Summer is coming to a close and, as usual, London is packed with things to do – whether that’s exhibitions, events, theatre or music.
But of course, it can all get a bit pricey. So if you want to have a great weekend seeing some of the capital’s best culture, but also want to save a few quid, look no further than this guide to the best art shows to see in the city, which are all absolutely free.
Chris Ofili: Requiem
In this moving commission, Turner Prize-winning British artist Chris Ofili has created a giant art work across Tate Britain’s Northern Staircase to pay tribute to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. The dream-like, brightly-coloured mural gives a special nod to fellow artist Khadija Saye who was killed in the 2017 tragedy.
Tate Britain, ongoing; tate.org.uk
Materials and Objects
Eleven rooms of the Tate are dedicated to this visual exploration of the varied materials that artists have used over the decades. Expect to see works such as Doris Salcedos famous metal structures, Marcel Duchamp’s toilet seat and Sarah Sze’s installations.
Tate Modern, ongoing; tate.org.uk
Keith Piper & Rex Whistler: Viva Voce
Rex Whistler’s 1927 mural, the backdrop of a Tate Britain restaurant for decades, was sealed off in 2020 after being deemed ‘unequivocally offensive’ by the Tate's ethics committee. The mural, titled The Expedition in Pursuit of Rare Meat, features caricatures of Chinese people and a black child in chains being dragged behind a carriage.
Now, the room is to be reopened, with a film installation from British artist Keith Piper, a founding member of the BLK Art Group, filling the space. The plan was to contextualise the earlier work and provide a counterpoint.
The idea is to open up a conversation about engaging with historical works: “I know there is an argument among young people now that these images retraumatise, but I think we either look or forget,” said Piper. “To keep a clear sense of history we need to see these things. We need to recognise the importance throughout black struggles, the importance of difficult images.”
Tate Britain, ongoing; tate.org.uk
Dominique White: Deadweight
In this new body of work, award-winning British-based artist Dominique White presents a series of sculptures that look like shipwrecks and sea monsters in a dimly-lit gallery space. The effect is haunting and transportive as reviewers are made to feel submerged in a dark sea.
In doing so, White continues to weave together her long-time themes of rebellion, transformation, destruction and nautical myths, with an exploration of African diaspora culture, science and technology. White reminds us of a terrible truth: our vast sea is inextricably culpable in the history of enslaved people.
Whitechapel Gallery, to September 15; whitechapelgallery.org
Beyond The Matrix: A Sculptural Exhibition by Jodie Carey
British artist Jodie Carey’s large-scale installations extend across the giant glass foyer of this east London office, inviting viewers to contemplate the anthropocene, material memory, and the relationship between objects and their environment.
100 Bishopsgate, to September 20; brookfieldproperties.com
Homelessness: Reframed
A collaboration with Prince William and The Royal Foundation’s Homewards programme and Eleven Eleven Foundation, Homelessness: Reframed is a series of works exploring homelessness, by children and young people and by artists who have been homeless or are sharing the story of someone who has been homeless. The artworks are as varied as their makers, with paintings, sculptures, collages, and photographs telling some of the complex story of being homeless.
Saatchi Gallery, to September 20; saatchigallery.com
Awaken, Metamagical Hands
John Maeda, Vice President of Design and Artificial Intelligence at Microsoft, has co-curated this fascinating show in which some of the world’s pioneering designers and technologists have harnessed code to make art. The results are pretty good, with programming being used to make Picasso-like scenes of people dancing, landscapes and images of cellular organisms.
But the show is much more about the talent of the artists, than the capabilities of AI. Their images - some of which were made in the Nineties - provoke questions about the future of creativity; their works ask whether generative computation, in time, will be able to offer us new means of expression.
Gazelli Art House, to September 21; gazelliarthouse.com
Nature Painting Nature
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This group exhibition, guest curated by Lydia Yee (Whitechapel Gallery’s former chief curator), explores nature’s role in communicating experience and memory. It takes Frank O’Hara’s 1954 essay, Nature and New Painting, as its starting point: “There is a kind of painting,” he wrote, “which looks to be about nature but is lacking in perceptions of it… [the painter’s] experience is the subject, nature is not.”
