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The National Portrait Gallery has been on an absolute roll over the last couple of years, not only opening its swanky new £35 million Blavatnik Wing back in summer 2023, but curating some truly unmissable temporary exhibitions since.
And now, following on from last year’s fabulous Francis Bacon show, and this year’s brilliant offerings on 80s pop culture bible The Face Magazine and British painter Jenny Saville, the Trafalgar Square gallery has announced yet more bangers for its 2026 season.
National Portrait Gallery 2026 exhibition programme
The year kicks off with the already-announced Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting (Feb 12-May 3), the first major UK exhibition focusing on the celebrated British portrait artist’s works on paper. Encompassing drawings in pencil, pen, ink and charcoal, as well as etchings and a small selection of paintings that reveal the dialogue between Freud’s practice on paper and canvas, the exhibition will feature a selection of recent acquisitions including an etched portrait of his daughter, the fashion designer Bella Freud.
Next up in the gallery’s 2026 schedule is the first major UK exhibition on Catherine Opie, the American photographer best known for her stylised, painterly portraits of queer communities that explore themes of belonging and identity. Catherine Opie: To Be Seen (Mar 5-May 31) will span the Ohio-born artist’s three-decade career, from her first major series Being and Having (1991) to later photographs of children, surfers, high school footballers and political crowds and her self-portraits.
Over the summer months, the Portrait Gallery will stage Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait (Jun 4-Sep 6), a real blockbuster of an exhibition exploring the legacy of one of Hollywood’s most alluring icons through works by some of the twentieth century’s greatest artists and photographers, including Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, Marlene Dumas, Milton Greene and Eve Arnold. This will feature alongside the 2026 edition of the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award exhibition (Jun 25-Oct 7), featuring a selection of paintings shortlisted for the prestigious portraiture prize formerly sponsored by BP.
Autumn 2026 sees the gallery host Tim Walker’s Fairyland: Love and Legends (Oct 8-Jan 2027), the first major show for the photographer since the V&A’s acclaimed exhibition in 2019. Best known for his eye-popping, fantastical fashion photography for titles including British Vogue, i-D, W, Vanity Fair and Another Man, the British photographer has spent the past five years photographing the nation’s LGBTQ+ trailblazers in preparation for this exhibition, which will be accompanied by a book featuring contributions from Travis Alabanza, Russell T Davies, Shon Faye, Lisa Power and Joelle Taylor.
The year concludes with the Portrait Gallery’s longstanding photography competition, the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize (Oct 28-January 2027), which returns for its 23rd edition in 2026.
To say we’re excited for such a jam-packed year of brilliant portraiture is an understatement. And with the London gallery scene’s season announcements coming thick and fast, now would be a great time to make sure your memberships are up to date; 2026 is shaping up to be an excellent year for art in the capital.
London’s National Gallery has announced the biggest transformation in its 200-year history.
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