Must-see London art exhibitions: Spring 2025
Years without the biennales tend to be quieter ones for the art world. Well, not in 2025. In a world obsessed with the next best thing, it's refreshing to see some major retrospectives and hotly anticipated shows that promise the novel but also a look back and a rethink.
While Ernst Gombrich’s fundamental book The Story of Art turns 75 this year, the current art scene is a different place from how it appeared in the 1950s. Take it from Katy Hessel’s 2022 feminist rewrite of Gombrich's classic, A Story of Art Without Men.
Pop Culture prodigies are taking centre stage. A posthumous retrospective of Leigh Bowery comes to Tate Modern while Linder takes over the Hayward Gallery. Eroticism caresses the walls of The Courtauld. Somerset House encourages earthing as the RA challenges us to reevaluate histories. The traditionalists shouldn’t worry too much though. Turner and Constable bring landscapes to Tate Britain while Edvard Munch’s portraits will be shown at the National Portrait Gallery.
Despite Blue Monday rolling around, it feels exciting to see such a diverse array of exhibitions in this melting pot of a city.
SOIL at Somerset House
London got you feeling like you need to touch grass? Unless you're the greenfingered type, soil probably doesn't often come to mind. However, Somerset House’s upcoming exhibition SOIL plans to champion the world at our feet.
International artists, scientists, and historians encourage viewers to slow down and look at the intricate ecosystem below us, at its power, fragility and fundamental role in feeding and sustaining human life.
One could argue that £18.50 a ticket is a bit steep, but it feels crucial in encouraging environmental hope and urgency. The arts are underfunded and it's a point for the planet. So, if January has you feeling down in the dirt, why not embrace it?
SOIL is on from 23 January - 13 April 2025
Strand, WC2R | somersethouse.org.uk
Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism at The Royal Academy
It's fair to say the recent revival of Brazilian Modernism is hot off the press – exactly what we need to thaw our wintery souls. Ravens Row hosted a hugely successful show last year. Soon after, the Whitechapel Gallery followed suit. It's now the Royal Academy’s turn to throw their hat in the ring.
And it's as ultra-colourful as South America's tropical landscape. The show focuses on 10 prominent Brazilian artists who embraced the international Modernism movement while drawing on their country's rich cultural autonomy and its host of indigenous identities.
Spanning 1910 to the 1970s and gliding between abstraction and figuration, viewers will find the work of modernism pioneer Anita Malfatti alongside those with historically less Western exposure.
Brasil! Brasil! The Birth of Modernism is on from 28 January - 21 April 2025
Piccadilly, W1J | royalacademy.org.uk
Christina Kimeze: Between Wood and Wheel at South London Gallery
It's a big year for Christina Kimeze. Not only is she newly represented by Hauser & Wirth, but come February, South London Gallery is hosting her first institutional solo show.
Kimeze’s hazy works explore memories of Uganda that are grounded by solitary female figures, all while retaining the essence of a fever dream. Between Wood and Wheel promises no different. The show is said to focus on the resurgence of roller skating in black communities.
Her highly-textured, emotive landscapes play with materiality so, if you find a viewer nose-to-nose with a piece, they are probably examining Kimeze’s unique use of dry chalks and wet paints that are crushed onto suede mat board.
Christina Kimeze: Between Wood and Wheel is on from 31 January - 11 May 2025
Camberwell, SE5 | southlondongallery.org
Leigh Bowery! at Tate Modern
You may know Leigh Bowery as a renowned queer performance artist. Or perhaps as a TV personality. Or a model or fashion designer. There are few realms of creativity Leigh did not touch.
Initially, Bowery made his reputation wearing increasingly camp and outlandish outfits during the ‘80s underground club scene. His boundary-pushing fashion catapulted him to become a figure that was both subversive and statement-marking.
The Tate Modern plans to exhibit every part of Bowery’s multifaceted career as a heroic exhibitionist whose avant-garde looks brought into question gender, identity, and the body.
Leigh Bowery! is on from 27 February - 31 August 2025
Southwark, SE1 | tate.org.uk
Siena: The Rise of Painting at The National Gallery
After their Van Gogh triumph, the National Gallery is pulling together another milestone exhibition. While Florence is often depicted as the catalyst for the budding Renaissance, The Rise of Painting opens up a fresh perspective on neighbouring Siena, as a vibrant city of local artists who made waves internationally.
A rare reunion of the 14th-century Italian paintings sees Duccio Di Buoninsegna’s Maestà panels among 100 other Sienese works that were once dispersed for centuries. There's a mellow late-medieval charm as 24-karat halos float among altarpieces. Biblical biopics show painted faces full of emotion and narratives bring drama to the medium.
It promises to be a golden moment for painting and an apt celebration for 200 years of the National Gallery exhibiting some of the earliest works in their collection.
Siena: The Rise of Painting is on from 8 March - 22 June 2025
Westminster, WC2N | nationalgallery.org.uk
Abstract Erotic at The Courtauld
Works by three female sculptors, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, and Alice Adams, take The Courtauld back to the 1960s in a show that prods and questions the politics of the body.
It is said to be an ambitious hang, with abstract sculptures strung up from the ceiling, filling The Courtauld's usually conventionally hung walls. Louise Bourgeois' playful drawings are said to be taking a central role. Dubbed by critic Lucy Lippard as ‘abstract erotic’ this movement is now considered early feminist art. Themes of desire and humour are conveyed through unconventional materials such as latex and expanding foam.
Despite the show dipping into the past, the keen objectification and politicisation of the female form remain as relevant as ever.
Abstract Erotic is on from 20 June - 14 September 2025
Strand, WC2R | courtauld.ac.uk
New Contemporaries at the ICA
If you’ve got that lack of inspiration itch that needs a dynamic exhibition scratch but can’t wait for some of the larger shows to roll around, try the New Contemporaries at the ICA.
A strict open call and brutal narrowing down sees the best of last year's graduates come together to reveal the pulse of today's young art scene. It's a show of youthful promise with a sprinkling of some inspired stars which marks the ICA’s 75th anniversary.
New Contemporaries is on until 23 March 2025
Westminster, SW1Y | ica.art
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