In this selection of works, artists including Grace Hartigan, Leiko Ikemura, Jordan Casteel and Jane Freilicher depict scenes of the natural world – such as an icy lake, red trees that seem to be wailing in the wind, a gloomy moor – that tell distinct stories about their makers.
Pilar Corrias Conduit Street, to September 21; pilarcorrias.com
Cedric Christie: Oblivious to Your Own Career
London-based artist Cedric Christie’s training as a welder is evident in his minimalist sculptures made of industrial materials, covered in car paint. In this survey exhibition, he continues his exploration of the “aesthetic of reduction”.
Rocket Gallery, to September 21; rocketgallery.com
Yoi
This joyful exhibition, featuring the paintings of nine Munupi artists, is a collaboration with the Munupi Arts & Crafts Association, an art centre situated on one of Australia’s tiny northern Tiwi Islands (a group of 11 islands with a total population of about 3,000 – 90 per cent of whom are the Aboriginal people, Tiwi). Yoi, which means dancing, plays a crucial role on the island, with narrative dances an important way of sharing stories, memories, and knowledge. This show delves into the mark-making techniques of Tiwi Art and explores Yoi.
Saatchi Gallery, to September 21; saatchigallery.com
Art Without Heroes: Mingei
Mingei, meaning ‘the art of the people’, is an early 20th century Japanese folk-craft style which encompassed ceramics, woodwork, paper, toys, textiles, photography and film. In this wide-ranging, illuminating show, unseen pieces, museum loans and archival footage tell the story of the influential movement.
William Morris Gallery, to September 22; wmgallery.org.uk
Monumental: Tipping The Scales of Historical Design
This group exhibition presents the works of nine pioneering designers, including Le Corbusier, Serge Mouille, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Sergio Rodrigues and Joaquim Tenreiro, and explores questions about scale and perception.
Carpenters Workshop Gallery, to September 22; carpentersworkshopgallery.com
Sosa Joseph: Pennungal: Lives of women and girls
Indian artist Sosa Joseph’s first solo presentation in Europe is a series of colourful paintings: dream-like scenes of women and girls’ from Joseph’s life, often disjointed but sharing the same canvas. Joseph draws on her memories of growing up in a small village on South India’s Pamba River, and water and nature fill the gaps between the compelling figures.
David Zwirner, to September 28; davidzwirner.com
Donna Huddleston: Company
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An exhibition of new works by London-based artist Donna Huddleston, Company is a series of paintings and works on paper that play with ideas around performance, impermanence and memory. Belfast-born Huddleston previously worked in theatrical set and costume design.
White Cube Mason’s Yard, to September 28; whitecube.com
Embodied Forms: Painting Now
Promising to be a visual treat, seven international artists including Carolina Aguirre, Dean Fox, Olga Grotova and Michael Ho, use paint to explore the body’s many forms and its relationship with its environment.
Thaddaeus Ropac, to September 28; ropac.net
Vital Force
Featuring artists including El Anatsui, Kenji Yoshida, LR Vandy, Romuald Hazoumè, Golnaz Fathi, Jukhee Kwon and William S Burroughs, Vital Force is a selection of artworks that tell stories of drama, power and life forces in bright colours, thought-provoking sculptures and collages made of gold, blues and iridescent whites.
October Gallery, to September 28; octobergallery.co.uk
Storyteller: Photography by Tim Hetherington
Able to communicate entire stories in a single shot, often embedded in warzones, frequently in danger, it takes a unique person to do the precarious, phenomenally important job of being a photojournalist. Tim Hetherington, who was killed by shrapnel in Libya in 2011, was one such character.
Best known for his Oscar-nominated 2010 documentary Restrepo, about the War in Afghanistan, Heatherington travelled the world, taking remarkable, moving and often tender photos unpacking human stories. Storyteller, which the Standard described as “The most important exhibition you’ll see in London this year” is a series of his notable works, presented alongside some of his diary entries.
IWM London, to September 29; iwm.org.uk
Dono: Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom & Harun Morrison
Somerset House Studios resident artists Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom and Harun Morrison present new works that delve into the limitations of language, looking at alternative forms of communication. The result is a show comprising sculptures and a sound installation that asks questions about surveillance, documentation and the regulation of bodies.
