January | Soil: The World at Our Feet, Somerset House
23 January – 13 April

We kick off the year with Soil: The World at Our Feet, in which visionary artists and thinkers from around the world explore the remarkable power and potential of soil, and the crucial role it plays in our planet’s health. The idea: to encourage a more sustainable, harmonious relationship with the Earth – if we choose to act now. The display combines sensory artworks, historical objects, scientific artefacts and documentary evidence from participating artists including: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Anya Gallaccio, Ana Mendieta, Daro Montag, Marguerite Humeau, Marshmallow Laser Feast, Michael Landy and many more.

February | Resistance, Turner Contemporary
22 February – 1 June

Acclaimed artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen curates Resistance, an exhibition that reveals how acts of protest have shaped life in the UK. It underscores the powerful role of photography in documenting and driving change by presenting a century of activism – spanning from the radical suffrage movement in 1903 to the largest-ever march in Britain’s history: the Anti-Iraq War Protest in 2003. This is a chance to experience works by renowned lens-based artists Vanley Burke, Henry Grant, Fay Godwin, Edith Tudor-Hart, Tish Murtha, Humphrey Spender, Christine Spengler, Andrew Testa, Paul Trevor and Janine Wiedel.

March | Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2025, The Photographers’ Gallery
7 March – 15 June

The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize was established in 1996, and is now one of the most important international awards for lens-based media. The Photographers’ Gallery presents this year’s shortlist, including Cristina De Middel, who questions the documentary value of photography and the role it plays in creating stereotypes; Rahim Fortune, asking fundamental questions about American identity; Tarrah Krajnak, who uses the camera as a research tool to bend time; and Lindokuhle Sobekwa, exploring fragmentation, poverty and the long-reaching ramifications of apartheid and colonialism in South Africa.

April | Nationhood: Memory and Hope, Impressions Gallery
11 January – 26 April

Nationhood: Memory and Hope is an outstanding collection of new photography celebrating the diversity of the UK in 2025. The centrepiece of the exhibition is The Necessity of Seeing, a major new collection of constructed images by Ethiopian photographer Aïda Muluneh shot in Bradford, Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow. It also showcases striking new portraits by seven rising stars in the medium of photography: Shaun Connell, Roz Doherty Chad Alexander, Robin Chaddah-Duke, Grace Springer, Miriam Ali and Haneen Hadiy. Together, their works offer a wealth of insights into the UK’s four nations today. Plus, it opens in line with the launch of Bradford 2025 – helping to kick off the year as UK City of Culture.

May | Do Ho Suh: Walk the House, Tate Modern
1 May – 19 October

Is home a place, a feeling, or an idea? This is the question at the heart of Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh’s Walk the House. In this major survey exhibition, Tate Modern invites audiences explore three decades of large-scale installations, sculptures, videos and drawings. Suh’s practice revolves around the enigma of home, identity and how we move through and inhabit the world around us. This is an opportunity to wander amongst the the artist’s renowned fabric architectures and passageways, and move across Seoul, New York and London through his life-sized replicas of past and present homes.

June | 25 Years of the Serpentine Pavilion, Serpentine Galleries
Various Dates

The first Serpentine Pavilion, designed by the late Dame Zaha Hadid, was erected in 2000. Since then, every year, an architect has been chosen to present a pioneering structure. 2025 will see the unveiling of a new Pavilion and kickstart a programme of events to reflect on the commission, its history and its future. In June, visitors to the Serpentine Galleries can also explore Arpita Singh’s first solo show outside of India, with paintings interwoven with experiences of social upheaval and international humanitarian crises. There’s also an exhibition of Italian artist Guiseppe Penone, about humans and the natural world.

July | More than Human, Design Museum
11 July – 5 October

Why has design traditionally only focused on the needs of humans, when we exist alongside billions of animals, plants and other living beings? Design Museum presents the first major exhibition on a growing movement of “more-than-human” design, celebrating a new generation of international creatives whose practices embrace the idea that human activities can only flourish alongside other species and systems. Featuring art, design, architecture and technology, this thought-provoking show highlights radical ideas on how to innovate alongside — and better understand — the living world in all its complexity.

August | Seulgi Lee, Ikon Gallery
25 June – 7 September

Seulgi Lee is a Seoul-born creative who has been living and working in Paris since 1992. The artist’s work is shaped by colour and gesture, and derives from an interest in the relationships between language systems, form and function in traditional crafts. Lee has developed a unique sculptural vocabulary, in which she often combines conceptual approaches with artisanal methods. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the UK, presenting and ongoing series alongside brand new pieces commissioned by Ikon.

September | Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty Years, Royal Scottish Academy
26 July – 2 November

Andy Goldsworthy is a household name. The artist is internationally celebrated for working with natural materials, producing awe-inspiring site-specific sculptures and temporary land art using ice, leaves, rain, rocks, branches and more. This exhibition celebrates five decades of the artist’s practice, and includes over 200 photographs, sculptures and expansive new installations built in-situ for the Edinburgh show.

October | Lee Miller, Tate Britain
2 October – 15 February

Lee Miller did it all: photographer, Surrealist war correspondent, model and gourmet chef. Tate Britain celebrates this extraordinary career and positions the artist as one of the 20th century’s most urgent creative voices. First exposed to a camera by working in front of it, Miller was one of the most sought-after models of the late 1920s. She quickly stepped behind the lens, becoming a leading figure in the avant-garde scenes in New York, Paris, London and Cairo. The exhibition spans her participation in French surrealism to fashion and war photography, presenting 250 prints – including some which have never been displayed.

November | Design and Disability, V&A
7 June – 15 February

The landmark show, Design and Disability, foregrounds the longstanding contributions of disabled, Deaf and neurodiverse people to the history of design and contemporary culture. It spans from the 1940s to now, and includes contributions from artists, architects, fashion designers and photographers. V&A presents important and, at times, radical everyday objects that have been innovated as a result of lived experiences and expertise. The show traces the political and social history of design and disability; at its core is an essential discussion around how the field can be made more equitable and accessible.

December | Thirst: In Search of Freshwater, Wellcome Collection
26 June – 1 February

This is a major exhibition exploring our vital connection with freshwater, spanning across time and cultures. Wellcome Collection demonstrates how thirst is experienced by both living beings and land masses, from ancient Mesopotamia and Victorian London to contemporary Nepal and Singapore. It also addresses the consequences of freshwater’s mismanagement around the world, from the spread of infectious diseases to amplifying the effects of climate change. The show features three new commissions by Raqs Media Collective, Karan Shrestha and Feifei Zhou and Zahirah Suhaimi (SEACoast).