12 London art exhibitions to see in February 2024

January, not a great time for art. By our count, there were just 20-odd exhibition openings. That’s paltry, that’s meagre, that’s... January. But things are looking a lot healthier in art terms this coming February.

Spring isn't quite in the air, but art sure is. We’ve got performance shenanigans, mixed-media installations, sculpture shows, loads of paintings by artists from the African diaspora and more hot button topics than an American news channel. 

12 London art exhibitions to see in February 2024

Barbara Kruger

The Serpentine is kicking off 2024 with a celebration of one of the most direct, confrontational, simple, effective artists ever. Barbara Kruger’s combination of bold image and bold text has made the American’s work instantly recognisable and hugely influential. This show will see past pieces reconfigured as video works and mashed together with soundscapes to create a totally immersive way to experience her art. 

Barbara Kruger is at the Serpentine, Feb 1-Mar 17 2024. Free. More details here.

‘Entangled Pasts’

Four times now I have accidentally typed ‘Entangled Pastas’ instead of ‘Entangled Pasts’, the name of the Royal Academy’s first big exhibition of the year. But this show isn’t about spaghetti and its sauces, it’s about history and its sources, looking at how art has shaped narratives of empire, enslavement, resistance, abolition and colonialism over the past 250 years, pitting contemporary artists like John Akomfrah and Sonia Boyce against old school heroes like Joshua Reynolds and JMW Turner. Should you book a ticket? You’d be fusilli not to.

Entangled Pasts is at the Royal Academy, Feb 3-Apr 28. £22. More details here. 

Aria Dean: ‘Abattoir’

The centrepiece of this young American artist’s debut UK exhibition is a trippy video journey through a 3D animated abattoir. It’s all an exploration of the relationships between architecture, power and race, positing the idea that the abattoir represents ‘structuralised death as a cornerstone of modern life’. Which sounds cheery. 

Aria Dean is at the ICA, Feb 8-May 5. £5. More info here.

‘When Forms Come Alive: 60 Years of Restless Sculpture’

Wibbly, wobbly, lumpy and bumpy; the Hayward’s first show of the year will be all about organic forms in sculpture. We’re talking fluidity, curviness, blobbiness and tactility in the work of artists like Franz West, Phyllida Barlow, Holly Hendry and Eva Fàbregas. This big, ultra-focused group show approach is often what the Hayward does best. Prepare for ‘promiscuously proliferating’ sculptures about ‘the poetics of gravity’, whatever that means. 

‘When Forms Come Alive’ is at the Hayward Gallery, Feb 7-May 6 2024. More details here. 

Frank Auerbach: ‘The Charcoal Heads’

Frank Auerbach, a head honcho of the ‘School of London’ movement alongside folk like Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud, is considered one of the most important artists of twentieth century Britain – and he’s still alive today, pumping out gorgeous, vital art. His small show of new self-portraits at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert last year proved that he’s still got it, but this Courtauld exhibition will look back at some charcoal portraits from the 1950s and ’60s which are considered ‘some of his early masterpieces’.

Frank Auerbach: ‘The Charcoal Heads’ is at the Courtauld Gallery, Feb 9-May 27. More details here.

‘Unravel’

Get ready to totally rethink your wardrobe and bed linen, because the Barbican’s new exhibition is all about how textiles can ‘challenge power structures and reimagine the world’. Featuring over 50 intergenerational artists, ‘Unravel’ promises to ‘offer narratives of violence, imperialism and exclusion’. You might be asking ‘can’t art just be conceptual, or personal, or maybe even just be about, like, aesthetics?’ No. It has to be about power structures and imperialism now, sorry. 

Unravel is at the Barbican, Feb 13-May 26. £18. More details here. 

‘Soulscapes’

This show pulls together some of the absolute best artists from the African diaspora (Hurvin Anderson, Phoebe Boswell, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Kimathi Donkor, Isaac Julien, Marcia Michael, Mónica de Miranda and Alberta Whittle) for a celebration of the enduring power of landscape painting. 

‘Soulscapes’ is at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Feb 13-Jun 2. More details here.

Andrew Pierre Hart: ‘Bio-Data Flows and Other Rhythms – A Local Story’

You can’t pin Andrew Pierre Hart down. He combines sound, sculpture and painting into freewheeling, heady installations, like this new one which includes a mural, oil paintings, bamboo structures and speakers whacked in seats, all intended as a look at Whitechapel as a haven for migrant and diasporic communities. 

Andrew Pierre Hart is at Whitechapel Gallery, Feb 15-Jul 7. More details here.

Yoko Ono: ‘Music of the Mind’

Ono’s fame is so huge, her name so ubiquitous, that it has almost totally eclipsed the fact that she’s a leading experimental artist in her field. She’s worked in performance, film and drawing, she was part of Fluxus, she’s made music and she’s fought for peace. She is, in other words, totally legit and totally overlooked. Her work is always radical, always earnest, and often quite silly. What more could you want? 

Yoko Ono is at Tate Modern, Feb 15-Sep 1 2024. More details here. 

‘The Time is Always Now’

What the Dulwich Picture Gallery is doing for landscape painting, the NPG is doing for portraiture. This show, curated by the writer and presenter Ekow Eshun, pulls together some of the absolute best artists from the African diaspora (Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall, Toyin Ojih Odutola and Amy Sherald) for a celebration of the Black figure in contemporary painting. 

‘The Time is Always Now’ is at the National Portrait Gallery, Feb 22-May 19. More details here. 

‘Sargent and Fashion’

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was one of the most important portraitists of his era. He beautifully documented the luxury and opulence of turn-of-the-century Europe, and this show looks at the importance of fashion to the way he crafted ideas of identity and status in art. Expect over 60 gorgeous paintings, and a whole bunch of dresses too, none of which you are allowed to try on apparently. 

‘Sargent and Fashion’ is at Tate Britain, Feb 22-Jul 7. More details here. 

Burtynsky: ‘Extraction/Abstraction’

This will apparently be the largest ever exhibition dedicated to the influential photographer Edward Burtynsky, who takes dizzying large format photographs of the way man is brutally shaping the planet. The works often hit you at first as abstract, before your eyes and brain latch on to watch your seeing: destruction and greed. At its best, his work is as terrifying as it is beautiful.

Burtynsky: Extraction/Abstraction is at Saatchi Gallery, Feb 14-May 6. More details here.