in the Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation's collection, leading her to Haresh Mehta, who preserved original works from the Vitrum studio. This resulted in the exhibition "A Glazed History: Badri Narayan & the Vitrum Studio" at the JNAF Gallery at CSMVS Museum in Mumbai, the first retrospective of the studio that operated from the 1950s to the 1970s. Vitrum, founded by emigre glass expert Simon Lifschutz and his wife Hanna, blended art, craft, and design by having artists create hand-painted ceramic tiles and Venetian glass mosaics for everyday homes.

This solo exhibition in Mumbai by Koshy Brahmatmaj draws from pain

Koshy Brahmatmaj's debut solo exhibition, titled 'how do i make you believe,' is currently on view in Mumbai. The show presents artworks that draw from personal pain and limitation, with the artist choosing to work within constraints rather than against them. Images of the exhibition have been released by the gallery, showing pieces that reflect Brahmatmaj's engagement with themes of ecology, identity, archives, and community-based practice.

fashion buccellati shanghai retrospective milanese jewelry

Buccellati, the Milanese jewelry house founded in 1919 and now owned by Richemont, held a major retrospective titled “The Prince of Goldsmiths” in Shanghai. The exhibition traced the family-run enterprise’s 100-plus-year history, showcasing signature pieces such as four butterfly brooches representing successive generations of the Buccellati family—from founder Mario to great-granddaughter Lucrezia—alongside sumptuous jewelry and lesser-known home decor, including animal-inspired silverware and chrome lobster sculptures.

Jiangxi Artists Association Holds 2025 AI Art (Design) Works Exhibition and Symposium

江西省美协2025 AI美术（设计）作品展暨研讨会举办

The Jiangxi Artists Association launched the '2025 AI Art (Design) Works Exhibition' at the Jiangxi Federation of Literary and Arts Circles Art Exhibition Center on December 24. The exhibition featured 60 'human-machine symbiosis' AI artworks created by 30 young artists from the province following a training program. The works, spanning traditional and digital mediums, utilized generative AI technology and were presented through various formats including projections, light boxes, and installations.

shipping containers frame maison margiela's shanghai exhibition by OMA / AMO in china

OMA and its research arm AMO have unveiled a new exhibition design for Maison Margiela in Shanghai, utilizing industrial shipping containers as the primary architectural framework. The installation creates a modular, raw environment that reflects the fashion house’s deconstructivist aesthetic while navigating the expansive industrial space of the Chinese venue. By repurposing these steel structures, the design team has constructed a series of interconnected rooms that guide visitors through the brand's latest collections and archival pieces.