Top 10 exhibitions in London (updated for 2026)

Curated by Philippa Adams, who previously served as the gallery’s Senior Director for over 20 years, this expansive nine-room retrospective which aims to both celebrate the past and reiterate the Saatchi Gallery’s commitment to championing innovation in the present and future. A reinvention of the wheel, conceptually speaking, it may not be, but it’s a bona fide feast for the eyes. 

Why go: ‘Fun’ is a quality which seems to be all too frequently forgotten by curatorial teams. But it certainly takes pride of place here. The Long Now is a brilliant showcase of the gallery’s decades-long passion for contemporary art, and knack of making stars out of artists whose work is as thought-provoking as it is visually arresting. 

From her pixie-cropped New York fashionista era, to traversing war-torn Europe as a daredevil journalist, all the eras of Lee Miller’s exceptional life are up on the Tate Britain’s walls for the duration of the gallery’s blockbuster exhibition. 

Why go: This exhibition is a study of Miller as a woman as well as an artist. Sweeping but precisely curated, the retrospective showcases her technical and compositional skills, as well as her Bowie-like gift for professional shapeshifting. And all the history is there. 

Featuring 250 objects, including loans from Versailles that have never been exhibited outside of France before now, Marie Antoinette Style takes visitors on a journey through the ill-fated queen’s forward-thinking wardrobe, dizzyingly elaborate jewellery, lavish interiors, huge hairstyles and enduring influence on fashion and art today.

Why go: The show is a joy to experience, and a must-see for anyone with a modicum of interest in fashion. It is a thorough, moving and vivacious display of a young woman with expensive tastes and the budget to match.

At first sight, Candice Lin’s g/hosti evokes a childlike playfulness. At its centre is a maze of cardboard panels painted with animals cavorting in a mythical forest. Its simplistic style and bright, warm colours feel akin to the sort of whimsical mural you might find painted on the wall of a primary school. The more you weave through the circular labyrinth, however, the more you realise you’re immersed in something altogether more sinister; the walls of the maze are punctuated with smartphone screens playing hand-drawn cartoons that depict scenes of violence and oppression, from the war in Gaza, to the California wildfires, to student protests being met with police brutality.

Why go: This show is brilliantly unsettling, forcing viewers to really think, but only after luring them into a false sense of security through its surface-level naiveté and cosy reminders of childhood, a simpler time.

From the controversial £1,400 Balenciaga destroyed trainers, to Jordanluca’s pee-soaked jeans, and dresses that have been pulled out of bogs, Dirty Looks peers at the muckier side of fashion design. The exhibition, featuring more than 120 garments from designers including Maison Margiela, Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Issey Miyake, takes a clever thematic approach to the philosophy of dirt within fashion, showing how ideas around industrialisation, colonisation, the body, and waste, can be illustrated on the runway. 

Why go: This show will gross you out, make you think and challenge your perception of haute couture. Not glitzy or shiny, Dirty Looks is a raw, honest and edgy display that should be enough to convince anyone that fashion is art. 

It’s hard to know if Italian Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna was issuing a doom-laden warning or just a doe-eyed love letter to history. Because written into the nine sprawling canvases of his ‘Triumphs of Caesar’ (six of which are on show here while their gallery in Hampton Court Palace is being renovated) is all the glory and power of Ancient Rome, but its eventual collapse too.

Why go: Peer into the peak of empire, of grandeur and riches and dominance and avarice and cruelty and subjugation, before an inevitable fall. 

A series of immersive and beguiling installations, kinetic sculptures, interactive machines and large projections explore the relationship between the human body and machine at this landmark dance exhibition, highlighting the work of virtuoso choreographer Wayne McGregor. 

Why go: Looking at how choreography can be augemented and created through AI, machine learning, motion capture and more, tech nerds and ballet lovers alike will adore this mesmeric exhibition. Virtually every work on show at Infinite Bodies is worth stopping at and lingering over for a while.

This ever-so-whimsical retrospective on the manic pixie dream director Wes Anderson is packed full of crowd pleasing-items – from the implausibly cute Fantastic Mr Fox stop-motion puppets, to a huge scale model of the Grand Budapest Hotel that looks like a Barbie dream house on crack. 

Why go: Any Anderson fan is going to absolutely love this Wes-fest, which illustrates just how much painstaking and beautiful detail has been poured into each of his 12 feature films. It’s probably as close as you are going to get to being on a Wes Anderson film set. 

Peter Doig is one of the greatest living painters, an artist whose approach to hazy, memory-drenched figuration has had an enormous impact on the visual landscape of today. For his show at the Serpentine, he’s going well beyond the canvas, filling the gallery with speaker systems to explore the impact of music on his work.

Why go: Despite a few technical issues with Doig’s re-creation of a hi-fi listening bar, his majestic paintings speak volumes. House of Music is a wonderful showing from an artist with very little left to prove. 

More than a hundred strikingly vibrant art deco posters are exhibited at the London Transport Museum’s latest temporary exhibition, alongside gorgeous objects like cigarette cases, compact mirrors, and tea sets that express the decadence of the interwar period. 

Why go: While a younger audience will be drawn to the meticulously beautiful posters’ vintage aesthetic, older visitors might find them charmingly nostalgic. Seen today, they show how the art deco aesthetic endures as a luxurious moment in history. And it’s a nice reminder that tube adverts don’t have to be dull either.