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After a quiet summer, September is always a great month for London’s art scene. Not only does back to school season see the arrival of loads of great new exhibitions across the city’s museums and galleries – Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley at the Serpentine and the V&A East’s new David Bowie Centre to name a few – but it’s also when we get to learn what’s in store for the city’s biggest art institutions in 2026.
With the Courtauld and the National Portrait Gallery having both announced their 2026 programmes in the last week, next year is shaping up to be a vintage one for London’s art scene. And one exhibition we’re particularly excited to see is the Tate Modern’s major retrospective on YBA icon Tracey Emin, new details of which have just been announced.
Arriving at South Bank gallery in February, Tracey Emin: A Second Life (Feb 26-Aug 30) promises to be the largest ever exhibition on one of Britain’s most renowned living artists, tracing her four-decade career through more than 90 works encompassing painting, video, textiles, sculptures and, of course, her signature neons and large-scale installations.
Among these will be some of the Croydon-born artist’s most iconic works, including two seminal installations, 1996’s Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made, for which Emin locked herself in Stockholm’s Galleri Andreas Brändström for three weeks and forced herself to rekindle her relationship with painting after abandoning the practice for six years, and the Turner Prize-shortlisted 1998 piece My Bed, the famously controversial installation of her messy bedroom following an alcohol-fuelled depressive episode.
Also featured in the exhibition are several recent works on display for the first time, including bronze sculptures Ascension (2024), exploring Emin’s relationship with her body following her recent surgeries for bladder cancer, and I Followed You Until The End (2023), a monumental piece exhibited outside the gallery which will invite passersby to engage with the seminal exhibition.
The gallery will be offering members of the public a further chance to engage with Emin's work at one of its legendary Tate Lates. Taking place on Friday 27 February, the late opening will feature music, workshops, talks and performances inspired by the artist’s groundbreaking practice and exploring the recurring themes of passion and healing in her work.
If you’re excited as us to check out this blockbuster of an exhibition next year, you can grab tickets now on the Tate website. And be sure to check out what else is on in 2026 at Tate’s iconic London galleries; from an Edward Enninful-curated show on 90s Britain to a massive new exhibition on Frida Kahlo, it's set to be one hell of a year!
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