Aesthetica recommends one standout UK exhibition for every month of 2026, spanning art, design, fashion, film, installation and photography. Next year brings major retrospectives of Catherine Opie, Chiharu Shiota and Tracey Emin, alongside ambitious group shows that celebrate Black music‑making in Britain, revisit the 1990s and trace the evolving history of the catwalk. Here are twelve shows to add to your list.
January | Marshmallow Laser Feast: Of the Oak, Yorkshire Sculpture Park
Until 15 March
A single oak tree can support more than 2,300 species: lichens clinging to bark, birds nesting in branches, butterflies drifting through leaves and a vast underground network of fungi. In Of the Oak, experiential artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) makes this extraordinary biodiversity visible. They have created a “digital double” of Kew Gardens’ majestic Lucombe Oak – one of its oldest trees – using LiDAR, radar and CT-scanning. The resulting video and sound experience is enchanting and educational, showing how energy and carbon flow into the soil, whilst aiming to inspire a renewed connection with nature.
February | Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life, Hayward Gallery
17 February – 3 May
Japanese visual artist Chiharu Shiota (b. 1972) is best-known for constructing large-scale installations which engulf ordinary objects – such as shoes, keys, beds, chairs, doors and dresses – within huge webs of thread. Hayward Gallery’s top floor will be transformed by a number of Shiota’s signature works, which often employ red or white wool. They are displayed alongside new large-scale sculptures, drawings, early performance videos and photographs. These works are technical marvels. But they are also full of emotion, drawing from personal experience to touch on universally resonant themes of life, death and relationships.
March | Tracey Emin, Tate Modern
27 February – 31 August
In 1998, Tracey Emin (b. 1963) was catapulted into the public eye with My Bed – a raw, confessional piece that challenged assumptions of what art could be. It was a landmark moment. Now, nearly 30 years on, Tate Modern surveys Emin’s practice. From painting to neon, this exhibition revels in the artist’s unapologetic self-expression, navigating themes of passion, pain and healing. It is part of Tate Modern’s wider 2026 programme, which includes Cuban-born American artist Ana Mendieta (14 July – 17 January), as well as Light and Magic (14 October – 21 February), which will chart the history of art photography.
April | Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2026, The Photographers’ Gallery
6 March – 7 June
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, established in 1996, celebrates exhibitions and publications that have made “a significant contribution to photography in the past 12 months.” The 2026 shortlist – Amak Mahmoodian, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Rene Matić and Weronika Gęsicka – demonstrates the wide-reaching nature of photography today, from long-term investigative documentary to installation, video and sound. Their projects navigate pressing themes: exile and memory; gender inequalities and advocacy; identity and belonging, subculture and class; and the boundaries between fact and fiction.
thephotographersgallery.org.uk
May | The Music Is Black: A British Story, V&A East Museum
From 18 April
The Music is Black: A British Story is the first landmark exhibition from V&A East Museum, opening in April 2026 at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It celebrates 125 years of Black music in Britain, surveying genres from jazz to reggae, 2-tone, drum & bass, trip hop, UK garage, grime and beyond. In so doing, it reveals how Black British music has shaped culture on both national and global scales, telling “a story of struggle, resilience and joy.” This is a chance to learn more about early 20th century pioneers whilst enjoying the work of today’s groundbreaking artists – from Sampha to Little Simz, Jorja Smith, Ezra Collective and more.
June | John Akomfrah: Listening All Night To The Rain, National Museums Liverpool
16 May – 31 August
John Akomfrah (b. 1957) is recognised for his immersive multi-channel film installations, which explore major issues including racial injustice, colonial legacies, diasporic identities, migration and climate change. Next spring, Walker Art Gallery will showcase a new work, commissioned by the British Council for the 2024 Venice Biennale. Listening All Night To The Rain gives voice to individuals representing the British diaspora, adopting a non-linear view of time that connects different places and time periods. Here, Akomfrah focuses in on the power of sound – encouraging audiences to listen as a form of activism.
July | Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica, Barbican Centre
11 June – 6 September
The term Pan-Africanism refers to a broad spectrum of political and philosophical movements advocating anti-colonial resistance and transnational solidarity amongst peoples of African descent. Project a Black Planet is the first exhibition to consider its influence on both visual art and culture, featuring contributions from Chris Ofili, Kerry James Marshall, Marlene Dumas and Simone Leigh. It features more than 300 works, spanning from the 1920s to the present, produced across Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, North America and western Europe. Here, Panafrica is presented “not as a fixed territory but as a conceptual terrain where rupture, dissent and collective imagination converge in the pursuit of emancipatory futures.”
August | Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, Royal Scottish Academy
8 August – 1 November
To Be Seen will arrive in Edinburgh in August, following a run at London’s National Portrait Gallery earlier in the year. It’s a huge moment, marking the first major museum exhibition of Catherine Opie’s (b. 1961) work to be shown in the UK, and her first-ever solo show in Scotland. The display spans 30 years and includes the seminal work Being and Having (1991), showing the artist’s close friends in the West Coast’s LGBTQ+ community. There are also self-portraits, as well as pictures inspired by Hans Holbein and the Baroque. This is essential viewing, prompting questions around “the who, why and how of portraits.”
September | Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show, V&A Dundee
3 April – 17 January
Alexander McQueen. Balenciaga. Chanel. Dior. Louis Vuitton. These are just some of the major fashion houses included in Catwalk. The exhibition, a UK exclusive to V&A Dundee, charts the evolution of fashion shows, from private 19th century salons to today’s live-streamed experiences. Audiences will come face-to-face with unforgettable runway moments that have had lasting cultural impact, including Karl Lagerfeld’s 35-metre-tall rocket ship, which launched 10 metres into the air in 2017. Plus, who could forget McQueen’s robot-painted dress from 1999? Catwalk is a celebration of artistry, innovation and spectacle.
October | Es Devlin, The Design Museum
18 September – 11 April
2026 feels like a year of firsts, and the Es Devlin (b. 1971) show at the Design Museum is no exception. It’s the first museum show in the UK dedicated to the artist’s work, which spans stage designs to huge art installations. Devlin has made her name through collaborations in theatre and opera, as well as Olympic ceremonies, Superbowl half-time shows and monumental stadium sculptures in collaboration with some of the world’s most celebrated musicians. Plus, for the past decade, she has been focused on making public art for galleries including the Serpentine and Tate Modern. This show is an insight into an extraordinary career.
November | The 90s, Tate Britain
8 October – 14 February
Edward Enninful OBE is the former Editor of British Vogue and one of the most influential voices in fashion culture today. He’s curated The 90s, an upcoming show at Tate Britain which “examines a seminal decade in which a groundswell of creativity changed the face of British culture.” It features iconic images by photographers Corrine Day, David Sims, Juergen Teller and Nick Knight, which will be shown alongside the work of artists like Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing and Yinka Shonibare. Plus, fashion collections by decade-defining designers including Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan and Vivienne Westwood.
December | Sunil Gupta: Life With a Camera, 1970 – Now, Kettle’s Yard
19 September – 31 January
Sunil Gupta (b. 1953) has made an incredible contribution to photography over the past five decades. His work has been instrumental in raising awareness around the fight for queer rights, particularly in India and the UK. Life With a Camera features more than 130 works, including Friends and Lovers (1970s), showing Gupta’s social life in Montreal; Christopher Street (1976), capturing New York’s queer community post-Stonewall riots; Mr Malhotra’s Party (2007-2012), which covers a period of lobbying to change anti-gay laws in India; and Dissent and Desire (with Charan Singh, 2015), chronicling contemporary LGBTQ+ life in Delhi.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. The Key in the Hand, 2015 Installation: old keys, wooden boats, red wool. Japan Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy. Photo by Sunhi Mang. © DACS, London, 2025 and Chiharu Shiota
2. Of the Oak, by Marshmallow Laser Feast at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Image: Mark Reeves.
3. The Locked Room, 2016, Installation: old keys, wooden doors, red wool KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Yokohama, Japan Photo by Masanobu Nishino and courtesy of the artist © DACS, London, 2025 and Chiharu Shiota
4. Tracey Emin, I whisper to My Past Do I have Another Choice, 2010 © Tracey Emin.
5. Weronika Gęsicka, Argusto Emfazie, from the ‘Encyclopaedia’ series, 2023-2025. Courtesy of the artist and Jednostka Gallery.
6. Sepia Butterfly, London, 1993 © Jennie Baptiste
7. John Akomfrah Canto IV, Listening All Night To The Rain, British Pavilion 2024. © Smoking Dogs Films, All Rights Reserved, DACS 2025. Photo: Jack Hems
8. Simone Leigh, Dunham, 2017. The Art Institute of Chicago, purchased with funds provided by Marilyn and Larry Fields; Claire and Gordon Prussian Fund for Contemporary Art. © 2017 Simone Leigh. Photographer: Jonathan Mathias.
9. Pig Pen, 1993. Catherine Opie © Catherine Opie. Courtesy the artist, Regen Projects, Los Angeles and Thomas Dane Gallery.
10. Chanel Fashion Show Fall-Winter 2017. © Helmut Fricke.
11. Egg, by Es Devlin 2018 © Nikolas Koenig.
12. Juergen Teller, Young Pink Kate, London 1998 © Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved.
13. Sunil Gupta, Diepiriye (2007). Images courtesy the artists and Hales Gallery, Materià Gallery, SepiaEye, Stephen Bulger Gallery and Vadehra Art Gallery. © Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2025.