Somerset House, to October 20; somersethouse.org.uk
Serpentine Pavilion: Archipelagic Void
A London tradition, every year a different celebrated architect who has never built a structure in England before, designs the Serpentine’s summer pavilion. And every year, Londoners flock to Hyde Park to hang out in the new space and compare it to previous iterations. This year’s architect is South Korea’s Minsuk Cho with his practice Mass Studies. Together they have made a star-shaped pavilion, which the Standard described as having “a welcome conviction in its architectural noir”.
Hyde Park, to October 27; serpentinegalleries.org
Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look
David Hockney and Piero della Francesca’s works, painted 550 years apart, are unlikely gallery companions. Yet in this lovely small exhibition, Hockney’s My Parents and Looking at Pictures on a Screen are displayed alongside Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ. If you look carefully, the 1439 panel ties the paintings together, featuring in the background of both of Hockney’s works. Part of the gallery’s Bicentenary celebrations, the exhibition is about slowing down – a reminder to look a little closer and find inspiration in art across the centuries.
Room 46, The National Gallery, to October 27; nationalgallery.org.uk
Simnikiwe Buhlungu: hygrosummons (iter.01), 2024
In installation, sculpture, and sound works, South African, Amsterdam-based artist Simnikiwe Buhlungu explores knowledge, history, and ecology using materials such as pine, clay, paper and bamboo. Buhlungu is interested in the way water is absorbed and released – hygrosummons is an investigation of its movement through various materials.
Chisenhale Gallery, to November 3; chisenhale.org.uk
Art Now: Steph Huang: See, See, Sea
Tate Modern’s series Art Now highlights the work of exciting emerging artists. Now it’s Taiwanese Steph Huang’s time to shine. Presenting an installation of sculptures, film and sound, Huang uses a range of techniques such as glass blowing and casting to explore mass production and consumer culture.
Tate Britain, to January 5; tate.org.uk
Flaming June
Frederic Leighton’s most famous painting, the exquisite Flaming June, was originally part of the British artist’s submission to the RA’s Summer Exhibition in 1895. Now, 128 years later, it’s on show at the institution again (on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico), being shown alongside work from both Leighton and his contemporaries.
Royal Academy of Arts, to January 12, 2025; royalacademy.org.uk
Goshka Macuga: Born From Stone
Bloomberg’s £1bn Foster and Partners London office sits directly above the London Mithraeum – the remains of a Roman temple, which they have turned into a museum and art space. Turner Prize-nominated Polish artist Goshka Macuga is its latest contemporary art commission. She will transform the space into a cave-like installation, drawing on its phenomenal history.
London Mithraeum Bloomberg Space, to January 18, 2025; londonmithraeum.com
Lina Iris Viktor: Mythic Time / Tens of Thousands of Rememberings
This collaborative exhibition between artist Lina Iris Viktor and the Museum is an exploration of time and historic traditions. Viktor, inspired by art from around the world and across the centuries, presents a show of mixed media (such as sculpture, painting, photography) that asks questions about objects and their ability to hold memories and generate connections.
Sir John Soane's Museum, to January 19, 2025; soane.org
Peter Kennard: Archive of Dissent
Peter Kennard has spent his influential five-decade career making punchy, striking images of resistance and dissent, responding to the biggest conflicts taking place in his lifetime – from the Vietnam War and the Anti-Apartheid Movement, to Gaza and Ukraine. Here the London-based artist, activist and Royal College of Art professor takes over three galleries, with a survey of works that comprises installations, posters, photomontages and books.
Whitechapel Gallery, to January 19, 2025; whitechapelgallery.org
Alvaro Barrington: Grace
In this major installation, Venezuela-born, London-based painter Alvaro Barrington honours the women who shaped him: his grandmother, sister and mother. A “constant reimagining of Black culture”, the lively show consists of paintings and sculptures inspired by his memories.
Tate Britain, to January 26, 2025; tate.org.uk
Colin Davidson: Silent Testimony
Quiet, thought-provoking and moving, the exhibition displays 18 large-scale portraits by the Belfast-born artist Colin Davidson. He’s painted individuals who have experienced loss due to The Troubles, Ireland’s 30-year sectarian conflict.
